# What are your doves' favourite foods?



## WhiteFeathers (May 15, 2007)

Sunflower hearts are what my doves like best, but can anyone recommend other delicacies that I might tempt them with? 

It is a serious question because I am concerned that my newly acquired six white doves might be tempted away to team up with a colony of twelve or more doves that live very close nearby. So far all is well because, from when I got them, my doves know that in the late afternoon every day I put out sunflower hearts for them which they definitely don't want to miss! (They have poultry corn etc for the rest of the day.) 

I have only had my doves for four weeks. Just four days ago I let them out of their temporary cage to fly free, and it is wonderful watching them circling high up, silhouetted against the blue sky, and then swooping back down to the dovecote. Sheer magic! It was probably a bit soon to let them out, but as two of them set about nesting immediately after I got them (the eggs have just hatched) I thought that with luck they would probably all stick around. And indeed they have, and they do seem very relaxed and happy. And they know that every afternoon they will get their sunflower hearts! But I am still concerned about them wondering whether it might be more fun with the next door neighbours.

Any suggestions from anyone?

Elisabeth


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

You can try safflower seeds or raw, unsalted peanuts as treats. I didn't know doves could be flown; I've always heard it's best not to do that but maybe in the UK your doves are of a different breed.  I know it's definitely NOT recommended to let parents fly, when they are sitting on eggs or raising babies. Just in case something happens to one, that would be awful for the babies.  I'd love to see some pictures of them.


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## EgypSwiftLady (Jan 14, 2008)

maryjane said:


> You can try safflower seeds or raw, unsalted peanuts as treats. I didn't know doves could be flown; I've always heard it's best not to do that but maybe in the UK your doves are of a different breed.  I know it's definitely NOT recommended to let parents fly, when they are sitting on eggs or raising babies. Just in case something happens to one, that would be awful for the babies.  I'd love to see some pictures of them.




I always heard and read that 'true doves' don't have any homing instinct, like a pigeon does, and that they are easily attacked by hawks.


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## WhiteFeathers (May 15, 2007)

maryjane said:


> You can try safflower seeds or raw, unsalted peanuts as treats. I didn't know doves could be flown; I've always heard it's best not to do that but maybe in the UK your doves are of a different breed.  I know it's definitely NOT recommended to let parents fly, when they are sitting on eggs or raising babies. Just in case something happens to one, that would be awful for the babies.  I'd love to see some pictures of them.


Thank you, MaryJane. I will see if I can find safflower seeds. And I will try them on unsalted peanuts too, but some of the doves I have had in the past have found peanuts hard to swallow. Re flying the doves: it was only a temporary cage they were in for a few weeks in order for them to get used to their new surroundings, otherwise they would try to fly back to their old home. Now that they have been let out, the cage has been dismantled and they will have their freedom for ever, which is why I need to have food they particularly like waiting for them in order to encourage them to come home to my dovecote rather than seeing if they could be doing better elsewhere!

The parents won't let me have a look at the chicks yet! I just know they have hatched because the eggshells have been thrown out. But I will certainly be taking photos.

However, I haven't yet found out how to put up photos on the forum. Is it difficult? Perhaps someone could very kindly tell me how to do it.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

WhiteFeathers said:


> However, I haven't yet found out how to put up photos on the forum. Is it difficult? Perhaps someone could very kindly tell me how to do it.



If you will click on your name, it will take you to you Profile. Then I think if you click on "Statistics", you'll see a link for albums. You can create your own album and loading the pictures is pretty simple. You don't have to resize them or anything. 
There is also a Gallery that you can put pictures in. You'll find the link for that up at the top of the page in the blue line....
Pictures can also be put right into your posts, but that's a bit more complicated.........not that it's hard to do.........just creating and album is MUCH easier.......
Here's the sticky for posting pictures in a thread
http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=17782


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## WhiteFeathers (May 15, 2007)

Lovebirds said:


> If you will click on your name, it will take you to you Profile. Then I think if you click on "Statistics", you'll see a link for albums. You can create your own album and loading the pictures is pretty simple. You don't have to resize them or anything.
> There is also a Gallery that you can put pictures in. You'll find the link for that up at the top of the page in the blue line....
> Pictures can also be put right into your posts, but that's a bit more complicated.........not that it's hard to do.........just creating and album is MUCH easier.......
> Here's the sticky for posting pictures in a thread
> http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=17782


Thank you, Lovebirds. When I have got a few moments, I will get myself organised and try creating an album. Elisabeth


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## philodice (Sep 30, 2007)

Freedom is overrated, and I don't recommend it for white doves. Poor little flying targets, they are, so easy to catch and eat at night too. It only takes one trail of bloody feathers in the back yard to make you change your mind. I don't mean to be grim, but RIP poor little Paris, Nicole, and Phail. Maximum security all the way for me.
I don't know about your doves but mine don't have a critical thinking brain in their feathered, silky white heads and they still know that bad things happen 'out there'. They won't go near the aviary door when I open it.
Floppy just had her cote door open for an hour or two to free fly her birds and a hawk killed them all on the same day.

My doves love cheese.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Just a thought here .. I believe what our UK members refer to as white "doves" are actually fantail/homer mixes and not actually ringneck doves. Could be wrong.

Terry


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## WhiteFeathers (May 15, 2007)

TAWhatley said:


> Just a thought here .. I believe what our UK members refer to as white "doves" are actually fantail/homer mixes and not actually ringneck doves. Could be wrong.
> 
> Terry


Yes, Terry, my doves are 'white garden fantails'. They aren't quite true fantails as their tails don't stand quite so upright as the pure breds do. I was warned against having pure fantails because they are too easily caught by cats which can creep up from behind without being seen!!

I think that in the UK it is more usual than not for doves to fly free rather than being caged. Of course there is a slight risk of being taken by a hawk, but we live in a part of the countryside where there are many thousands of birds flying overhead - pigeons, rooks, jackdaws, gulls, ducks, pheasants, as well as hundreds of birds in the gardens - tits, robins, thrushes, blackbirds etc etc. So with a bit of luck the hawks will choose something else from the vast available menu on offer!

It gives me immeasureable pleasure to watch the doves flying up into the air, wheeling and swooping in formation, silhoutted white against a clear blue sky, and then gliding back down again for a beautifully timed landing on the dovecote roof. Pure poetry in motion, they obviously enjoy every moment. I am just mad with jealously that I cannot be flying up there with them!


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## WhiteFeathers (May 15, 2007)

philodice said:


> Freedom is overrated, and I don't recommend it for white doves. Poor little flying targets, they are, so easy to catch and eat at night too. It only takes one trail of bloody feathers in the back yard to make you change your mind. I don't mean to be grim, but RIP poor little Paris, Nicole, and Phail. Maximum security all the way for me.
> I don't know about your doves but mine don't have a critical thinking brain in their feathered, silky white heads and they still know that bad things happen 'out there'. They won't go near the aviary door when I open it.
> Floppy just had her cote door open for an hour or two to free fly her birds and a hawk killed them all on the same day.
> 
> My doves love cheese.


I am so sorry to hear about poor little Paris, Nicole and Phail. How very tragic. As I have just said in a post to Terry, we are lucky where we live that there are so many other things for hawks to go for. We just have to take the chance and hope for the best. But thank you for your suggestion of cheese. I will certainly give that a try.


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