# New Diamond Dove owner - questions



## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

(I accidentally posted this under the "other pet bird" section so I'm reposting here)

Hi all.

I'm a new owner of a male (I believe) Diamond Dove. I'm not sure how old he is but I'd imagine not too old since he was purchased at a pet store. I acquired only one dove instead of a pair for two reasons: the male had already been alone for a bit, and I work at home- I have the time to dedicate to the bird. I wanted to develop more of a bond with one bird than have a pair.

He's (his name is Fred) been here for a few days now and all seems well. The first day or so he didn't eat much and was pretty frightened. But now he seems to be adjusting well and is eating the seed mix, grit, and drinking water. He has also started to make some single and two-tone coos but will not respond to me trying to make the noise or when I repeat it after he does. He is also pooping normally and it looks fine (the first day was runny which I chalked up to the move and stress).

So my questions if anyone would like to help out....

--When I put stuff in the cage or take stuff out (food dish, water, whatnot) most of the time he still "flips out" even though I'm quiet, careful and talk gently to him while I do it. When will this change? I'm worried he'll hurt himself.

--He doesn't pay any attention to any of the treats I put in the cage - the finely diced apples, greens, applesauce, cheese, etc. He only eats the seeds in his dove mix and the grit. He also pays no attention to his cuttle bone.

--He hasn't been preening himself at all (unless he is doing it at night). When he isn't eating or hanging out at the bottom of the cage, he just hops up to the top perch and sits there, sometimes fluffed up, sometimes not.

Am I doing something wrong to make him uncomfortable? I realize it has only been about a week but if I'm missing something I'd like to know now so I can right it. Eventually, once he trusts me more and is more comfortable, I'd like to have him be able to come out of the cage and hang out for a few hours a day with me while I work in my home office.

I look forward to your help! Thanks!
-Jennifer


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## EgypSwiftLady (Jan 14, 2008)

Hello and welcome to the forum Jennifer.
I have both the Diamond and the Ringneck doves and find that the diamonds tend to be a bit more flighty than the larger RN's. 
We've had our doves for about 3 yrs. now And the DD's would rather watch from a distance where as the RN's will let me stroke them when I clean their cage. 
It will take longer than a week for your dove to get used to you, keep moving slowly around Fred so he knows you are not a threat.
I don't give my doves a cuttlebone i provide a chick grit that contains calcium. You might want to break the cuttlbone into very small pieces and offer it in a seperate container.
I have offered our doves a few extra goodies too but they weren't really interested either, except for a bit of hard boiled egg once or twice a week.
You can tell the sex of a mature DD by their eye rings, males have wider eye rings than females.
I also think that doves are very social birds and it would be better to have 2 rather than one and if they should have a baby you could start out fresh.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

I had a couple diamond doves once. They were pretty skittish. With time you'll have them tame though  I just wasn't around enough to really try to tame them.
I could never seem to get them to eat any treats either. And as for the cuttlebone, probably the biggest use for that is for birds who need to keep their beak grinded down. Pigeons and doves have no use for it other than for the calcium, so it'd be easier to just stick with the grit for that


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

Gabbi - hello to a fellow Etsian!


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Hi Jennifer and welcome! I don't really know a thing about Diamond Doves, but you may find some helpful info here: http://www.diamonddove.com/

Terry


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

Apparently I'm having a hard time using these forums! I tried to delete a double post and I deleted both! 

One more time... 
Thanks Gabbi and Mary for your responses and welcome! 

I'm nearly 100% sure he's male - his eye ring is quite thick and very, very orange. All the pics I've seen of them, he appears to be male. 

All the reading I've done has said that it is ok to just have one if you're able to dedicate a lot of time to it. Like I said, I work at home and am able to set his cage next to my jewelry table as I work. But I don't want him to be unhappy - but I fear having mated pair as I could never get rid of any babies and I know I'd end up with hundreds (not something my boyfriend would be happy with )! I hope it is ok to just have one? 

Thank you for the cuttle bone and egg tips - I'll give it a try. At the moment he has calcium fortified grit and seems very happy with it.

I know that it will just take time... more than a week  I just want to have a happy companion.

I am curious though as to why he doesn't seem to be doing any self-grooming? I had parakeets when I was a child and they did that all the time.


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

Terry - 
thank you for the welcome! Yup I've read that site, and this one http://www.diamonddove.info/ through-and-through. The latter was the one that made me decide to get him. It is very, very helpful. Thank you though!


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

JLee said:


> Apparently I'm having a hard time using these forums! I tried to delete a double post and I deleted both!


Ummmm .. you had some help from me!  There are some new "features" being tested here on Pigeon-Talk and one new "feature" allowed your post to come through before you actually registered. When you did register, it came through again. I deleted the unregistered one. Sorry for the confusion and problem! So, welcome to the board again .. even though we might be a bit technologically "challenged" at the moment things usually run pretty smoothly here!

Terry


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## EgypSwiftLady (Jan 14, 2008)

JLee said:


> Gabbi - hello to a fellow Etsian!



Actually Gabbi is the name of our house pigeon My name is Robin 
But when I do work on my jewlery Gabbi is the cheif over seer at my work bench. Isn't Etsy wonderful !


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I copied this from a DD site and thought it was cute



In time birds learn to really care for the person who is taking care of them. For example if you allow your doves out of their cage and then lay down to take a nap, they will become concerned as if they feel you were hurt or ill and may come and land on you and often sit there until you wake up. I have one dove that lands on me and actually goes to sleep herself, but if I sleep for more than an hour she walks up to my face and starts pecking at my lips or sometimes my ears in an attempt to wake me up. And of course she does just that.


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

Terry - thank you for all your help with the site  I'm getting the hand of it... I hope.

Robin - my sincerest apologies about the name confusion! Etsy is a wonderful place. Tomorrow actually is my one year anniversary on there with my company.

Spirit wings - isn't that a great little story? Thank you so much for sharing.

Well, I'm happy to announce that Fred woke me up this morning even more active than he has been since I've brought him home. He's been cooing all morning. I have yet to see him preening himself yet... maybe he does it before I get up. But he does seem even more comfortable today - one day at a time, I guess!


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## EgypSwiftLady (Jan 14, 2008)

JLee said:


> Robin - my sincerest apologies about the name confusion! Etsy is a wonderful place. Tomorrow actually is my one year anniversary on there with my company.
> Well, I'm happy to announce that Fred woke me up this morning even more active than he has been since I've brought him home. He's been cooing all morning. I have yet to see him preening himself yet... maybe he does it before I get up. But he does seem even more comfortable today - one day at a time, I guess!


 
I'm glad Fred is settling in  I'm sure he will start preening any day now.
Don't worry about the name mistake, it can get kinda confusing.


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*DD's are hard to tame*

Any bird over time should adjust to it's surroundings and to you as long as you are patient. Diamonds are among some of the more skittish doves but as I said, they will adjust unless captured right out of the wild. I don't know how good of a pet that it can be but time will tell.

I personally don't consider any pigeons or doves as pets but certainly many people do keep them as such. I know that they can become very tame, especially if hand fed as babies. This is why so many parrots and parakeets are hand raised and are actually much higher priced than non hand reared ones.

Good luck with your bird. I hope it learns to enjoy your company as much as you enjoy having it. They are very pretty little birds.

As to preening, I would assume that it is doing so at some time when you are not watching and perhaps it is not comfortable enough with you yet to do so in front of you. They have to be pretty relaxed to preen and more or less be off their guard.

Bill


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

Hi Bill, 

Thank you for your input. I do hope that over time he will become more comfortable. Yesterday he was even more chatty than the days before and I was able to clean out his nest without him flipping out for the first time. ...so that's a start!


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I was wondering, can DD's live out doors in a loft/aviary or screen porch?


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

I'm not sure if they can live outdoors or not? all the reading I've done is said that they are very temperature-sensitive. Which down here in Coastal Georgia could pose as a problem I'd think.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

JLee said:


> I'm not sure if they can live outdoors or not? all the reading I've done is said that they are very temperature-sensitive. Which down here in Coastal Georgia could pose as a problem I'd think.


yea, I found some info, they can take freezing temps just for short periods of time...so they would not be good to house out of doors


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## j_birds (Sep 8, 2008)

Yes Spirit Wings..DD's can live outside if you put a colored Light bulb in their 
coop/loft. Need the light with the sheild around it tho. A regular light bulb will cause stress if left on all the time. I use to use a bulb painted red. Jim


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

j_birds said:


> Yes Spirit Wings..DD's can live outside if you put a colored Light bulb in their
> coop/loft. Need the light with the sheild around it tho. A regular light bulb will cause stress if left on all the time. I use to use a bulb painted red. Jim


oh...that makes sense, like you would use for chicken chicks, I have a few of those cage lights...ummm, I have seen the red bulbs at the feed store too., Thanks for the info!


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*They are from Australia*

I honestly have no idea how cold it gets there in winter.

I do remember someone who kept them outside here in northern IL and he did provide heat lamps for them. Georgia probably is warm enough for them year round outside. Like someone said, brief periods of freezing and they are OK. Single digit temps are probably too cold.

True tropicals like the cape dove from Africa cannot take the cold at all. I raised some in my basement and if I kept them on the bottom row of my bird room, near the floor, they would become lethargic. I found that I had to keep them on the top shelf, near the ceiling so they were warm enough. Temps around 60 degrees F. were too much for them.

Bill


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

*Coos?*

My new diamond dove (Fred) is getting more and more comfortable around me, and is cooing quite a bit. He also lets me clean his cage or put things in it without flipping out.

I've been doing some reading on diamond dove coos and at the moment he only does the two note coo (sort of like "hoo hoo") and then a five note (like "hoo, hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo") and I'm doing my best to imitate him and respond. He isn't doing the bow-coo thing that males are supposed to do... will he eventually? ...is "he" a she?








(photo taken today)









(photo taken day/day after I got him)


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## j_birds (Sep 8, 2008)

JLee said:


> My new diamond dove (Fred) is getting more and more comfortable around me, and is cooing quite a bit. He also lets me clean his cage or put things in it without flipping out.
> 
> I've been doing some reading on diamond dove coos and at the moment he only does the two note coo (sort of like "hoo hoo") and then a five note (like "hoo, hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo") and I'm doing my best to imitate him and respond. He isn't doing the bow-coo thing that males are supposed to do... will he eventually? ...is "he" a she?
> 
> ...



Hard to tell what he/she is....new pic. his head is turned where you can't see the eye ring very good.


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

here's a better one!


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## EgypSwiftLady (Jan 14, 2008)

From the eye ring looks to be a male, if he's mature My hens eye rings are much wider around the eye.
He is a cutey!


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## JLee (Dec 16, 2008)

He is a cutie, I'll have to agree  He seems so much happier and chatty these days - hopefully that will only continue!


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## kalel (Oct 14, 2008)

looks like a male. he'll only bowcoo at another dove in my experience.my male auryn's eye ring is a lot thicker but hes the same colour as yours. mine took about two months to get fairly tame with me but i always let them stay out of the cage. only the males coo. the females vocalisations are more like squeaks.


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