# Boy/girl?



## Collard Dove (Jun 5, 2011)

Hello!
It's me collard dove again, hoping for more advise!
I am getting hopefully just hatched doves very very soon hopefully. I would really like to know if I can immediately tell if they are boy or girl, or do I have to I have to wait till they are adults to know? I was wondering if i could breed off them you see!


Collard Dove


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Collard Dove said:


> Hello!
> It's me collard dove again, hoping for more advise!
> I am getting hopefully just hatched doves very very soon hopefully. I would really like to know if I can immediately tell if they are boy or girl, or do I have to I have to wait till they are adults to know? I was wondering if i could breed off them you see!
> 
> ...


Usually with doves (except for in a few species like diamond doves where the eye ring and color can tell you) you have to wait till they're adults and just watch behavior to guess sex. When they are babies you can't tell without DNA testing. 

How are you going to take care of just hatched doves? That's a lot of handfeeding work. Why not let them stay with their parents until they are weaned and then get them? They'll be a lot healthier that way. And when they are young they still aren't all that hard to tame. 

Maybe others have different opinions--but I'm against breeding siblings together. Breeding to a parent or cousin is usually fine, but it seems that breeding siblings tends to end badly (like in silky ringnecks.)


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## Collard Dove (Jun 5, 2011)

I was hoping to hand feed them myself you see, so, do you know where I can get some food for them?


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

The advice from Libis should be taken seriously.

When you say "just hatched doves" what exactly do you mean? Domestic Ringneck doves or white garden pigeons? 

If you are getting these birds and you have to ask where to get food - assuming you know what food they need - then I have to say I don't believe this is a good idea. 

Newly hatched 'doves' are very delicate and would get 'crop milk' (and no, that isn't milk in the sense we know it) from the parents with exactly the right nutrition. Birds of maybe 3 weeks are much easier to look after.

Do you know _how_ to feed them, and how often, assuming you know _what_ to feed them? You need to do the research and be prepared first. Do you have the right accomodation for them? Do you have the time to devote to them? Do you know of a vet who can and will treat birds in case of illness, and have the means to use the services of a vet? We all learn from hands on experience, but we do need to understand some basics before we get birds.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I agree with John. Getting just hatched babies and hand feeding them isn't a good idea. Too much that can go wrong, and not really fair to the babies. They should be fed and reared by the parents for the first few weeks unless it is an emergency situation where they must be hand reared. It isn't easy to raise "just hatched" babies either. Many have failed at this, and it isn't really giving these little guys all they need to grow strong and healthy. They should be around weaning age before being separated from their parents, in fairness to them.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Collard Dove said:


> I was hoping to hand feed them myself you see, so, do you know where I can get some food for them?


This is one of those things that it is really best for the doves' parents to do. There are special bacteria/probiotics in the birds' guts that go to the babies in the crop milk that you cannot reproduce. Doves who are hand raised do not get this advantage and it adds one more way that they are susceptible to disease. Other problems with hand-feeding from day 1 include the possibility of getting formula into the birds' lungs, not keeping perfect temperature and winding up with baby having a slow crop, and more. 

Your birds will be just as tame if you start working with them at about 3 weeks. And they'll be lots healthier. It's not worth the risk of killing one just to hand-feed.

By the way, do you have an avian vet nearby? You may need one at some point in your new pets' lives--so it's good to find one ahead of time.


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## Collard Dove (Jun 5, 2011)

Thanks for the advise!!
This forum is really good! I am going on holiday anyway for three weeks, so if the eggs I am asking for in reserve hatch on the virst day of my holdiday, then I can collect them on the way home (or some point around then!). Then, they would have had a great time with their familly like you said!! Thanks everyone!! I am terribly sorry I am not experienced in bird keeping!!


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## Collard Dove (Jun 5, 2011)

Its just it was pretty recent to keep birds! Before, I was interested in dogs and horses, then falcons and owls, and now pigeons and doves!! Does anyone know of any sites I can get advise from???


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Collard Dove said:


> Its just it was pretty recent to keep birds! Before, I was interested in dogs and horses, then falcons and owls, and now pigeons and doves!! Does anyone know of any sites I can get advise from???


This is primarily about diamonds--but she has great info that applies to other doves as well: http://www.diamonddove.info/index.html


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## Collard Dove (Jun 5, 2011)

Thankyou Libis!


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## Collard Dove (Jun 5, 2011)

Also, does anyone know how I tame them when they come to my house????


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Collard Dove said:


> Also, does anyone know how I tame them when they come to my house????


How old will they be when you get them? Is the breeder playing with them?

If they are wild when you get them:

Let them stay quietly in the cage for a week or two so they can settle in. Talk gently when you change their dishes during this period.

When they settle in, start hanging out by the cage, talking to them more. Sometimes, I read books to birds at this stage (started that habit when I had a parrot as a child who loved to see the pictures while I talked to him lol.) Sometimes I also sing to them. My doves like "Fly me to the moon" by Frank Sinatra and other soft songs. With this, the point is getting them used to you being near the cage and beginning to be alright with your voice. 

Take your cues from the birds. When they are calm and go happily about their business while you are near by, put your hand in the cage with whatever their favorite food is. (The part of their seed they like to eat first. Sometimes it works to just have their seed mix in you hand.) Sometimes at first to get them to eat from the hand you have to not look at them and be rather quiet. Talk more and look at them gradually more as their trust increases over time. Hand feed them all of the time until you have some trust built up. Eventually they would start landing on your hand while they eat. After this you can start playing outside the cage more. 

If the breeder plays with them when they are little:

You will need to ask the breeder how tame they are. Maybe you can even get the breeder to let you come and visit the babies a couple of times. I've noticed that my babies are sensitive to whether or not a person is a "stranger" and will react to them by hiding against me like little kids hanging on their mom. If they kind of know you before they go home with you it may help. 
When they come home with you eventually, you'll have to gauge their stress level and see how much time they need to settle in. Moving can be a very scary process even for the tamest bird. With tame birds, I would shorted the talking to them period and go to the feeding from the hand and see how they do. Since it sounds like your birds will still be rather young, this could take very little time compared to an adult bird or one who is raised wild. By the way, make sure they are eating properly when you get them if they are still only 3 weeks old. They might not be weaned yet--mine weren't until 3.5 weeks, and many doves don't wean until 5 weeks. It might be worth it to just visit them at the breeder for short playtimes until they are fully weaned.

With my babies I started working with them very early for short periods of time (after they had some feathers) short enough that they weren't away from their parents too long. I would just hold them in my hand and talk to them for a little bit. It was the easiest taming I've ever done--since they never knew any different. Now when I put my flat palm in front of them and gently put the side of it against their chest and say "step up" they step onto my hand. (Unlike parrots, they are ground birds and seem much more comfortable standing on my palm or on two fingers than one finger like one would normally hold a similar-sized parrot. For this reason, I also give them at least one really fat round perch per cage to roost on. I try to give a skinny branchy perch as well for foot exercise.) Anyways, it is possible that your breeder is doing this taming, too, depending on how much time they have and how many birds they spread the time between.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Oh, and this dove behavior and body language page was helpful to me when I first got into doves--it might also help you:

http://www.ringneckdove.com/Wilmer's WebPage/behavior.htm


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