# Ringneck Doves PHOTOS!



## mubcupk (Apr 20, 2010)

Here are my 4 doves. From left to right in the front are Clementine (tangerine), Mubcupk, and Rainbow. In the back is Benvolio.









I thought this photo was very funny because I caught Mubcupk mid-blink. I could just hear him saying, "Oops, take that one again! I blinked!"









Rainbow laid two eggs but doesn't seem to realize she is supposed to sit on them. It's been over 100 degrees here every day, though, so I wondered if they had started incubating by themselves. They were laid June 5th and 6th. It looks like something is happening in there, but for being 4 and 5 days old, they should be farther along than this (the other egg is less developed than the one in the picture). I bet they won't hatch or finish developing though, which is fine by me. I imagine a dove who doesn't know she should sit on eggs also might not figure out how to feed babies. It's her first set of eggs, so maybe they surprised her. She has still been mating daily with the white male. Is she going to lay more?









The two eggs, as I took them inside to be candled in the darkness of our downstairs bathroom. One is longer and skinnier than the other (it's not just the photo angle); it's sort of weird!


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## doveone52 (Aug 3, 2009)

Lovely birds! First time parents sometimes have a hard time figuring things out. Next round should be better if these don't make it. Good luck!


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

good pic of a fertile egg! kept that for use in the future!....


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## mubcupk (Apr 20, 2010)

No one sat on the dove eggs, and one of them got cracked on top. Just to be sure, I candled the eggs again last night. Both were clear but spotted randomly with red, and less developed than the one had been at last candling. I knew they were dead.










We opened up the egg last night after candling. You can see that something started to develop, but because no one was sitting on it and turning it, it died. 










Of course, Rainbow laid the eggs and ignored them, and THEN she and Mubcupk built a nest together. And THEN, Rainbow started sitting on that nest, despite the fact that she was sitting on a nest that was NOT the one where she laid the eggs, and despite the fact that she is not sitting on any eggs. This bird is so backwards, poor thing.


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## mubcupk (Apr 20, 2010)

Update again! Ok, well the eggs Rainbow first laid are not viable. Well, they were fertile, but no one sat on them. Those were laid June 5th and 6th. 

Yesterday she laid one egg and this morning she laid a second egg. That seems awfully close together! There were 8 days between when she laid the second egg in the first round and the first egg in the second round. She's an egg machine! If she keeps up like that, we won't have to buy grocery store eggs anymore!  I'm joking of course. I know the birds should be allowed to have dummy eggs at least so they don't lay too often. (Speaking of that, though, do you guys throw away your dove/pigeon eggs or eat them, when you don't want more babies?).









Here is Rainbow sitting on her egg (yesterday; the second one hadn't been laid yet). 









Here is Mubcupk picking up bits of grass. He takes them up to Rainbow, and she tucks them underneath her into the nest. It's very sweet. 









And here is a picture I took 5 minutes ago. Mubcupk is sitting on the eggs now, so you can't see them. (I am so glad we banded Mubcupk and Rainbow, because it's hard to tell them apart sometimes!). As far as we know, this is his first offspring too, so I guess those first 2 eggs they just had no idea what to do, but now they've figured it out. Because we do have room (and desire) for one more pair of doves, we plan on letting nature run its course and hope to end up with chicks. After this, we will stop all future egg-laying attempts by replacing the eggs with fakes. 

I had to take Benvolio out of the cage. It NOW appears that our female Clementine is ALSO a male, and Benvolio was pecking and wing slapping the other male birds. So I put him in the old dove cage, which is still a nice cage, but about half the size. If Clementine stays mellow, we will leave him/her with the others, as currently she/he sometimes even sits on the eggs to help out (that, or he thinks he's the father just like Mubcupk does!).


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Wonderful pictures, and beautiful birds!


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## Pigeonlove (May 6, 2008)

Really cute!!  Thank you for sharing!!


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

GREAT photos!!

My mated pair, Gimie (feral Checker) and WoeBeGone (West of England Tumbler), are certainly the "odd" couple! But, it was love at first sight, soooo...

Due to Gimie's badly healed broken leg, all eggs are _not_ fertile. I've been keeping them in a dish which is rapidly growing too small. Woe seems to lay once a month...

Love and Hugs

Shi


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## mubcupk (Apr 20, 2010)

Here is the egg that was laid on the 14th.









Here is the egg that was laid on the 15th. 

The mom and dad are very dedicated to this set of eggs. No idea why they didn't figure it out with their first eggs, but oh well. Here we go.

Now, with both mom and dad being white, there is no mystery as to the coloration of the babies, right? They are getting recessive white from both parents so both babies would be white?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I would say they would be white, unless the hen cheated...lol...

they don't make very good nests, do they..lol. mine use a few scrape pieces of paper and bam there is my nest! and so proud of it...lol... also just so you know, if you got more birds in there with them, the others could cause problemos for the babies.. they may peck them and see them as intruders...


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

Mmmmmm....let me see....ah, yes, I predict baby dovies in the not too distant future... 

Looking forward to updates!

Love, Hugs and Scritches

Shi and the gang


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## mubcupk (Apr 20, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> I would say they would be white, unless the hen cheated...lol...
> 
> they don't make very good nests, do they..lol. mine use a few scrape pieces of paper and bam there is my nest! and so proud of it...lol... also just so you know, if you got more birds in there with them, the others could cause problemos for the babies.. they may peck them and see them as intruders...


It IS possible that the hen has been "sleeping around." She was just coming into her first breeding season, as far as I know (as a rescue, I can never know for sure) and I'm pretty sure the other 3 birds in with her were male. At least 2 are male for sure, and Benvolio and Mubcupk sure devoted all their energy to wooing her. I only observed her mating with Mubcupk (the white one), though. 

The nest was SO shoddy that I crocheted a nest liner for the flower pot base and put it in under their straw pieces. Once a mourning dove pair made a nest in a flower pot on our patio. She seriously just laid in the dirt with ONE small stick under her. Their nests are so ridiculously crafted it is almost funny...except that another pair of mourning doves this year made a nest in one of our young palm trees, and during a windstorm both eggs fell to the ground, revealing their half-formed young. It was very sad, and THEN I felt bad that their nests are so poorly designed. 

And yes, you are right, the other doves in the cage with them became very aggressive, so now Benvolio and Clementine are living in the old dove cage (similar construction, just smaller and without the eaved roof) that we built for Mubcupk when he first came to live with us. If we can't reintegrate them with the others, the other cage is definitely adequate for a pair of doves to live happily. It's too bad, cause it'd be easier and more fun with just one cage of doves, but since the two are portable and already next to each other, it's not really a problem. 

By the way, it's baby time around here! Our female canary, who just finished raising a clutch of 3, laid her first egg in her second clutch this year. 
















And here is the happy family. The babies are the very dark one and the 2 lightest ones, the dad is bright yellow-orange with his beak open, and the mom is in the food dish behind.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

oooooooh I want one of thoooose!!!!! love canaries! people always seem to keep just one, male for their song... but do you find it better for them to have more than one, seems kinda lonely with just one...

keep us posted on the new dove babies, sounds like you got it all in order.


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## mubcupk (Apr 20, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> oooooooh I want one of thoooose!!!!! love canaries! people always seem to keep just one, male for their song... but do you find it better for them to have more than one, seems kinda lonely with just one...


You know, from everything I've read, canaries are pretty solitary except during breeding time. I knew the mom was ready to start a new nest because 2 days ago, she started plucking her babies to make her new nest! The babies aren't even weaned yet (but that's normal; dad will feed them and wean them while mom starts a new clutch). So I put the cage divider in for 2 days while mom settled herself down: mom was on one side of the breeder cage, and dad and babies were on the other side. Of course, Dad had to be let into her side a few times a day for mating. 

Although most people say canaries should be kept separate most of the time, some say their pairs have bonded and like to be together year round. They do not flock, though. I will have to wait and see what happens with my breeding pair. As soon as the young are weaned to hard seed, I will move them to another cage. (We will keep them until they are 6-12 months old, so we can determine the sex, because the pet store will pay us twice as much for a male than a hen or unknown sexed bird). Since we will probably continue to breed the canaries, we make keep one or two of the babies and go buy them some mates... and then end up with an aviary like we have with the doves. LOL!


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

mubcupk said:


> You know, from everything I've read, canaries are pretty solitary except during breeding time. I knew the mom was ready to start a new nest because 2 days ago, she started plucking her babies to make her new nest! The babies aren't even weaned yet (but that's normal; dad will feed them and wean them while mom starts a new clutch). So I put the cage divider in for 2 days while mom settled herself down: mom was on one side of the breeder cage, and dad and babies were on the other side. Of course, Dad had to be let into her side a few times a day for mating.
> 
> Although most people say canaries should be kept separate most of the time, some say their pairs have bonded and like to be together year round. They do not flock, though. I will have to wait and see what happens with my breeding pair. As soon as the young are weaned to hard seed, I will move them to another cage. (We will keep them until they are 6-12 months old, so we can determine the sex, because the pet store will pay us twice as much for a male than a hen or unknown sexed bird). Since we will probably continue to breed the canaries, we make keep one or two of the babies and go buy them some mates... and then end up with an aviary like we have with the doves. LOL!


oh I see, they do ok alone, that is good, it would be fun to have a pair though like you do... sounds like a nice plan, what pretty little birds they are.


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