# Sexing new Diamond Doves



## ejh805 (Dec 29, 2013)

I just got two new diamond doves. These are my first birds, and so far they are lovely.

I'm very curious and hoping I have a male/ female pairing. However, the lady at the store told me they were both male. One has a much thicker eye-ring than the other and is more vocal.

Any help would be appreciated! 

First pic is of the dove I think to be a male, second is the one that I believe to be female. Third is the both of them together. Also, are they "wild-types" or color mutations?

(tried putting pictures in this post, but they were broken for some reason)


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## ejh805 (Dec 29, 2013)




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## ejh805 (Dec 29, 2013)

male?









female?


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

The first one does have the larger eye ring. However, both have fairly big eye rings so they could both be male. If they are related, you would not want to breed them anyway.

Unfortunately, a lot of Diamond Doves sold as "pairs" are actually siblings (brother and sister), which should not be bred together because of inbreeding. If you ever want to breed diamond Doves, it's best to get the male and the female from different breeders so they not genetically too close to each other.

They look like nice healthy birds. If you do end up with an unrelated male / female pair, don't be in too much of a rush to breed them because it can be very hard to get them to stop! Also, the males tend to harass their own offspring once they reach adult size (with long tails) so you'll usually need an extra cage for the babies, once they grow up and are self-feeding.


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## ejh805 (Dec 29, 2013)

Thank you very much for the insight! 

If they do turn out to be a male/female pairing, then I'll get some dummy eggs. 

Quick question about inbreeding though. Other than our dog and these doves, we keep reptiles and amphibians only. Inbreeding doesn't have any negative effects on most reptile/amphibian species, like it does with mammals. Are birds closer to mammals when it comes to results of inbreeding? Would it create sickly, weak offspring? I definitely do not want that to happen, but I'd feel bad separating the two of them since diamond doves are almost never available where I live.


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

I think birds are closer to mammals, when it comes to inbreeding. It could create weak offspring with genetic problems. Better to avoid breeding related birds - especially if they are brother / sister (which of course means they are very related). And don't listen to anyone who tells you it's OK to breed closely related birds - they don't know what they are talking about!

I remember once I visited a bird breeder who let her Ringneck Doves just breed and breed without regard to inbreeding and there were some horribly deformed baby doves. She would take her deformed baby doves and toss them (alive) to a dog she had chained up who would kill and eat them. It sickens me to this day, when I think about what I saw that day.

I would just contact the person you bought them from and find out if they are related. Then you will know. If they are related, you might want to take that nest out of the cage so they don't "get the idea" to start breeding.

If it turns out you have 2 males, they might get along OK or they might eventually get aggressive with each other, to where you have to separate them. But if you get a female, the males will probably get into "breeding mode" and you will need to get one of the males out of that cage. 2 males and 1 female dove in the same cage will not work!


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## ejh805 (Dec 29, 2013)

Okay  I've only got the two of them right now. If they turn out to be male/male then I will try to find females for them when&if they need to be separated. 

I'm going to call who I got them from later today and see if I can find out who their supplier is and go from there.

Btw, the one with the larger ring around his eye, "Sterling", seems to be fairly intelligent. I've only had them about a week. When I walk into their room, he will stand on his perch and rake he beak across the cage door because he knows I'll let them out to fly around 
Just thought I'd share that because I think it's pretty cute/interesting.


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

I had a very tame male Diamond Dove, named "Pecker", for almost 15 years - from 1982 to 1997. He just kind of tamed himself. He'd fly over to my arm if I called him and tapped on my arm. Or sometimes, he'd fall asleep on my shoulder or on the arm of my chair.

I named him "Pecker" because he used to peck at his reflection on the side of my toaster, whenever I'd let him out. He fathered many babies over the years but he got so aggressive with his mates, that I used to end up selling the females with the babies, for their own good.


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