# Please Adivse Ref. My Ring Neck Dove



## Pollichfamily (Apr 16, 2013)

Greetings too all, I hope I don't upset anyone on this site because it sounds like you all would never dream of releasing your bird but I'm torn and need some advise. My story starts like this. While leaving my home I saw a baby bird in the middle of the street and noticed two Doves nearby. I left the baby bird alone in hopes that the two doves, Mama & Papa I assume were still trying to care for it. Well the second day that I was leaving my home I again saw the baby bird, which barely had any feathers on it, and this time in the middle of the street. I didn't see the pair of doves nearby on the second day and if I left the baby where it was it would have clearly died either by getting run over or dehydration. I picked the baby bird up to find that it couldn't even hold its head up. It had been in the hot street for minimally two days and was in need of fluids. Please note that I don't know anything about birds so I went to the internet and tried to quickly educate myself. Well using a small syringe my wife used for her teeth cleaning solution I made a concoction of water, bread and applesauce. I had to force the mixture down its throat with little help from him and trying my best not to drown the baby bird. Long story short its been about 10 months now and Dovey we call him is doing great. I purchased a large cage because he needs lots of room and when he's not trying to fly on our heads he flys around the house. My problem is that our family loves him a lot and really don't want him to go hungry or get hurt. He has no fear it seems and is very loud at times. He coos a lot and I think he misses being free. My question is this, will Dovey survive if I let him go free. I live in Southern California and I have seen other ring neck doves in the area and sometimes I think and feel I'm being cruel by keeping him in captivity. If there is someone in the bird world that can give me some advise or would like to care for him please let me know. Hopefully someone with other ring necks that Dovey could make friends with.

Thanks, Ken


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## tjc1 (Aug 22, 2012)

I for one would return a bird to the wild if I could. If the weather is nice I would trying putting the cage in a spot that the doves would frequent. Even try putting seed out so they would come to you. Let the baby watch the wild ones for a while and see how he does with that. If he is young and watching the others he will learn to be on his own. If he is too attached to your family and has no wild instincts he may stay close to home and just use you as a place to get food and shelter. If not he may just go with the other doves and be on his own. But if you have a lot of predators out in your area you may not want to release him as he would be easy prey. I would not release a bird in cold weather as the hawks would make a meal out of him but once it warms up I would at least try.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

A repeat of my post in the other thread ..

Perhaps your dove would enjoy having a companion. That wouldn't necessarily lessen the amount of cooing, but the cooing would likely be directed to the companion and not the human family members. Just a thought. I agree with the others that Dovey can't be set free or even allowed to free fly outside if you want to keep him safe.

Terry


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## nancybird (Jan 30, 2011)

Doves make very nice pets.They like to another dove to keep them company.


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