# Improving eye-beak coordination?



## Dovehat (Aug 2, 2011)

Is there any way to improve a dove's eye-beak "coordination"? When I try and give it a sparse amount of seeds from my hand, or when it tries to pick out specific bits in its seed bowl, it always misses. And then it gets frustrated sometimes and starts sweeping wildly with it's beak, so yeah... could this lack of depth or ability to see things where they are be a concern? 

I've also noticed that it has problems eating larger seeds, not because it can't physically gulp it down, but because it spastically vibrates its beak to get it inside.. so it immediately drops out of its' mouth. Any fix for that?


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

I don't think it has any thing to do with eye sight, I think there is some sort of other issue. Does the bird hold it's head as it should or is it kind of jerky?
Dave


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## Dovehat (Aug 2, 2011)

It looks normal, it just sometimes pecks at nothing like it can't tell the distance, and doesnt correct itself


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

I'm sure some one else will come along with an answer, I'm just not sure.
Dae


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Dovehat said:


> Is there any way to improve a dove's eye-beak "coordination"? When I try and give it a sparse amount of seeds from my hand, or when it tries to pick out specific bits in its seed bowl, it always misses. And then it gets frustrated sometimes and starts sweeping wildly with it's beak, so yeah... could this lack of depth or ability to see things where they are be a concern?
> 
> I've also noticed that it has problems eating larger seeds, not because it can't physically gulp it down, but because it spastically vibrates its beak to get it inside.. so it immediately drops out of its' mouth. Any fix for that?


Define "sweeping wildly with its beak." Nearly all doves sweep through their food to a point--enough that they waste a ton of food if you don't give them very tall bowls. In this way, they dig to their favorite seeds. It just depends how extreme the behavior is to tell whether there is really a problem. Do you happen to have a video?

Also, how old is the bird? My juveniles are clumsier than my adults with seed. Even then, the adult ringnecks can be clumsy depending who they are. 

Do you have white birds? 

Are there any other symptoms of vision impairment? For instance, I have a bird who tries to perch on the lines in wallpaper more than should ever be normal. She also flies into walls much more than she should. She isn't extremely aware of her surroundings like her brother, either.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Dovehat said:


> It looks normal, it just sometimes pecks at nothing like it can't tell the distance, and doesnt correct itself


Another thing this could be is a game. My diamond doves run around in their cage chasing eachother and pecking anything that makes a fun noise. One of the little girls looooves to peck the water bowl on a certain side for the bwwwwwooooo noise it makes. She dances a bit every time it makes its noise and then tries again.

I haven't noticed as much of this behavior in ringnecks, but mine do love to peck at my jeans, shirt, the couch fabric, etc when they are doing their explorations of the house. They also enjoy pecking the wooden floor. 

Is this similar?


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## Dovehat (Aug 2, 2011)

The sweeping: it's actually more of a new thing, at least when I'm feeding him seeds out of my hand... he seems like he sweeps harder when he's eating from my hand than in the bowl. 

I'm not worried so much about the sweeping though, as I am the fact whenever he tries to peck at something.. be it a seed, or something that's caught his interest, he ALWAYS misses his mark for quite some time before even getting close to hitting what he was interested in with his beak. That's what I meant by pecking at nothing, it gets interested in like a seed or something shiny or what have you, and just pecks at nothing because he has a hard to gauging where to place his beak.

That's also the only sign of visual impairment, it flies just fine, sometimes it flies around a lot and gets really tired so it might miss a perch and fall but that's it. 

Yes, my bird is white... well white-ish, it's supposed to be "Ivory" colored.


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