Sheather's New Diamond Doves

[Sheather]

Picked up two pairs of these adorable little guys after a long time looking. They are too cute and their calls are so sweet.

Calling them Dudley, Daisy, Neil, and Jesse.

[delray]

Sheather congrats!

[debbie276]

Wonderful!!
Congratulations and best of luck

[41Gryphon]

They're so cute! I've always loved diamond doves. They're such sweet little birds. Congrats on your new guys~

[Atbird]

Congratulations. They are cute. I have one. The only thing is that when they fly they make this flapping sound which scares the finches.

[Sheather]

Atbird Mine seem pretty unbothered, they're already used to living with parrots.

[Jen]

I love Diamond Doves....such sweet, serene birds. I have a pair and they are on their first nest of two eggs. They are supposed to hatch this weekend....I'm so excited. I agree, they can be a little "disruptive" when take took off in flight, but now that they are in my outdoor aviary, it is not a problem any more. But that is the ONLY time they are disruptive....in every other aspect, they are the sweetest birds. Even the mating dance of the male is so beautiful...very "gallant and a little flamboyant" !!! Love these guys!

[Rox]

Enjoy them! I love the cooing sound diamond doves make, it's so peaceful

[MiaCarter]

Oooh! How lovely!

I adore diamond doves. Their cooing sounds are so soothing and they remind me of cool, crisp mornings growing up.

I love the fleshy ring around their eyes too.

I'll be curious to see how they make out in your bird room!
Will they pigeon it, spending most of their time on the floor and low perches?

Or will they perch up high with the others since everyone else is perching? I'll be curious to see!

That's actually the only thing that's been preventing me from getting more doves. I don't like birds on the floor. It makes me anxious. And I wouldn't want to cage them all the time when everyone else gets to fly around!

[Colt]

Oh they are gorgeous. Be prepared for a veritable flood of babies once they get into the breeding mood. And they will nest in the most idiotic places. In fact don't let them chat with Kari...she'll give them terrible advice.

[vinay]

Congrats on your additions !

These guys are wonderful little birds and bring so much life to an aviary. My pair is currently sitting on an egg and im hoping it hatches .
The only thing you'll have to watch out for is the amount of mess they make. Mine literally dive into any food bowl digging and scratching around for their favourite grains. In the process about 90 percent of the seed is flung outside . It seems innocent at first but when you realize how much your vacuuming duties have increased (if they're kept indoors) , you'll begin questioning their cuteness .

[Sheather]

MiaCarter Colt vinay Rox Jen

So far the two pairs have settled well, the older pair of Neil and Daisy is spending more and more time in their nest and mating up a storm, so I suspect eggs are imminent (which is good, I have people already wanting to buy babies). The other pair consists of this pair's daughter (Dudley) and Jesse who is unrelated. Here Dudley is utterly uninterested in Jesse, so Jesse just sits in the nest he's chosen and calls loudly all day long for a mate, with no reply, or he sneaks over and bow-coos to Daisy the moment Neil leaves, and promptly gets his butt kicked on his return (Neil is the biggest). The first day the doves spent almost all of their time on the floor but since then have gotten much more accustomed to flying and perching and prefer higher but still flat surfaces, like shelves and the floor of cages, only going to the floor occasionally. Because they're so spooky, especially when it's dark, I am putting each pair into their own flight cage every night and only letting them out in the daytime so they don't have a night fright and hurt themselves (each pair's chosen nest is in their cage). Daisy and Neil are nesting now so they return to their cage faithfully to sleep, but Jesse and Dudley tend to not, so I have to round them up every night - not too difficult as they're really docile animals without much fear at all.

They're very happy and easy-going animals, definitely not bright but very comfortable with everything and quick to get used to new surroundings. They're awfully noisy now that they're settled, though - especially the males. It's a very different sound from all the other birds and it carries a long way through the house.

They seem very easy to please overall. Eat the same things as the finches but no mess as they don't leave those dang hulls everywhere! I'm trying to get them to eat greens and egg but they only take the littlest nibbles of either so far. And thinking they weren't discriminate eaters (since they eat tons of sand, among other things) I'd hoped to pass of my big tub of Laferber's pellets that nobody wants anymore on them but apparently they're just as picky as anyone else, can easily tell seeds from pellets, and only want seeds...

They do flick food around but the whole bird room is dedicated to birds so mess on the floor is expected and I vacuum every morning. I find it much more annoying to find the hulls the finches leave everywhere than the doves' seeds, at least other birds will go down and eat dropped seeds, hulls just blow around and get stuck in my eyelids.

Oh Colt Kari actually has been incubating a clutch steadily for weeks now! It just happened it was infertile and eventually replaced with plastic ones... it just figures when she finally figures it out it's at the very tail end of nesting season and with duds! That girl drives me up the wall. At least she's not laying four eggs a week anymore though.

[Rox]

Sheather, I am so happy your doves are settling down! They can get quite noisy hey. I ended up separating my pair because they bred so much and I think the male got depressed. He was cooing through the night and it was driving us insane! Thankfully it only lasted a few days

[Sheather]

These guys are so dopey. Someone laid two eggs last week in one of the provided nests and for a day everyone took turns sitting only to all lose interest the next day. They haven't gone back since, but the one male started re-building over top them so I removed the eggs today.

[Sheather]

And now both pairs seem to have figured it out. We've got steady sitting on both nests and two eggs in each! Fingers crossed. Day three and still sitting tight and each pair taking turns.