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- The best places to find and adopt a dove
- The gear you need to make sure that your dove settles in at home
- Feeding, grooming, and training tips to keep your dove healthy and happy
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Meet the Ring-Necked Dove
Doves have long been a symbol of peace and freedom throughout the world, and many birdkeepers have discovered that doves also make excellent, friendly companions.
There are more than 300 species of doves and pigeons in the Columbidae family, but only a few dozen species are available in the pet trade. The ring-necked dove (Streptopelia risoria, also known as the Barbary dove) is one of the most common dove species available. This hardy bird, bred and domesticated from an African species, is relatively easy to care for, house, and hand tame, and it’s available in
various colors.
Appearance
The ring-necked dove, as he exists in the wild, is about 11" (28 cm) in length. He is mostly pale gray in color with a bit of white on the end of his tail. His back is also slightly darker than the rest of his body. He is named for the patch of black feathers that forms a ring shape around the back of his neck (though other dove species have this trait as well). Like most doves, the ring-neck’s body is large in proportion to his head, and his beak is pointed and dips downward slightly at the tip. (Aside from color differences, most doves are very similar in appearance.)
Like other dove species, ring necks are naturally muted in color, especially in comparsion to many other birds commonly kept as pets. However, through a process of selectively breeding ring-necked doves, more than 40 different color mutations, including albino, cream, orange, peach, and pink, have become available in the pet trade.
Temperament and Behavior
In general, doves have mild temperaments and are hand tamed fairly easily. They also make excellent pets for children because they don’t bite and aren’t loud, as some parrots can be. A hand-fed dove in particular is especially likely to take quickly to his keepers and respond well to gentle handling.
Common Ring-Necked Dove Behaviors
The following are some behaviors you may observe in your ring-necked dove and what they signify.
- Bowing and cooing: This is typical behavior for a male dove who has spotted a potential mate. He will puff up his chest and walk around the female, bowing and cooing to get her attention. Females may also exhibit this behavior on occasion, but this is rare.
- Challenge posture: A dove who holds his head low to his body and raises his rump feathers is exhibiting a challenge posture. This usually occurs when a dove feels the need to defend his mate, nest, or hatchlings.
- Fearful responses: A fearful dove will sometimes freeze—stand tall and still, his neck craned and feathers close to his body. This is a fearful response to the presence of a potential threat, so the bird is trying to prevent the predator from seeing him. Also, a dove who is suddenly frightened will usually fly straight up, blindly. This can be dangerous to a pet dove because he may gain momentum and crash painfully into the ceiling of his cage—or elsewhere in the house if he’s out of his cage. To prevent injury inside the cage, hang some mesh or place soft, easily cleaned padding on the top of the enclosure.
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Ruffling feathers:
After preening (usually before and after a nap) and both before and after embarking on a new task, such as flying to a new perch or beginning to eat, a dove may give his feathers a quick ruffle—fluffing them quickly, then smoothing them down again. A dove does this to remove all the debris he has just dislodged from his feathers by preening, but he may also do it to release tension in stressful situations.
- Vocalization: Doves aren’t loud birds, but they coo persistently. The more doves you have, the louder and more consistently they will vocalize. Multiple doves vocalize over each other and will be louder when they are all together, but because the sound they make isn’t overly loud, it’s likely only to bother keepers who are very sensitive to noise. Keep this in mind before you acquire one or more doves.
Intelligence
Unlike parrots, doves aren’t known for their intelligence, but individual doves do come to know their human family and accept them as part of their flock. A male dove with a strong bond to a particular family member may even perform a mating dance for his preferred human. However, doves are not birds who usually learn to perform tricks or follow commands.
Is Your Home Right for a Ring-Necked Dove?
Doves are relatively easy to care for and don’t need the kind of hands-on attention that many other pet birds do. However, they still require a time commitment, just as any pet does. Most doves can live to be 10–30 years of age if properly cared for, so before you acquire a ring-necked dove for your home, you must be willing and able to care for your pet for many years. As with any companion animal, he needs a suitable environment in order to live a long, happy life, and it’s up to you to keep your bird well fed, healthy, and safe in your home.
Feather Dust
If you or someone in your home has allergies or an otherwise sensitive respiratory system, a ring-necked dove may not be a suitable addition to your family.
The dove has powder-down feathers—small white feathers that grow just beneath the down feathers that make up a bird’s fluffy undercoat. These feathers produce a fine white dust that a dove uses while grooming to coat the other feathers, helping to keep them clean. Unfortunately, this dust will emanate from your bird when he ruffles and shakes his feathers, possibly triggering allergies and also settling throughout your home and in your bird’s cage.
Even if allergies aren’t a concern for anyone in your home, you will still need to bathe your bird and clean his cage (and any rooms in which you let out your bird) more frequently than you would a less dusty bird. You can also use an air purifier near the cage to cut down on the dust, but there will still be some amount to contend with in the cage and in your home. Keep this in mind if you’re planning to purchase a dove.
Keeping Multiple Doves
Many experts advocate keeping doves in male/female pairs. Doves in a mixed pair are often more content than lone doves or doves living with other birds of the same sex. (Make sure that the pair you buy is a true mixed pair. It’s not easy to tell the difference between the sexes, and even the most experienced birdkeepers can err when trying to determine the sex of young birds.)
If you want to keep more than one dove, try to buy them all at the same time and from the same place so that you can add them to the cage at the same time. If you let one bird become established in the cage and then add other birds, the first bird may harass and even kill the new arrivals. Also, make sure that you have enough room to house the number of doves you plan to keep. Cramping your doves in too small a space is unhealthy for them, and it can make aggressive individuals fight among each other and pester more docile birds.
Keeping Doves with Other Birds
Though multiple doves can get along well together, you should be careful about keeping your doves with other types of birds. Some doves may live happily with finches or canaries, but monitor your birds carefully for signs of aggression between species. Even a little finch can become aggressive toward a larger dove and try to pull out his feathers or terrorize his nesting site.
| Text & Photos Copyright © 2007 TFH Publications, Inc. | Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
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