Dove addition??

[rowanred]

I do foster work for a local shelter and someone recently dropped off a young ringneck dove, and of course having had pigeons for years they phoned me to take it. The Dove is already sort of flying and seems really interseted in Ari and Lux from across the room. They on the other hand could care less about the dove, when I put them in their cage and let the dove out they sit there just talking to each other and ignoring the little one jumping around on the floor. Is there anyway I would be able to get them to like each other enough that I could keep the dove?? Even if I have to house them seperately and only allow them to fly around the house together.

I have never attempted to add a new bird to any of my birds, whether it be my boyfriends lovebird, my old pigeon or my old macaw. My old pigeon was happy only having my company, I inherited my grandmothers old military macaw when she died and he was happy alone for the 30 yrs my grandmother had him and the 10 that I did, and our Lovebird is a miserable little turd when it comes to other birds. Even now with the pigeons being in the house he spends all day in a little huff that they are in his house and has stationed himself at the door of his room, glaring at them and screaming if they come to close(his room has a screen door dividing it).

Can I mix my homing pigeons with a ringneck dove or are my bonded pair going to attack the dove. How would I even go about introducing them??

[John_D]

Hi,

I can only share my observations, in a somewhat different environment. We have a large aviary in Cynthia's garden which primarily houses pigeons, but in which we also have woodpigeons and two collared doves. Although initially one or two of the males decided a collared dove must be a small hen pigeon and tried to act appropriately, or else tried to chase the much smaller doves off, they soon adjusted. The most active dove (Poppet, who is really a pet as he was raised by someone from babyhood) goes anywhere he likes, perching amongst the pigeons, even jumping in and out of their boxes, and they pretty much ignore him. In any case, he is too small and agile for the pigeons to be bothered giving him any hassle.

I appreciate that your situation is different - and others may have found they don't mix - but given a little supervised 'settling in' time, you should very soon see if they can co-exist in a companionable (or, equally likely, disinterested) way.

John

[Reti]

I have currently five doves and I have to keep them locked up and let them out only supervised, the reason is, my pigeons scalp them and even worse, they try to mount them, even the tiny baby doves. They even stand in line to do that horrible thing to the poor babies. Then again I'm thinking that I have monsters here, maybe your two are more civil.
Months ago, I had a one winged dove and my guys behaved and ignored her completely. I don't know what possesed them now.
Anyways, you can try and let your dove and pigeons mingle, but I would supervise them in the beginning.

Reti

[Trees Gray]

Hi rowanred,

Thank you for taking this ringneck dove under your "wing."

I definitely would only allow supervised outings between the species, but never leave them alone.

Pigeons are just oversized for the doves and can even hurt them not meaning to.

[Chocolateedd]

I would mix them unsupervized because like others say and from witnessing it, pigeons will pluck and attack doves if kept together. I had pigeons and put my doves with them for a day, supervised, and they started attacking them, and i immediatly removed them from the environment. LIke an above comment, just keep them together when supervised, apart when unsupervised.

[Robby]

Hi, I have to disagree. I have a pair of ringneck doves that right now are sitting on eggs in my loft. they live among all my pigeons 75 in all they eat, drink, & bath together and i've have had no problems yet Robby S.C.LOFTS

[rowanred]

Today I let the pigeons out to fly while the dove(who my neices named Mallia) was out jumping around and my female Lux who just laid an egg last week, at first ignored the baby completely, other than when Mallia came near the couch which Lux thinks is hers. The big surprise was Ari my male literally took the dove under his wing. He started acting like a protective dad, He stayed right beside her, comforting her when she missed her landing and got scared. After like an hour of supervised time Lux started coming around and eventually I even caught her gently grooming Mallia. So by the end of the evening of visiting the pigeons had coaxed Mallia into their cage and up to the nest. Last time I looked in on them she was snuggled down beside Ari and the egg.

So apparently the dove is staying!!!!

Thanks to everyone for their advice, it helped a lot to know that many people out there have had varying outcomes when mixing doves and pigeons!!

[John_D]

Sounds like the pigeons may think the dove is a baby pigeon

John