Speckled PIGEON - Columba guinea

Speckled Pigeon - Columba guinea

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Diamond DOVE - The Pet Bird That Doesn't Talk Back (Or Bite!)

The popularity of keeping parrots as pets has overshadowed the other available pet bird species, species that make endearing pets that are often simpler to care for, and can be highly entertaining when given the opportunity.

The Diamond Dove is one such bird.

Diamond Dove (Geopelia cuneata)  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Diamond Doves are the size of parakeets or budgerigars for those of you in Britain. These birds can live anywhere from five to twenty years old.

The beautiful wild color variation is the most commonly found, with the males bluish-gray on the heads, necks, back, and wings, white tails, white spots on the wings, and a well-defined orange ring around each eye. The female of this color variation has more brown on her head, neck, and wings, and a less well-defined orange eye ring, but is beautiful none the less.

Diamond Doves come in a wide variety of color variations, from the wild type to cinnamon, silver, silver-blue with white tails, soft yellow, to a gorgeous pure white.

The sound the doves make is a gentle 'coo-coo' with the male being somewhat louder during courtship. My female dove Emma's 'coo-coo' is somewhere between a coo and a beep. Diamond Doves are never obnoxiously loud, as so many parrot species are.

Diamond Doves are highly sociable birds always happiest when in the company of their own kind. But these birds are also highly prolific. If you do not want a flock of tiny doves, then purchase only one bird. Be patient and the dove will bond with you in a few weeks' time.

My dove follows me around the house each morning. When she can't find me I hear her coo-coo. I call her name and then mimic her too. I soon hear a flutter of wings as she arrives. I have to be careful not to step on her when she follows me around because Diamond Doves are ground-feeding birds. They spend a lot of time poking about the floor or the bottom of their cage.

The best cage for Diamond Doves should be long rather than high so the birds can fly from perch to perch. A cage two feet by two feet can house a single pair of doves. The birds will even breed in a cage this size.

Remove any wire mesh on the floor of the cage. Your bird or birds will want to pick after fallen seed or grit, or simply sit on the floor from time to time.

Diamond dove  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feeding a Diamond Dove is simple. A diet of mixed Finch seed with plenty of millet mixed with a vitamin powder will do, with the occasional treat of greens or egg crumbles. Be sure to provide a bowl of grit because doves need the grit to crush seeds. Fresh water should always be available. You can also provide a cuttle bone for calcium, but I find doves get plenty of calcium from their grit. The choice is yours.

Diamond doves have individual personalities best seen when the bird is kept singly in a cage and when bonded with you, much like house cats. He or she may be a fussbudget, a mother hen, aggressive, noisy, laid back, always on the go, or any combination of the above.

Diamond doves can be trained to step onto hand-held perches and even come when called. My dove Emma knows her name and even her nickname ('munchkin bird'). She knows how to nag me into opening her cage and, once out, will often perch on the edge of my laptop while I write, if not on my shoulder. When feeling demonic, she pecks at the keys while I am trying to work. I shoo her off and then she retreats to the houseplants, where she pokes about in the dirt.

Parrots are wonderful birds. But if you are looking for a smaller, quiet, and easier to care for feathered companion, but still a lot of fun, then you owe it to yourself to get better acquainted with the lovely Australian charmer the Diamond Dove.

By Jennifer Harker Jennifer Harker is a freelance writer experienced with writing nonfiction, creative nonfiction, and fiction.  Article Source: EzineArticles

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Breeding For The Best RACING PIGEONS

Racing pigeons are a great wonder especially for individuals who have a passion for animal cognition. The ability to return to its owner after traveling thousands of kilometers by flight is certainly an amazing quality especially for a bird. Let alone migratory birds fly the really long distances. But whenever pigeons lovingly return to the arms of their owners, the feeling of elation is just unavoidable.

Racing pigeon photographed near Barkby, Leicestershire
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Amazing as they are, pigeons who are made to race are not as easily cared for like ordinary pets. Breeding pigeons that can win race competitions is not a joke. Any racing pigeon fancier must be ready to invest a huge amount of attention to the pigeons as well as understand that time and money are involved. And certainly a great deal of passion will tremendously affect your success in raising and turning your special pigeons to real winners.

There are basically three types of breeding methods that you can adopt to make sure that you get the best possible pedigree for a racing pigeon: cross-breeding, line-breeding, and in-breeding.

In cross-breeding, unrelated pigeons (or which are five generations apart) are made to mate with the hope of giving birth to better pigeons – better than their parents. This breeding method is more expensive than line-breeding because of the generation gap (the bigger the generation gap, the more expensive) but relatively more effective than in-breeding.

Line-breeding allows the mating of pigeons with smaller generation gaps (ex. grandchild to grandparents or cousin to cousin) than those for cross breeding. Although less expensive than cross-breeding and a lot safer than in-breeding, this method may take a long time to establish the traits that you want in your pigeon.

In-breeding is the riskiest but may also be the most successful method provided that you have really ideal pigeons. In this system, the mating happens between a parent pigeon and its child or between a brother and a sister pigeon. Because of the closeness of the generation, any trait from any of the pigeons can be easily passed to the resulting offspring – both good and bad traits. Add to this, any bad trait found on one of the partner pigeons is likely present on the other too because of their close generations. 

So while in-breeding can magnify the good traits of your pigeons, the risk is that it can also equally magnify their weaknesses. You may even end up with a pigeon that has both the best and worst traits from its parents – what a waste that will be! Also, while in-breeding does not have to spend that much money for bigger generation gaps (because the mating pigeons are IN the same generation), it may however end up becoming more financially-challenging because of the need to eliminate pigeons with non-ideal traits. Not to mention that you should be capable of culling.

The secret to breeding the best racing pigeons lies in thoroughly learning as much as all of their traits. Learn the rules of compatibility – and some genetics too. And be as passionate as you can be in caring for your pigeons.

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Feeding RACING PIGEONS

Just like human beings, racing pigeons also have the need to be well fed in order to grow it. Proper nutrition is vital for them to maintain the level of energy throughout the day, much more if they are racing frequently. 

Racing Pigeon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Strict Diet 

Racing pigeons adhere to a strict diet, which comprises mostly of grains, grits, and water. Wild pigeons eat breadcrumbs and food scraps, but they are a no-no to racing pigeons. If you want to raise quality racing pigeons, then you have to provide them with food that is fresh, clean and of the highest quality.

Grains that are dirty will gradually affect the performance of the pigeons while they are racing, as toxins and poisons present in unclean grains will bring forth illnesses that would lead to the pigeon's poor racing performance.

Grits are also essential to the racing pigeon's diet. Mixed grains are a perfect source of energy and protein, but they are very low in vitamins and minerals that are required to raise top-caliber racing pigeons. Grits, on the other hand, supply the pigeons with a sufficient amount of salt, calcium, and minerals that they need.

Vitamins for Extra Energy 

Racing pigeons can actually survive on grains and grits alone, but if they are being led to racing most of the time, then they have to be fed with food having an extra amount of vitamins. Without vitamins, the racing pigeon might not be able to sustain itself from the pressures of racing and competition.

Vitamins supplements must be given along with food and water to increase the pigeon's level of health. Not all of the vitamins, minerals, and trace elements are present in grains; therefore, these should be given to the pigeons in some other form. Some pigeon owners give spinach and shell grits, but these are still not enough to meet the nutritional requirements of a racing pigeon. They now add vitamins to water once or twice a week for added energy.

Feeding Practices during the Racing Season 

Food, and balancing it, is most important during the racing season. It's not all about giving the racing pigeons all of the food that they need, but how these foods can be properly distributed to the pigeon's daily food intake.

First off, a healthy bowel is required of the pigeon. If bowel diseases are present, the nutrients that are found in quality grains will be decreased, and not all of the energy and protein present will be maximized fully by the racing pigeon.

A healthy mix of quality grains must also be prepared. Use at least eight different grains to achieve a good balance of protein. This would ultimately fuel the racing pigeon's flight to success.

Be careful, however, of overfeeding your pigeons. Excess energy will be stored in the pigeon's body as fat, thus making the pigeon feel heavier and will slow down his pace while flying. Meanwhile, underfeeding your racing pigeons mean that you're providing them with food having low energy values, thus, resulting to the exhaustion of energy reserves in the pigeon's muscles.

For you to know if you're overfeeding or underfeeding your racing pigeons, feed only what they will eat in 10 minutes. If they are leaving pieces of food, then it just means that you're already feeding them too much.

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