How do I care for a pet dove?
Personal Hygiene: The personal hygiene of doves and pigeons includes a bath followed by sunning and preening themselves. Some like to bathe while others prefer a shower, and then there are some who like a dust bath. A shower can be accomplished with either a hand held sprayer or a hose with a fine spray head and lukewarm water. Wing clipping is not necessary and is not recommended for doves and pigeons. Unlike the parrot families, these birds cannot climb to safety and depend on flight. Nutrition: In the wild doves and pigeons feed on seeds, berries, fruits, green leaves and shoots, spiders and other insects. The birds we are describing here are the seed eaters in the subfamily Columbinae. The fruit eaters are in the subfamily Treroninae, but are not often seen in captivity probably because feeding them is much more difficult. The seed eaters fall into three categories; those that feed only in trees and shrubs, those that are ground feeders, and those that feed in both places. Fresh wa