reynolds@felix.UUCP (David Lee Reynolds) (11/09/89)
I want to start by saying, "Thanks for all the great tips you have all given me through 'rec.birds'". I must say, "This is just what I was hoping for from your group". I have not gotten any help, or even a reply in the "rec.pets", as they are all overly concerned about "Killer-Cats" & "Clumsy Dogs". ;-) (I used to own both too). Since you took the time to reply to me about a month and a half ago, I thought I would give a quick update... (Our company will not pay the extra cash to get a "Back-bone" address, so E-mail won't work! :-(. So please forgive the bandwidth, and hit "n" now if not interested in Doves & mating habits etc...) The following are replies to "3" E-mails I have received since asking the question: Doves, does anyone own them on the net??? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 12:47:19-1000 >From: Mike Burger <uunet!uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu!mikeb> >To: reynolds >Subject: doves > > You should be careful of your terms. "Doves" and "Pigeons" and other ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ According to 2 of the books I have both bought, and looked though, the definition of Dove IS a small Pigeon! Now you know why I was asking your group for guidence insted of fumbling along with the books I have to use as references.... :-< >terms can refer to a lot of things. You may very well have two female ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ See below for a scientific explanation to "Sexing" Doves & Pigeons. >domestic pigeons. There are a lot of commercial and hobby pigeon breeders. >Your first objective should be to identify your birds exactly by scientific >names and then get a book on that species. A lot is known. It could be (Many execellent ideas and suggestions deleted to conserve space.) Thanks for the Ideas Mike, yours are perhaps the most helpful of all the replies I have received!! > Mike Burger, Chemistry, 2545 The Mall | University of Hawaii | >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > >Date: Sun, 1 Oct 89 03:04:49 MDT >From: John Shipman >To: reynolds >Organization: Zoological Data Processing > >The sentiment against pet-bird postings in this group >is by no means unanimous. I'm a fairly hard-core birder Thank you for this post, I just did not want to start any wars on rec.birds, because I feel you are more professional of a group then most I have read. >and have never owned pet birds, but I like to read the >pet bird postings because I tend to learn stuff about >bird behavior, diet, etc. My wife and I have found our doves to be both a facinating and learning experiance. The mating habbits of birds are similar to thoughs of some tropical fish I once owned... (Though my fish never coo'ed ;-)) (As my previous message stated, we had just bought two males, and the females were pecking them to death... Well in the past month we watched as our birds began to make the natural changes back to a heteral-sexual behavior. (Ie the two females are no longer pairing to themselves anymore!)). The male started coo'ing constantly until he finally coxed the female into the nest that he had prepaired in the previous days. Interesting to Josie and I is the fact that as the male coo's, his wings will twitch, he's hunched over, with his tail in the air and stay's that way for several minutes at a time. The female will eventulaly join him in the nest, then both of them coo together. Their next step was to bring the needed twigs, (in this case we gave them hay from our bunnies food supply), to the nesting sight. In this case they ignored the nesting "box" we made, and chose the basket we suspended in the top right corner of the aviary. We were never able to see them consumate, as I think they they waited for us to go to work. ;-). We are happy to see the most docile Male has paired to the docile female, however, now that they are ready to lay their clutch of eggs they are no longer gentle little birds!! I was forced to install a screen seperator down the middle of our Dove-Condo-Aviary. (I made it temperary so that when they have established there own teritory, and are complete in the pairing phase, I can hopefully remove it). Only one bad thing occured, the would be mother dove had a mis-carrage, and almost hit my head with her egg when I was still installing the seperator. (Shoot)!. >John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, New Mexico >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > >Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 08:13:15 PDT >To: reynolds >From: Gail Smithson > >sex them and found I had two males. If nobody has told you how to >sex them yet, you hold them with two hands around the wings and >body and bob them up and down. If the tail goes up its a female and >it the tail goes down its a male. I then purchased a white female >and paired her with one of the males and they proceeded to raise 3 >clutches. One of their offspring was quite tame because I handled >him a lot. Good luck! This is an interesting way to sex doves, and infact I confermed it with the 4 doves I have, and they passed your test. I wonder if this is a scientific way to tell though???? The way the "Bird-Farm" told me to do it was to hold them, (Doves & Pigeons) upside-down, and GENTLY touch their pelvik (sp?) bones right at the top, (where the poop & eggs come out from), if the bones seperate, it's a female. (The eggs can't pass other wise). This seemed easier for me than bobing them up and down, as they are real hard to hold when your scaring the crap (Litterally) out of them! > >Gail Smithson > >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Again thank you all for your help, and Email!!! +------------------------+------------------------------------+ | David Reynolds | This Space For Rent | | BIFFNet Corp. | | | !hplabs!felix!reynolds | | | | | +------------------------+------------------------------------+ | Disclaimer: It's not BIFFNets' Fault, I only work for them! | +-------------------------------------------------------------+