Tame Dove

my dove here is a ringneck and loves to be pet mostly on the head

i used the following to tame
scale of tameing doves



EASY
1 - A hand raised baby (a few diamond doves that were not fed by their parents)
2 - A single juvenile bird (some injured wild doves)
3 - A handicapped bird (our white albino ringneck - vision impaired)
4 - A single adult bird (my daughter's ringneck)
5 - A bonded pair of adult birds
HARD
And here is my list of ten levels of taming for what they are worth. I just dreamed this up based on the experience I have had with my doves and some wild birds over the years.

WILD
1 - Dangerously wild, may be stressed from moving. May fly away at high speed and crash into walls. Should be caged and no attempt should be made at training until the birds is more relaxed.
2 - Wild, flies away as you approach
3 - Will come to you to ask for food (Canada jays, chickadees, geese, grackles, wild ducks, pigeons - often will allow hand feeding).
4 - Will try to communicate with you to meet their needs for food, water, etc. in various ways
5 - Will perch on your hand or finger and not just to get food. Will listen to you when you talk which can be seen by direct eye contact and sometimes by the tilting of the head.
6 - Will come to you and ask to be hugged and petted after being stressed. Often will fly to you when worried about other people and land on your head or possibly your shoulders.
7 - Will sit near you for long periods of time if you stay in one place (working at a desk, using a computer, watching television, reading, etc.) Will tend to follow you around your home. May come to you when called.
8 - Will express affection by wing shaking, "kissing", snuggling, and other actions
9 - Will sit on you and sometime go to sleep. If you take a nap the birds will often come and lay on you. If you sleep too long the bird may attempt to wake you up.
10 - Bonds on you - females want a nest so they can incubate eggs - males do bow coos for you and your belongings -females will asked to be petted to obtain stimulation to lay eggs. They often will find a dark corner in the room and sit down and do nest coos and shake their wings until you pet them. Also the bird will greet you with the affectionate coo when it comes to you.
BONDED

Do not try any of the following taming techniques on a recently acquired bird until you have had the bird at least two weeks. Birds are highly stressed after moving and need considerable time to adjust to their new surroundings. If they are allowed to free fly they will often fly at high speeds into walls and other objects and seriously hurt or kill themselves.

THE SMALL ROOM TECHNIQUE

An ideal room for this technique is a small room, like a bathroom that has only one or two places for a bird to land on besides besides the sink, commode, and floor. (Do be sure any windows and mirrors are covered at first). Take the bird's cage (only work with one bird at a time) to the room and shut the door. Release the bird and let it fly and find a perch then pick it up by placing a finger or hand under its chest. If it flies, then repeat the action as many times as necessary. Once it settles down and does not fly away, maintain eye contact with it as it will usually try to look past you. Talk to it or imitate its coos in a soft voice. Hold it in front of your face and touch its beak to your nose. Offer it water in a small container as it will probably be thirsty from flying. Later try to offer treats or other food. After a few days then try rubbing the bird's chest lightly, then scratch the birds neck, and finally pet the birds back. Once you can pet the back of an unrestrained bird sitting on your hand the bird has really become relaxed. To make it easier to catch a bird after perching that is very flighty, I turn off the lights before picking it up and then turn the lights back on again. When the bird is calm enough that it becomes bored and starts to preen its feathers then the session can be ended. I would terminate the session after ten minutes if no progress is being made and then try again the next day. Repeat these sessions on a daily basis at the same time each day. Birds like to have routines in their lives and if the taming session comes at an expected time of day the bird will be less stressed.

First releasing the birds in a small room has the advantage of there are few perches and that they can be picked up immediately after they land

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• pet
• dove

[IchigoDluffy]

look in side bar for how i trained him and all my other doves

[jippedo]

does anyone know of a treat type of food for pigeons??......something they like, that isn't just their everyday food

[wmrucak]

I hand raised mine, but he's mean right now. He's going through his teens and mating stuff and I'm wondering how long it will take for him to get through it. Anyone know? He bites and slaps...only bites me, but slaps my roommate.

[SiCkEzT100]

I do the small room technique too.But for some of my Doves it takes months and for others it takes days or weeks

[SiCkEzT100]

Wow, how did you tame it so well. I have Diamond Doves and there very tame too but they would never let me stroke there head. I might stroke it too hard on there head they only let me on there wings,chest, and tail. =/

[031doolittle]

very nice :)