What to do with a lone WHITE dove?

[RickF]

We've been umm.. the guest house for a lone white dove for the past 2 months. It likes to eat/drink the food & water that the chickens get and now it sleeps on top of the run protected from the rain/sun. Unfortunately, it's making a pretty big mess up there with the poop (which is as big as the chickens!).. We're planning on putting some more hardware cloth up to completely seal the run from preditors which will also keep the dove out unless he wants to remain within the run.. I've been able to pet the dove a couple of times at night as he's fairly tame.. He will not try to peck at you and he may be a lost bird from a local flock??

Anyway, not sure what to do with him/her.. The chickens will chase it away when he/she tries to eat their food and they're hungry..

Comments?

P.S. Can the dove's poop be composted with the chickens poop without problems? I'm assuming so since both types of birds are primarily seed eaters..

 

[hoodat]

Probably someones escaped pet. You could make a small coop for her. Once she gets used to it you can leave the door open and she will come back to it when she's hungry. Of course you take a chance with cats if you do that.

 

[digitS']

I don't have a quick solution to your problem, Rick.

I once had a lone blind pigeon that I saved from a trip to the gun club. It was the first pigeon that I ever owned and I kept a few around for about 10 or 12 years. He seemed pretty miserable when he was by himself.

I'm wondering if your guest might be a Eurasian Collared Dove. They are an introduced species and related to our domestic dove. Collared doves are busy claiming North America as their New World!

I thought they were going to overwhelm the bird population here a couple years ago! It seemed that every backyard had a resident pair of these doves! Then their population must have crashed. They are still around but not nearly as common.

A nesting pair near my veggie garden had a white youngster. I think a hawk got him, as there are plenty of those around. Here is about what he looked like (click). But, he may have been even whiter -- and that color is supposed to be fairly common with these birds.

Steve

 

[RickF]

I'm wondering if your guest might be a Eurasian Collared Dove. They are an introduced species and related to our domestic dove. Collared doves are busy claiming North America as their New World!

Nope.. Ours is completely white.. No collars..

Perhaps I can get the kids to create a bird house for him/her.. I wonder if we could put that in the run and whether he/she would consider that 'home'? Hmm..

One of these days I might try putting some food in the palm of my hand to see if I can get it to be more acclimated to people than it already is..

 

[vfem]

My neigbor has a pair of doves, and they are quite happy in pairs... perhaps set him up a small coop of his own, lock down, feed keep him happy for a couple weeks... then let him come and go as he pleases. Then get him (oops, or her) a mate! Pure white I do believe is female? At least my neighbor's dove that's white is female, the male is cream/beige.

 

[Collector]

It totally sounds like an escapee, maybe go to a pet shop and find a freind for it. You could build a small coop and run for them to live in. We have hundreds of collared doves out here where we live in farm country they are in our yard around our coops all the time. also they are very tasty if you can get enough of them.

 

[Northernrose]

If you want to keep it... look up dovecotes. Small dovecotes look more like a large bird house on a pole than a chicken coop with a run. It might be happier roosting in that at night and be safe from owls. If you built it on a slick metal pole it would be safe from ground predators as well.

It could be a lost bird from a wedding dove release

 

[beavis]

The most common wild dove species in Southern California, especially in the Los Angeles basin, whether they are native or introduced include:

Mourning Dove (fairly common)

Rock Pigeon (Abundant)

Spotted Dove (introduced, though populations are declining)

Eurasian Collared-Dove (Introduced, populations increasing)

White-winged Dove (rare)

Common Ground-Dove (Rare)

Also, none of these doves are pure white, except in rare instances the Rock Pigeon may sport a white variant. But the Rock Pigeon, which is the common city pigeon throughout the US is chunkier and larger than a typical dove.

My guess is that it is an escapee.

 

[Allin8Allein]

Hoe is it now?

 

[Nyboy]

If you want to keep him, he should have a friend. Mickacoo pigeon and dove rescue is on the west coast, and are full up with doves needing homes. They ship ,I am on the east coast and adopted from them.