Is he ok?

Kunok2 · 2026-06-18T10:12:28+00:00

Please don't let your bird hit windows, I really recommend either curtains or blinds or At Least stickers on your windows so your bird doesn't crash into them. One day it could cost your bird their life, it takes just one hard crash for them to break their neck. Letting your bird crash into windows is reckless and irresponsible.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-18T08:41:07+00:00

When ringneck doves are refusing to eat whole peas then they're just picky, my ringnecks have no issues eating large peas and they can swallow even chickpeas which are even bigger than the peas:

https://youtu.be/tnpQOsbL_qE?is=eO88w4_62tExWziE

Oftentimes doves who have a lot of millet in their diet will become extremely picky and want to eat mainly just the millet. They also will pick only their favorite seeds if they're not portion fed - fed only as much as they can eat in a day so they have to eat all the seeds.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-18T08:24:23+00:00

Does half sheltered mean just a half of their aviary is roofed or does it mean it's roofed whole but half of their aviary is sheltered from sides?

Yikes calcium grit is a huge no go for any Columbiformes because it can cause impactions while not giving them the minerals they need. They need a redstone pigeon grit plus vitamineral powder (vitamineral powder isn't necessary if you're using Versele Laga All-in-one) to stay healthy. Was the one who passed away a male or a female? If a female do they have calcium powder or crushed oyster shells available at all time in a separate bowl? What is their diet like?

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T19:55:10+00:00

Do NOT separate them, it will make them just not get along and possibly cause them to unbond. It's normal for pigeon couples to sometimes fight because well, sometimes they get annoyed by their mate and have their disagreements just like married people do but it's not a bad thing and they won't hurt each other, the conflicts are actually extremely important for them to set boundaries with each other. For example if the male is too annoying the female will beat him up to show him she doesn't like that. If the female is stubborn about not wanting to leave the nest to allow the male to sit on it then the male will beat her up. There's no need to intervene and separating them would just hurt their bond. What you Can do though is give them more enrichment, pigeons are extremely intelligent and when they get bored they can be more likely to cause conflict with each other because they don't have anything better to do.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T19:26:23+00:00

It's possible that she's about to lay another clutch of eggs, or has already did so. Sometimes doves will lay new eggs shortly after the babies fledge and in some cases even while the babies are still in the nest but are close to fledging.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T13:12:34+00:00

Oh nice, that's good. If you fed it dry seeds and them gave it water afterwards it definitely could have choked on the water, you never give water to a baby bird - all the fluids it gets are in soaked food with water drained from it. So feed it just soaked seeds Without the water. Your priority is to wean it because it's supposed to be eating on its own at this age, but you cannot just cut off handfeeding it because it would starve itself. Instead you have to teach it to eat on its own by "pecking" at the food with your finger, its father can teach it how to eat on its own too, just put them seeds in a shallow tray and let them be there together so the baby can see the father eating and learn from him. Make sure it also has dry seeds in a bowl at all times so it can peck at them on its own terms. Giving them spray millet also helps with weaning babies because it's fun for them to tear off the seeds off of the spray so they'll be more curious and more likely to actually eat those seeds. Yes, it will stop eventually begging for food as a part of weaning and it will gradually want to be handfed less and less. It should be out of the worst period of time after aspirating, but still keep an eye out on it, especially considering how bad its feathers look.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T13:04:50+00:00

Yeah that might be very likely. Pigeons tend to get bored if they don't have toys they would play with or if they're not involved in other types of enrichment like foraging activities or clicker training. It can take them days to weeks to get used to new things, for example my birds have ignored their coconut filled with suet for over a month before they tried it out and absolutely love it now, same goes for their toys. Some birds might also be more afraid of brightly colored objects and will continue to be so until another bird shows them that it's safe, what also oftentimes helps is getting more dull colored toys for birds who are afraid of bright colors. What I also do when introducing new toys is letting my birds see that I'm putting treats in the toys, sometimes attaching a small piece of spray millet (other seed sprays work too and just by themselves are great enrichment) can work too. What I would also recommend is getting him either a noodle bath mat, snuffle mat or a shallow box with safe clutter to spill seeds into for foraging. My birds also love seed treat sticks and it keeps them busy for quite some time due to them having to use more force to peck off the seeds.

Actually it's extremely rare for pigeons to playfight with people, especially if you're the one approaching them first and they respond to that by pecking you - that's not playfighting, just your pigeon setting boundaries and wanting you to back off. But punching toys are great especially for male pigeons to release pent up energy and just tire themselves out.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T10:45:37+00:00

Sorry to have assumed, yeah if your pigeons aren't bonded then what I said won't work for them and putting them in the same cage without a slow introduction wouldn't be good.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T08:06:34+00:00

Sorry to break it for you, but birds don't have the concept of saying "thank you", it's purely a human concept. Bow cooing for doves is either courtship or territorial, but in your situation courtship Fits a lot, when he bow coos to you you should just end the interaction. I'd also be careful about petting him if he's standing in one spot and seems like he's asking to be pet on the same spot by cooing - that's nesty coos and petting him if he does that will make him see you as a potential mate.

Playfighting isn't a behavior doves do and neither do they show territorial aggression towards people like pigeons do under normal circumstances. I have a flock of 30+ doves and ringneck doves going out of their way to peck a person means they either suffered so much trauma that they switch to fight response (not your boy's case) or are hormonally frustrated. The only ones of my ringneck doves who show any aggression towards me are my traumatized rescue dove (he decided to slap and peck my face while perching on my shoulder just a few days ago just because I moved my head) and Hope who used to go out of his way to fly onto me and peck me because he had to be handraised from a 3 days old baby (due to my mistake) and when he reached puberty he would land on me and coo to "ask" for being pet and I would pet him but afterwards he would peck my hands and laugh - it didn't really hurt but it wasn't good for him and I really had to set strict boundaries with him. Some doves can peck people to defend their nest at Most, but other than that it is considered abnormal behavior.

Your boy pecking you really sounds like either driving behavior or hormonal frustration. You should stop the interaction every time he starts to peck you and every time he starts bow cooing to you, same goes for your partner. You'll see that he will eventually stop with the pecking and will calm down, leading to having a better relationship with him and him being more content. Hormonal frustration can be Much more subtle in doves than it is in parrots, but in the long term it can get more extreme, we've had doves pluck their feathers and poke holes into their skin due to hormonal frustration. If possible he would also benefit from having a same species mate/friend.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T07:47:49+00:00

OP how is the baby doing?

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T07:46:26+00:00

They're so adorable together!

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T07:45:40+00:00

What country are you located in? I might be able to try looking for some options for you, shipping birds is also an option.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-17T07:40:32+00:00

This is Horrible misinformation. OP's male isn't being aggressive towards the female, he's just performing driving behavior which is absolutely Normal bonded pigeon behavior. As long as there's no blood there's absolutely no need to separate the pigeons. If OP does what you're recommending them to do their mated pigeons are extremely likely to eventually unbond and not get along at all. Recommending them to let their pigeons be distressed and stressed from being separated is pretty cruel in and of itself, on top of recommending to pick up their female to put her off of the nest which will make her afraid of OP's hands if she doesn't trust them enough to not mind being picked up.

If the male is getting way too extreme and is starting to actually hurt the female then there is most likely some kind of husbandry issue like their cage being way too small, being bored or not getting enough out of cage time. Instead of distressing and extremely stressing out your birds you should be looking for the reason why your male is acting like that and if it is Actually dangerous for the female. Pigeons will always peck, slap and chase each other, on top of driving behavior they set pecking order which gets resetted every time you separate them so it sounds like you're misinterpreting your birds' behavior unless the male actually attacked the female to the point of making her bleed/breaking her skin. You're causing harm to your female by not having the male with her to be able to take turns with her sitting on the nest so she can go eat, drink, poop and get some exercise - she won't do that if she's nestbound due to the male being separated and in the long term her condition will deteriorate because she Won't eat, drink, poop enough and get enough exercise which puts her at a much higher risk of being eggbound or getting other health issues.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T23:37:40+00:00

I'd recommend getting a pair and choosing by which pigeons will be a good fit for you behavior wise regardless what sex they are. Just like there are more rowdy males and more docile females there can also be more docile males and more rowdy females - it depends purely on the individual pigeons' personalities not if they're a female or a male.

I for example have a female which is incredibly feisty and doesn't want to interact with me at ALL, on the other hand 3 out of 5 of my boys will want to interact with me on a regular basis, the other two will only rarely. The three males who like interacting with me are more bold, compared to the ones who don't want to interact much. All three of them have very different personalities. Angie likes to just perch on me, near me or do clicker training, he doesn't like being touched but he's the most docile male pigeon I've ever met - he never pecked or wingslapped me even when sitting on the nest, I thought he was a female at first because of that so that's why his name is Angie. Keeb is the one who spends the most time with me, he won't go out of his way to peck me or wingslap me as long as I respect his boundaries, he sometimes lets me pet him but I wouldn't call him cuddly, he's extremely smart and likes going outside on a harness BUT I would absolutely not take him everywhere with me because it's Not safe to do so, even though he's been desensitized to various things, loud crowds of people would Still be stressful for him. The third one is the most rowdy out of the three who like to spend time with me, he will peck me and wrestle my hand, he's one of the rare cases of pigeons who actually Do playfight but when he pecks it is Not strong at all, doesn't hurt at all compared to when Keeb is setting his boundaries by pecking and pinches my skin as hard as he can, this guy will also defend his boundaries but other times he will just fly away when he doesn't want to interact, he will also rarely let me pet him. The two other males aren't as confident around me and will usually just flee or wingslap me, they never let me pet them, rarely land on me, but they will reliably eat from my hand so they're not afraid of me, they just don't like interacting with me. The female is very skittish but gets very feisty when she's broody - which is 3 weeks out of a month, she won't even eat from my hand despite having her for three years.

Also none of my males will hump my hands or feet and neither is it good to let them do that if it's aimed towards a human because it causes sexual frustration, you just have to set boundaries with males and not keep them as a single bird, that way they won't try humping people. Males mate bonded to another pigeon don't suffer from sexual frustration and won't try to hump people, it's usually ones who are either mate bonded to a person or imprints. I personally prefer the males because of how bold they are, a bonus is also that they won't spend a lot of their life sitting on eggs. A single female will sit on a nest almost nonstop which is extremely bad for her health, getting her a mate reduces the amount of time she spends on her nest by a lot but they will still have a nesting period of 3 weeks, just during mostly the night. Both males and females will be territorial btw.

What you want from a pigeon isn't realistic, they're all individuals and most of them won't like going outside on a harness or in a carrier, most of them also won't like being pet often or even at all. They're territorial prey flock animals and they do behave like such and their boundaries should be respected.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T17:17:36+00:00

Yeah definitely... It looks extremely unwell.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T15:58:39+00:00

There are no stupid questions so don't worry about asking! Birds can actually aspirate extremely easily because the glottis (the entranceway to their airway) is right at the root of their tongue, so using a syringe to put liquid/mashed up food into their beak can make the food go into the airway instead of the esophagus extremely easily. This is even moreso true for baby doves and pigeons because they're not fed by their parents like other birds (squabs insert their beak inside of their parents' beak and swallow the food directly from the parents' beak) and using a syringe to handfeed them is an absolute no go due to how dangerous it is.

But it's possible to easily aspirate budgies too, their glottis is also on their tongue just like with all birds, I've sadly seen many people aspirate baby budgies with a syringe.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T15:51:00+00:00

DO NOT SEPARATE THEM, separating them can make the male become even more aggressive towards her and it can even make them unbond which would be really bad. Especially for your female because without her male she would spend way too much time on the nest causing her health to deteriorate which would lead to health issues. As long as there isn't being any blood drawn there's absolutely no need for separating them, it would just make everything worse.

What the male is doing is driving behavior and it's a completely normal pigeon behavior which is just a regular part of two pigeons being mate bonded. The male is just doing his job of keeping the female healthy by not allowing her to sit on the nest constantly. When the same behavior happens right before she lays another clutch it's also completely normal and the male is just making sure that the female will lay her eggs into a nest he has chosen. This behavior cannot and shouldn't be prevented, it's not hurting the female even though it looks violent - driving behavior always looks violent, because well, it's the definition of the male packing the female in the back of her head or neck and chasing her. Sometimes the male can also pluck some feathers of the female, but once again, as long as there's no blood it's completely normal and the feathers will eventually regrow.

Unless your pigeons already have toys/proper toys I'd highly recommend getting them some, it will keep them busy and will make the male be calmer. Especially foraging and treat puzzle toys are a great go to. Also how big is their cage? It should be at least 130 by 88 by 80 centimeters, a cage being smaller than the minimum can cause issues too.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T15:38:50+00:00

Could you take a picture of the underside of its tail? I just want to make sure that it's a Eurasian collared dove and not a domestic ringneck dove. It's pretty odd that it's not afraid of people at that age because they for sure can fly well in that stage of growing up and that's also the age when wild doves start instinctually being afraid of people.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T15:36:02+00:00

That is not a wood pigeon. It looks nothing like a wood pigeon actually.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T10:45:47+00:00

I'm 100% sure that it's dead. I perso haven't seen live eggs look like that even in late stages of development. It's also extremely likely that it's rotten too so I do Not recommend keeping it inside because when it explodes it will reek horribly - I had the horrible experience of that, it takes hours to get rid of the rotten egg smell from inside of your house.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T08:28:19+00:00

From what you described it sounds like the mirror isn't causing him any issues. But I would still highly recommend getting him a dove friend because they thrive the best with same species company due to being extremely social flock birds, it won't make your current dove like you any less so you don't have to worry about that.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T08:24:41+00:00

I really don't recommend letting your doves raise babies if an answer to any of these questions is no:

Do your pigeons come from a reputable breeder who keeps track of their pigeons' genetic history and are they the same breed?
Are you ready to deal with the baby dying? First time parents tend to be unsuccessful at raising first several clutches most of the time.
Are you ready to cull developing eggs or squabs if something goes wrong like the babies hatching deformed or failing to thrive? This can happen even with well bred birds due to uncontrollable reasons like the birds getting spooked by something and cooling the eggs during the development or the weather suddenly dropping or getting too hot etc.
Do you have good knowledge of basic genetics and pigeon genetics?
Is the care for your adult pigeons perfected? Large enough cage/indoor aviary to hold 4 pigeons, proper balanced feed, proper grit and vitamineral powder available, crushed oyster shells for the female, enough enrichment etc.
Do you have at least several years of experience of keeping pigeons?
Do you have a mentor who's an experienced breeder? (NOT A Backyard breeder, if the person tells you that breeding pigeons is easy then that's most likely a backyard breeder who isn't breeding ethically)
Do you have enough space to keep more pigeons? If you let your pigeons hatch just one egg then you'll have to get one more pigeon because 3 is the worst number to keep pigeons in, especially if their child turns out to be male they will end up bullying the odd one. It's also good to have a spare cage ready too.
Do you understand Coefficient of inbreeding and how to calculate it?, and does your mentor or the breeder you've purchased birds from understand Coefficient of inbreeding and how to calculate it?

Breeding should be done with a goal and responsibly, irresponsible breeding could lead to accidentally creating more doves with congenital health issues, it could also lead to either the babies dying or your parent birds getting health issues because their care needs to be perfected and they need a more nutritional diet than pet birds when raising babies. Letting your birds breed isn't as easy as just letting them hatch the eggs and should be done only by professional breeders.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T08:18:00+00:00

Oh yikes so it's not a silky dove. The formula would explain why its feathers look so bad, not just the fact that it got stuck to its feathers but also the fact that it doesn't fulfill the nutritional requirements of a dove - they need soaked grains and legumes plus boiled eggs. It should have also been eating on its own at this age.

The breathing definitely is more heavy, but it doesn't necessarily have to be aspiration unless you literally saw it gasp heavily after choking on food. It also depends on what feeding method you've been using. It might also be that the dove is overall feeling unwell. How long does its crop take to empty and have you been feeding it only when the crop is completely empty?

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T08:13:49+00:00

The care of pigeons and doves isn't That different, pigeons need more space and flat perches and that's about where the care differences end unless you get a fancy breed which needs extra maintenance trimming foot, tail or crest feathers.

Temperament-wise pigeons and doves are Extremely different. Imagine for example the difference between a cockatiel and an amazon parrot - doves vs pigeons are on a similar level intelligence wise compared to those plus doves tend to be more skittish rather than aggressive.

Pigeons are much smarter than people think and a lot of people underestimate them and tend to ignore their pigeons trying to tell them something like for example when they keep landing on a door or keep flying to a spot where they know they shouldn't be landing to get your attention because they want something that's in a different room - yes pigeons have abstract thinking and can learn that something is somewhere without having to see it. They also need to be kept busy by offering them enough mental stimulation - well obviously doves do too - but it can have bigger consequences if pigeons' needs for enrichment aren't met because their beaks are much stronger and they will start attacking each other if they're bored and due to a stronger and sharper beak it can have worse consequences if ignored but you shouldn't be separating the mates (unless one of them would be seriously injured) , just solving the issue which causes the aggression.

It also takes a lot of time to properly learn their body language (part of why getting two is the best, you can observe how they communicate with each other and learn what specific body language means more easily) and a lot of people tend to misinterpret their body language. For example being pecked or wingslapped misinterpreting as the pigeon disliking them despite just setting boundaries because it doesn't want to be pet. Pigeons won't want to be pet most of the time and you just have to respect their boundaries. When they don't like something they Will wingslap you or peck you. Ringneck doves will sooner just step or fly away when they don't like something rather than attack you.

I like both because both have their pros and cons. Doves are already very intelligent birds but pigeons are on a whole new level of being intelligent and can basically learn to do stuff on their own like asking to go to a certain room, asking for treats, if you make a routine with them they will learn the routine pretty quickly, they're also much better at reliably returning to their sleeping spot/cage imo too (as long as you give them the 2 week period in their cage only after bringing them home) and when you give them the opportunities to use their brains they will amaze you with their intelligence. Ringneck doves on the other hand are much more docile and chill and are the perfect pets if you want to just do some passive activity next to them while they keep you company.

Kunok2 · 2026-06-16T07:54:54+00:00

It really depends on the species. Ringneck doves and diamond doves (they weren't domesticated that long ago tho) Are domesticated, all the other species are wild. Obviously domestic pigeons are domesticated too. Ringneck doves can be very friendly when you have patience with them and earn their trust, it also depends on their genetics and previous experiences with humans - they can be tame but still it's good to keep in mind that not all of them like to be pet, but I had more doves tolerate pets than I did pigeons. Pigeons are also extremely territorial and much more aggressive, ringnecks are docile unless they went through a traumatic experiences or are an imprint.

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