Recently a lot of people have taken huge interest in keeping parrots as a pet. Parrots are lot of fun and it’s easy to take good care of them. One of the best pet birds is diamond dove.
Diamond doves live from 5-20 years and grow to the size of parakeets or budgerigars. The colour of these birds is remarkably beautiful. Normally the male ones will have bluish gray touch on the necks, back, wings and head. They would also have a circular orange mark around their eyes. Their female counterparts have more brownish touch to their head, neck and wings and their orange circles are not as well defined as their male counterparts. The diamond doves also come in silver, blue, yellow or pure white colours.
Unlike few other species of parrots, doves are not noisy at all. They would make a gentle “coo-coo” sound. Female doves also make the same sort of sound but they sound softer.
Diamonds are always the happiest when they are in company of their own kind. If you want to have a family of dove then buy a pair but if you don’t, buy a single dove. Give them a little time and they will surely bond with you.
You might find your bird following you around while you are working at your home. Be careful not to step on them as they tend to walk around the ground. Most of their time, they would be poking their cage floor.
Speaking of cage, make sure you provide your dove with a cage that has enough space length wise. Give them enough space to fly perch to perch. A 2 feet by 2 feet cage will do just fine for a pair of diamond doves and they will also be able to breed in that cage. Keep the cage floor clean from any metal wire as the bird will pluck the floor for grains.
Feeding diamond doves is a simple process. Provide them a diet containing finch seeds mixed with millet. You might also add a vitamin powder. Feed them egg crumbles occasionally. Grit is a very important food for the diamond doves. Grit helps them to crush the seeds they eat. Grit is also a fantastic source of calcium.
Each diamond dove has a different personality. Once they bond with you, they are much like house cats. They might be lazy, aggressive or even very attention demanding. You can train your bird to sit on the hand held perches once you call her name.