MellyBelly

Thank you so much! Seriously! I'll head over to that forum. I just took their bowl of food out, I'm really glad you told me. The lady working at the pet store seemed to have no knowledge of them other than the fact they need a partner. I love your story about the fantails, you seem to know and care alot about birds

Hey everyone! A week ago from today I went to a local pet shop here called Bird Cage with the interest of picking up a diamond dove. My first ever pet bird The store worker gave me some information on what cage and food I should have, and told me it was mandatory that I buy two. So I got all that taken care of. I now have two, seriously scared out of their mind doves. I can't go near their cage or offer my hand inside without them running in terror and hurting themselves running into the cage bars. I don't think they were worked with at all in that pet shop, so from what I can tell I'm dealing with pretty much wild birds. I don't know where to start on getting them to realize I'm not trying to hurt them. When the male gets tired sometimes he will step up on my finger for a couple seconds, but once he realizes its my hand hes back to running away. The female wants nothing to do with me completely. I'm scared to try working with them on the small room technique I read up on, because when I have one out it will start breathing really fast and hard and go still, and I dont feel like I'm making any progress. Is there anyone out there who could offer me some advice so that I can relax these scared birds? All they do all day is sit in a fluffy ball and stay still, and they rarely coo