BMustee

Well, guess what everyone...I'm up to 13! I stopped into my pet store after a doctors appt. yesterday and brought home two very sweet ddoves! When I got them home I went to put them into the cage and both of them did not want to leave my hands. What I'm planning on doing with these guys is have them be somewhat tame...although they already are to some extent. I let all the finches out to free-fly when I clean the cages (with Elmo in the bathroom) so when I let them out I will give extra attention to them. I may even let them out more then the finches as well. Elmo already like to have his bathroom time, so when he is in there I'll start letting the doves out. Once they are settled in I'll take some pictures.

Thats ok, I just have the one parrot (the CAG Elmo) and the rest are my breeder finches.

Have you tried drapping a small towel over your hand? There are a couple Amazons at my work that will attack a bare hand but will step up with ease on a toweled hand. Also, like the others have said, it can take months for your grey to trust your hand after what he has been through. Also, if you are not going to carry through with stepping him up when he bites, don't offer your hand. You are reinforcing that if he bites he gets what he wants...for your hand to leave. Yes, I know they can bite hard but none the less, you have to follow through.

Hey Falcon, long time no see! Yes, tail bobbing is not good, but if you just had the flu the cough and sneez noises are just mimics. Elmo has had "my" cough for months now. :laugh:

The Hahns macaw at my work is such a cutie. Very friendly and always up to no good:P .

OMG...he is getting so big!

Finches don't use play stands...I just got a second huge cage when I got the new star finches...and I do a top to bottom cleaning once a week already on all three of my cages. Trust me, I know all about being ready for different housing, I have a few smaller cages that they could use if being with the finches didn't work out. I don't buy birds on total impulse...I have been thinking about getting the ddoves for almost a year now and have spent hours and hours plotting what I would do if any of the "ifs" were to happen. I did the same thing when I got the second set of stars and the two sets of Gouldians.

A friend of mine has one of those macaws. From my understanding they are around, you just have to look hard for them because they are not extremly common. I've heard that because they are not very common it's best to breed them when ever possible...like the Queen of Bovaria Conure.

Yeah...I already have 10 finches...what more could 2 ddoves do?!?:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I will put the ddoves in with the most calm of my finches. The new pair of Stars are a bit nasty so they will move to the other cage and the old set of stars will move in with the ddove and a very shy pair of Gouldians. The Owls and the other set of Gouldians are a little too much for the ddoves I would think but I'm sure the other set of stars would be able to hang with them.

{Feel-good-0002006E} Oh boy do I...I think it's contagious through the forum...we all seems to be catching it! I'm sure those Necobar's are VERY pricy...so it'll be quite some time before I would get into those.

I thought I would share some pictures of the aviary birds I would LOVE to one day have. These pictures are of the Necobar Pigeon. They are the only living relative of the DoDo if I understand corectly and are almost exstinct in the wild. I would love to breed them and help keep them around for future generations. Here is a picture of a Victoria Crowned Pigeon. I don't know to much about them yet but they are really cool looking.

That is SO good to hear Momma. I really don't know anyone personally that is really into finches and other aviary birds...I'm the person everyone comes to at the pet store for answers on finches. I think you just sealed the deal for me!:laugh:

I don't have kids, and I'm not sold on having them as of now ether, but I would NEVER give up my baby Elmo or my finches because I was "expecting." If you look on Craigslist in the pets section there is animal after animal being given up due to a "baby on the way". Some of these animals are under a year old, so I just think to myself "how are you about to give birth and NEED to rehome a 4 month old puppy..." My animals are my life, and nothing could ever come between us.

LOL...at least my MBS is with the small birds!!!

I know, I thought it would be the other way too. I asked a breeder what her thought were and she told me that the ddoves kept the finches from nesting. I would think the doves would stay out of the finches way because they stay near the ground and the finches like top hang out at the top. I know which female I want already. She is really light like the one in the nest pic, I just need to start watching the males and find one with a good temperment...I noticed a couple males that seemed a bit "pecky".

At my work we have a bunch of diamond doves and I'm really thinking hard about getting a pair. The big reason I think I like them is my godfather was a magician and he had a bunch of trained white doves for his tricks. Every time I went over to his house I could hear all the doves cooing and calling one another and every time I hear the doves at work I think of him...he died a few years back. I have two large cages I keep my finches in...both are 36x21x62 and I believe the inside hieght is like 42...One cage has 3 pairs and the other has only 2 pairs. I have read that ddoves can get picked on pretty bad by finches, but most people keep finches in much smaller cages then mine, and none of the info about finches and the ddoves mention cage sizes when there are conflicts between them. My store doesn't get them in very often and right now we have a very nice selection so now is the time to get them. I know not many of you on the forum have finches, but I still would like to know what you think. Here are some pics I found online of what they look like for anyone that doesn't know what they are. This is a ddove in a canary nest. Here is one on a branch <br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2008/03/05 18:15

Yeah, Elmo makes weird noises too, almost like weezing, when he gets going. It's nothing to worry about. If you ever notice a clicking noise or gaping when he is breathing then you have major problems...like air-sac mites.

{Feel-good-0002006E} Oh I love the pic of Edward and Ginger! That is just too funny! The ones of Winston in the slipper and with the knitting needle is adorable too.

After the 28 days, they know it's not going to hatch. My owl finches eggs never hatch and after the 2 weeks they stop sitting on them.

OH I KNOW!!! We almost start placing bets on people as they walk in as to who is going to be bite and who will be smart and ask us to help them with the birds. To tell you the truth it is the men that blow us off when we tell them to leave the birds alone because they are in the mood for biting or that there is impending property damage. Elmo is pretty good with strangers...yet to have anyone go to his cage though...it's in my bedroom.

I love it when people don't listen. There are a few birds at my work that love to bite people because the reactions they get out of them. The Caninde macaws are the worst because they like to steal stuff. They are expert watch assasins, and will pull the winders out in a blink of an eye. We tell people "they will break your _____ " but people always are like, "no, he's fine..." and thats when they always do it. One guy had on a Movado watch...very pricey...and he was like, "This is a good watch, they can't hurt it." and 2 seconds later the winder was gone! You should have heard this guy cussin' and yelling but we told him we warned him. Now he is stuck with a $600-$700 repair bill.

Just to add to the subject... Breeders don't need to clip, it's pretty much their choice if they let them learn to fly or not, but in the pet store an unclipped baby bird could get into a LOT of problems. In my store for example, they could go flying on top of other bird cages and get their feet bitten off, they could fly out the doors and be hit by a car or some other outside hazard, or they could fly into the puppy department and land in a pen and get torn into bits. I hear people time to time talking under their breaths about how "all those poor birds can't fly" but it is for their own protection...and in the case of Oscar the Buffons Macaw, the safty of the customers as well. (I could just see that green demon dive bombing people.)

Exactly.

Posting a pic would help because I'm not sure what that is.

{Feel-good-0002006E} LOL...yeah. Plus it's not like she is going to get "busty" later on and wonder why none of the other "boys" didn't grow any. The lady Dawn at my work is the one that was ragging on me the most for calling her a he and yet she has a blue front at home named Bella and it's DNA'd male.