Doves

by Gayle A. Soucek

Interested in owning a dove? Learn all the information you need to keep these small and gentle members of the pigeon family as household pets. Topics include caging, nutrition, health, behavior, breeding, and genetics of common pet dove species. This heavily illustrated book avoids technical language while offering sound advice and reliable information to current and soon-to-be pet owners. And like all books in the comprehensive and popular B.E.S. Complete Pet Owner's Manuals series, it is individually written from first page to last by a pet trainer, veterinarian, or other pet-care specialist.

95 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2005

Reviews

[Sal Niner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally featured in the August-September 2011 issue of The Columbidae's Cooer newsletter, available at http://dovebook.webs.com/apps/documents/ by the Download link under "Volume #1, Issue#3"; my original article, reproduced in its entirety as follows:

Last issue, I reviewed a pet bird species-specific book titled Ringneck Doves: A Handbook of Care & Breeding. This time my review, the second for The Columbidae's Cooer of another resource from my personal collection on Columbidae, is about Doves: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual. This 96-page softcover published in 2006 is more generalist in nature, but still focuses on the Ringneck and Diamond Doves; and is meant to introduce basic pet care of the two most-commonly kept domesticated species of seed-eating doves.

The “Introduction to Doves” chapter goes briefly into how doves are known in popular culture and emphasizes the pet enjoyment quality of ringnecks and diamonds. We are given brief facts on their anatomy in general, and where doves and pigeons are found geographically. The author also states the fact that the more-common seed-eating species are suitable as pets, while the less-common fruit-eating species are not because of their specific dietary needs.

The “Choosing your Pet Dove” chapter goes over what we should expect before even acquiring a bird and gives a checklist of considerations to keep in mind when bringing that bird into one's life, as well as the sorts of life changes one might need to do for their new pet. Additionally, Soucek describes the types of places one can go to obtain their pet dove, such as pet shops, breeders, and bird fairs; and provides a guide on how to pick out a healthy dove. Like the resource I reviewed last time, this book does not acknowledge shelters or rescue organizations as a place to obtain a pet dove; and like my last review, I recommend the inclusion of such information in a future edition of this book with input from consultants as needed.

The “Understanding your Dove” chapter looks at usual dove behavior and the factors which drive that behavior. It also provides guidance on how to bond with your pet dove when knowing how to interpret its behavior.

The “Housing your Pet Dove” chapter goes over indoor cages and outdoor aviaries as the two types of dove habitats in captivity, but mostly focuses on indoor cages. Being the owner of an indoor caged ringneck, I found the guidance and tips in this chapter relevant to the living arrangements of both my pet Paz and myself. This chapter gives very basic information on, and is only meant to introduce the reader to, outdoor aviaries. If you are seriously considering going through with setting up and maintaining an outdoor aviary habitat for your doves instead of, or in addition to, an indoor cage habitat, then I suggest referring to additional books or other resources that focus solely on the subject of dove/pigeon outdoor aviaries. When maintaining the pet dove's habitat at home, the author Gayle A. Soucek makes a distinction between cleaning and disinfecting, giving scenarios as guidelines on when one or the other should be done.

The “Healthy Nutrition” chapter discusses what should be fed to your pet dove. One thing that I found helpful in this chapter is the Dove Food Pyramid, designed to visually understand how much of each food type to give my pet bird. The author then goes over in more detail each food type making up the pyramid.

The “Keeping your Dove Healthy” chapter, in my opinion, is the best chapter of this book. We understand that we must maintain the health of our doves through good housing and nutrition practices, and many of us do. But this chapter goes over what to do if your pet becomes ill or injured even with such good practices in place (because, let's face it, it does happen despite our best efforts otherwise). Here we understand not only the different types of diseases that doves can get, but also become aware of the dangers in the household and how to avoid those from turning into accidents for the pet dove. This chapter even includes a how-to guide on administering first aid to your pet dove in the case of an emergency.

The “Breeding Doves” chapter goes over this process with guidance and tips from when the parents start their mating rituals and how they behave during those, to when the young are born and how to care for them up to the point of getting them banded.

The “Other Dove Species” chapter lists and briefly describes those besides the ringneck and diamond doves. These species are classified as either “common” (readily available to obtain for keeping in aviculture) or “uncommon” (difficult to obtain for keeping in aviculture). It goes over these species briefly because the author's main focus is on ringneck doves and diamond doves as pets; therefore, we are being introduced to other dove and pigeon species only to give us an idea that they exist and are available. Of course, if the reader so wishes to learn more about a particular species, it is their responsibility to research further through other resources, determine how easy or difficult the desired Columbidae species can be obtained for keeping in aviculture, and furthermore how suited or unsuited it would be as a house pet.

The “Color Mutations and Genetics” chapter looks at this subject in both ringneck doves and diamond doves; and how it is both naturally and artificially altered to produce favored colors and other physical traits that fanciers look for in these two species of birds.

The book ends with an “Information” chapter: a list of other resources, besides this book, in taking care of pet doves; and organizes them by periodicals, organizations, helpful web sites, manufacturers, and suppliers. In addition, this book is richly complimented with both photographs and art illustrations throughout, including those of the front and back inside cover endpapers.

One thing that I did not agree with in Doves: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual is Soucek's claim that Ringnecks are relatively easy to find at pet shops because of their popularity. They might be the most popular pet dove species, but when compared to other pet birds and even other companion animals they are definitely not popular or well-known. In fact, when I've gone into pet shops most of the time there have not been any ringneck doves available nor will the shopkeepers be familiar with this species, much less doves as pets.

I highly praise this book just the same because in it Soucek shares, in an easy-to-follow manner, valuable reflections of her many years of experience with keeping birds. Overall, I give this book five out of a possible five stars for the extensive introductory content about basic pet care for the two most common species of doves, and should form part of every dove keeper's library.