Pigeons and doves housed together?

[Bear Creek Loft]

I have a nice sized pigeon loft (fit for roughly 40 pigeons) that only has about 10 in it. My friend has a few pairs of Eurasian collared-doves he wants to get rid of. Do I need to build a new loft for the doves or can they be placed with my pigeons?

 

[jak2002003]

I love pigeons and doves and have a big collection of many species.

You can house the ringneck doves with the pigeons - BUT its going to cause you and the birds some problems.

Its much easier to house them in their own aviary.

Some potential problems housing the ring necks with pigeons are:

1. Larger pigeons will peck and attack the smaller and more fragile doves - they can corner one in a nest box and keep pecking till its seriously wounded. The pigeons are quite aggressive at nesting time.

2. The ringneck doves need a different diet to the pigeons. They need much smaller seeds and can not eat the large seeds in a pigeon mix. If you put their food in a different container the bigger pigeons will eat it all before the doves get a chance.

3. When you let you pigeons out to fly, the doves will escape and not return as they lack a homing instinct and are not interested in flying about in a flock - they will go off and do their own thing.

If you only had a few pairs of pigeons and the loft was very big then that would be lessen the problems.

But I would not take the risk and I would recommend you house them on their own.

 

[Bear Creek Loft]

Thank you for a swift reply. I have heard that pigeons can bully the doves, so I just wanted to double check. I've also heard of them hybridizing.

 

[jak2002003]

They can hybridize. Do an internet search for some pics. The resulting birds don't look nice to me. They are just extra large ringneck doves that are dull grey all over.

 

[laughingdog]

the only neat hybrids or mules ive seen were homer crosses with them then they couldnt breed if went wild, but rest is pretty much true, as seen ringnecks get wings dislocated and broke and necks broke, and crops and eyes dammaged by being kept with pigeons by others. ive kept fostered pigeons with doves, cockatiels, and other birds in aviaries and they did ok, but ringnecks are even more sensitive to illnesses than pigeons. ive free flown my ringnecks and while they wont fly with pigeons they werent raised with or raised, they will flock loosely, and return in day to up to week or so. nesting and having paired up already nesting partners helps this as had some ringnecks go off for week or two with wild mourning doves and then nest elsewere for while, and/or then bring new mates hope to safer nown nesting spot with feed right here too. but to make more short.. lol its just a bad idea and head and heart ach to do generally, but male rignecks generally will do a lot better with female pigeons. male pigeons will be just to aggressive and can seriously hurt a ringneck female. just thought that all my pigeons i had with my ringnecks turned out to be females by coincidence.. so probaly true and only reason had no problems in aviaries.