Young ringneck suddenly aggressive to strange things

[Ariel301]

I've got an approximately 6 week old ringneck dove that I found a while back in my yard, he (she?) had fallen out of a nest and I could not find the nest to return him, so took him in and handfed him. He's made himself quite the spoiled pet, he just adores my husband and I and hangs out with us all day wherever we are in the house. We don't even really keep him in a cage because he's so well behaved and gentle usually.

The last couple of days he's started doing something weird. He will attack objects for no apparent reason. He has acted aggressive towards a soda can, pieces of bread, and a bandaid on my finger. He never attacks people, even strangers. He will raise his wings, strike at the object repeatedly, and then shiver for a few minutes. I got him a mirror to put by his favorite perch for when we have to leave him alone, but he is aggressive towards it and avoids it when he can. He also went across the room once to attack one of our baby chicks when he saw my husband playing with it. We were going to get another dove or two to keep him company, but I worry he will be vicious towards them. He's not overly clingy towards us (I've had parrots bond so closely to one person that no one else could touch them), he is perfectly happy to be held and petted by a person he has never met. He just attacks weird stuff and apparently other birds.

Anyone have any experience/insight on this?

Oh, also, we have found that he will get obsessed with one particular food and not want anything else. He started with wheat, but abandoned it in favor of rice, and currently he refuses to eat anything but rice. I've tried a dove food, chicken scratch, chick starter crumbles, calf manna, plain popcorn, bread, eggs, and fruits and veggies, but he's really picky! Any tips on getting him to try other things? (besides not giving in and letting him eat just what he wants?)

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

Give him a little bit of food at a time. Don't give him more until he's done eating what you give him. He'll keep eating it all until he isn't hungry anymore.
It sounds like he is attached to people and being a male, he feels like he needs to fight for his territory and mate(s). I think getting him a mate will fix it

To avoid him being mean to her, keep them in separate cages but right beside each other. They can flirt and get used to each other before you let them come in contact.

 

[Ariel301]

We're not sure it's a male, we've just been referring to it as "he".

I'll try that with the food, so far, when I give him something other than rice (and he has no rice left at all) he will just cry and beg for food but not want what he has. Last night I got him to eat some millet by hand feeding it to him one piece at a time. Spoiled brat.

So should we just ignore it when he attacks random items? He's not doing any damage to anything, it's just weird and I don't want him to start getting aggressive to people. I make a point of having people he is unfamiliar with handle him whenever I can, I used to raise cockatiels and that would work well to stop them from bonding exclusively to one person.

The cage I've got is a big breeding cage that has dividers to make three compartments, and I have extra cages, so I can keep them that way until they get to know each other. I have a friend who has some ringnecks nesting and she said she can give me a couple of babies to handfeed so they will be super tame, I should be getting them in the next week or two. I think while I handfeed them, I will have to keep them completely away from the older dove, I imagine he would get pretty jealous seeing me feeding babies that are not him. Since he's only about six weeks, I imagine pairing up with a mate is still a good ways away though, right?