Crops & Breeds › Pigeons & Doves

🐦 Ringneck Dove

Pigeons & Doves · breed reference

THE pet dove — three thousand years domesticated, so tame it has no wild survival left, with the soft rolling coo and the odd little LAUGH-call that startles every new keeper. Pairs raise young readily in a cage or aviary; frost-tender, so it winters indoors or heated. THE RELEASE WARNING AT FULL STRENGTH: the white Java Dove is the “wedding dove” of the pet trade, and releasing one is a death sentence — no homing, no foraging, no fear of hawks. If birds must fly at the ceremony, hire a white-Homer release (see Racing Homer); if a dove must be in the picture, it goes home in its cage.