Recently obtained a ring necked dove, I need some info from fellow dove owners.

[Sam's My Baby]

Hello everyone!

Recently a member of my family has found what I found out to be a ring-necked dove. It had been wandering around my fathers work for quite a few days and ended up flying inside a building being trapped. My dad caught it and we soon found out that it was definatley someone's pet that had escaped from it's home. It is very tame and is not scared of people. It does not mind being picked up either. Overall it is very friendly. When we gave it some water it was dying of thirst and immediatley started drinking. We headed over to the pet store and bought it a cockateil mix for it to eat because that was what the pet store clerk reccomended. It immediatley began eating the food when we gave it to him/her. We have no idea where it came from, for anything we know it's home could be miles away. We have it in a cage right now, and we have decided that the best thing to do is keep it, but the problem is that I have never owned a dove before. I have owned several birds in the past, but never any other doves. I would just like to know the proper care for it and anything else I need to know to care for it. Is cockateil food okay for it to eat? Do I need to feed it anything else? What is the basic care for doves? Any websites on the general care and feeding for doves would be greatly appreciated! Advice to those who have owned/own doves would also be really helpful.
Thank you in advance! Oh yes, and also, is there any possible way to tell whether it is male or female?
-A.

[jodi]

I have 3 ringneck doves. I feed them parakeet food, it seems to have more of what mine will eat than cockatiel mix. They like crackers, bread, apples, greens(lettuce), pretty much what you would give other birds you can give to doves. I like to let mine fly around the house daily for exercise. As to tell the difference between male and female a male has a special dance he does for the females that females can kind of copy and well... the females will lay eggs. There is really no other way to tell unless you want to spend the money for blood work.
good luck,
jodi

[Sam's My Baby]

Thank you for replying. Your info is really helpful. :)