Ask Lafeber

Diamond doves

Can I house two breeding pair of doves together or will the males fight?

Hi Carolyn,

When breeding birds, you should always have only one pair per cage. Otherwise the birds will end up fighting over territory. It’s not just the males – the females will raid each other’s nests and destroy eggs or kill chicks sometimes. The females can actually be more vicious than the makes when it comes to nesting territory. Sometimes it can work out in a very large walk in type aviary, but when you try to breed this way, you have no control over which birds are breeding and sometimes one male will breed with more than one female.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda