| That's perfectly fine with me. I love animals. Our house is the neighborhood park/zoo. If anyone finds a lost or injured animal, domestic or wild, they bring them to me. That's how I've learned a lot. I've successfully raised or nursed back to health or cared for in one way or another, pigeons, mockingbirds, sparrows, doves (inca and white wing), parakeets, cockatiels, lovebirds (for my sister - 3 more babies just hatched this last week!), rosy bourkes parakeets (for my brother), canaries, kittens (they were in our woodpile and the mother disappeared), and of course, caterpillars (swallowtail and sphinx moth), geckos, lizards, and the occasional snake and toad.
Even if they are a bonded pair, you do not have to let them raise babies. You can let the female lay her eggs (3-5) and sit on the for a couple of days then take them out. If she won't stop laying, then you can either get or make dummy eggs for her to sit on. I usually poke a hole in each end of the egg and "blow" the contents. Then you wash it and you can put it back under Momma. She won't really know the difference, will think she has a full nest and stop laying and start sitting. Then she can sit until she loses interest. You won't have to worry about the eggs hatching and the little babies. We used to do that with our cockatiels in the winter. Winter babies don't always do as well and often will have handicaps from being chilled in the egg/nest.
Wing clipping is fine for hookbills if done properly. It is just that doves do not walk around or climb like hookbills do, so clipping their wings would handicap them too much. |