Nursing an injured ringneck dove

We have a lot of birds in our neighborhood. Our front yard, thanks to the previous homeowners, is a bird-and-butterfly favorite yard. The owners planted juniper shrubs around the front to provide cover for the Gamble's Quail that come here early in the morning. The quail scavenge for seeds from the feeder. We also have wrens, long-billed thrashers, sparrows and ringneck doves that come down to feed.

I've always worried about the birds' safety having cats in the neighborhood. Our neighbors seem to leave their two cats outside all the time. My cat goes outside only for a few hours at a time--if he even goes outside--because I fear for his safety and the damage he could do to the feeding birds. I've already encountered what looks like battle scenes of feathers strewn in the front yard.

It was therefore not a total surprise to catch my cat Pache trying to kill one of the doves two mornings ago. I was lucky I caught him just in time, holding down a docile dove that seemed resolute with its fate. It had stopped fighting and lay there, waiting for that coup de grace. That coup never came as I was able to extract the injured bird from Pache's determind paws. Other than a severely plucked chest and missing tail feathers, the dove looked intact with no signs of lacerations or broken limbs. I quickly brought it inside and lay it down in a small kitty carrier for him to calm down.

She just lay there, motionless. I had volunteered years ago at a wildlife rehab center in NJ and know that birds can appear healthy one minute and literally drop dead the next. Internal injuries, parasites, viri all play a factor in a bird's recovery. Most injured birds do not survive the stress of the attack and die from heart attacks. I was tired of seeing the majority of the animals that were brought in to the rehab center die. I stopped volunteering at the rehab center because seeing all the birds die kept depressing me. There was a lot of work to be done for so little pay-off.

I kept the cage in a quiet spot in my office, away from the cat, and waited.

Two hours later the bird perked up and wanted to spread its wings. It kept hitting them against the walls of the kitty carrier, so I opted to get it a larger cage, the large-size VariKennel by Petmate that I bought for the cross-country transport of three cats from NJ to AZ back in late 2004. That kennel literally had been collecting spiderwebs in the garage and its volume was used to store other junk. I held on to that kennel for emergencies such as this, albeit with a larger mammal in mind. I had to dig out the kennel and wash it outside to make it habitable.

I found several old sheets to use for the cage floor. An unused kitchen wrack also came in handy. Today I added a small Fancy Feast box and filled it with shredded paper so the dove could use it as a nest. Doves like room to walk and need a perch so she needed a place to exercise.

Kevin may have rolled his eyes at me for wanting to save a life that was easier to kill than nurse back to life, but he was supportive of my endeavors. We looked up the bird's species in the "Audobon Southwest Bird" guide but there were no ringneck doves. Turns out the bird is an import that has been migrating westward over the years. It's originally a hybrid between a European and an African species. They can live up to 20 years in captivity. Twenty years!

Later on the same night the dove, which I now named Vogel-Weh (German for "Bird-Ache/Pain/Grief") or "Vogel" for short, flew around the office. It can still fly as its wings luckily are not broken or plucked bald, but without tail feathers the poor bird can't gather much lift or balance itself well. It flies like a fat bumble bee.

The next day I let it out again for more exercise, but she got caught behind my desk and showed signs of stress from trying to fly out of her trap. Perhaps from trying to free herself from the tight spot she re-injured her butt area as it looked bloody. Until her feathers regrow I won't let her fly out much.

I am feeding her wild bird seed. She has a large baby jar full of water in the corner of the kennel which she uses quite a bit. She's a big drinker. An old twig from a dead mulberry tree acts as additional perch.

I don't know the exact sex of this bird, but since she is showing no inclination to bow-coo I'm assuming she is a female. In fact, she hasn't made a sound at all in the last 48 hours.

She is a delight to watch. During the day--this is only the second day--she watches me intently from behind her cage. I've played a few Youtube videos of doves cooing but the sound of her species mates doesn't seem to excite her too much. She is also losing even more plume feathers than during the initial attack, so that her chest and the area under her wings are completely feather-free. Her frontal area indeed looks bad only because her skin is so thin and the reddish-blue of her veins and arteries show through.

What now? I've read up on all the ringneck dove websites to learn more about this fascinating species. I've always enjoyed watching birds, and now I have one up close to learn from even more. Even though I've always wanted a few pet birds, with a bird-hungry cat in the house a Peaceable Kingdom is not possible. I find the calls and sounds of birds very soothing.

I intend on releasing this bird back to the wild as she probably lives in the palm tree in our backyard, but this may be months down the road when all her feathers have regrown and she can fly like before. Doves mate for life and perhaps she already has a grieving mate outside?

Vogel-Weh is a prime example of why cats should not be roaming outside. She is suffering right now because of ~MY~ cat. It is now my responsibility to make sure she gets all the best care in the next few months. I won't be able to keep my cat indoors 24/7; with dogs in the house he often runs outside with them and then hangs out in the shrubbery, but I will do my best to keep all species satisfied.