What Do Doves Eat: Feeding Habits and Key Points for Hand-Rearing

Doves are common birds of the family Columbidae. Their feeding habits lean toward plant matter, making them typical omnivores with a largely vegetarian diet. They mostly peck at scattered grains and seeds on the ground, are most active at dawn and dusk, and often forage in small flocks in farm fields, at forest edges and near villages.

The main food of wild doves is seeds and grains of various plants, such as rice, wheat, corn, sorghum and beans, and they also eat weed seeds, berries and tender leaves. During the breeding season or when insects are abundant, they also prey on beetles, moth larvae, ants and other insects, as well as snails and other small invertebrates, to supplement protein. Different species such as the spotted dove, oriental turtle dove and Eurasian collared dove have broadly similar feeding habits, differing only somewhat in the types of food they eat depending on their habitat.

When rearing doves in captivity, grains such as corn, wheat, rice and crushed beans are commonly fed together, with a suitable supplement of green fodder and a mineral feed made up of bone meal, shell powder and the like to ensure balanced nutrition. Daily feeding should be done at set times and in set amounts, drinking water should be kept clean, and moldy, clumped feed must not be used. During the brooding stage, grains can be ground and mixed with water into a soft food to make it easier for the young birds to swallow and digest.

It should be noted that doves are relatively sensitive to pesticide residues, so the grains fed to them should be clean and free of contamination. In addition, wild doves are mostly protected wild animals and must not be captured or hunted at will. If there is a need to keep them, they should be obtained through lawful and compliant channels and managed scientifically in accordance with relevant regulations.