Will diamond dove foster canaries chick?

Question

I have 2 pairs of canaries and i was woundering if diamond dove pairs would hatch canaries and quails eggs?

and would they raise the canarie chicks?

Answer 1

If the incubation periods are the same length more or less, and the eggs are roughly the same size, then the diamonds should certainly be able to incubate them.

They would not be able to rear or feed the chicks at all, because unlike almost all other birds, baby doves stick their beaks into their parents mouth and the parent regurgitates the food, while with most other birds, including canaries, the babies open their beaks up wide and the parents shove food in.

Look up videos on Youtube of baby pigeons being fed and you will know what I mean!

Hope this helps

Answer 2

As others have said - they will potentially incubate the eggs assuming they are "prepared" for breeding.. meaning, they've already laid their own eggs and you simply swap the eggs out.

You can't just stick the eggs in there and expect them to incubate on their own.  There are only a few types of birds you can do this with.

Also - they won't be able to feed them, as others have stated, but NOT for the reasons stated.

To the individual who said "almost all other birds just shove food in" that's so wrong it's not even funny.

Nearly all seed eating domesticated birds (including canaries) regurgitate food from their crop into their babies' crops.

It's not the method of feeding that presents the problem, it's the food fed.

Doves and their allies (pigeons, etc.) feed their young a "milk" produced in the crop.  This diet is sufficient for a growing dove, but it will not be sufficient for a canary, and the feeding styles ARE different but not in the ways mentioned.

While finches, canaries, etc., regurgitate food - it's done differently than the way a dove regurgitates its crop milk.

It's just an incompatible parent/baby relationship.  If you have a pair of societies or zebras you can probably successfully foster the canaries under those birds.

Answer 3

are the eggs the same size?  

Answer 4

Hi,

i don't think that diamond doves would foster canary chicks, they would sit on the eggs fine but wouldn't raise the chicks.

As for quail eggs then definitely as long as the eggs are the same size as the diamond dove eggs. With quails then the parents don't rear the chicks so once hatched then you would have to take over by putting the chicks in a cage with heat, food and water.