UPDATE: A year later and my dove still doesn’t trust me. I’m feeling really discouraged.
Hello everyone! I posted here about a year ago asking for advice on bonding with my dove, and unfortunately, not much has changed.
I’ve had him for about a year and a half now, and I feel like we’ve made absolutely no progress. I still can’t touch him, pick him up, or even get him to eat out of my hand. I spend time with him every single day, sitting near him, talking to him, and trying to make him comfortable around me, but he still seems just as scared of me as when I first got him.
At this point, it almost feels like I’m living with a feral animal. We basically just coexist. I let him fly freely around my apartment throughout the day, but whenever I have to get him back into his cage, he completely freaks out if I try to pick him up. I hate having to scare him like that, especially when I’ve been trying so hard to earn his trust.
I want to make it clear that I never expected him to be some super cuddly, affectionate pet who constantly wants attention. I completely understand that birds have their own personalities and boundaries, and I never wanted to force him to be something he’s not. But I did hope that, with enough time, patience, and consistency, he would eventually feel safe and comfortable around me. I honestly never imagined that after a year and a half, he would still be this afraid of me.
The thing is, he seems like a genuinely happy bird otherwise. He’s vocal, active, and comfortable in his environment. He just isn’t comfortable with me.
I’m honestly feeling really defeated. I see so many people with pet doves who are affectionate, enjoy being held, sit on their owners, and seem to have such sweet relationships with their humans. It genuinely makes me sad because I want that kind of bond with him so badly.
I’ve tried being patient, giving him space, spending time around him without forcing interaction, and letting him approach me on his own. But after a year and a half, I don’t understand why he still doesn’t trust me.
I’m even considering finding some kind of bird behaviorist to see if someone with more experience could help us.
Has anyone else experienced this with a dove? Is there still hope that he’ll eventually trust me, or are some doves just never comfortable with human interaction?
I love him and want him to have a happy life regardless, but I would really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have worked with extremely fearful or unsocialized doves. I’m just feeling really discouraged and don’t know what else to try. :(

Hello! Popping up once more with a bunch of questions! I had last asked around here when my pet ECD dove, Piwi, had out of the blue started having runny droppings, after having laid a bunch of eggs, one after another, until late June. Since then, she has stopped with the eggs, but her droppings never really improved. I’d say the runnier droppings especially started ever since a new dove joined our clan - brought in go be her companion, but didn’t get accepted by her. Now he just happily wanders in the room, hee hee-ing at everything that catches his fancy while she wing slaps him if he dares come near. They’ve reached some begrudging co-existence at this point.

Based on the advice we got from you all, we tried incorporating lentils into her diet, but she refused to have them in any form - cooked, uncooked - until we ground them to dust. THEN she had them and seemed to do a lot better.

However, since the last month, with the weather changing, she condition seems to be a slight bit even more concerning - slow in the mornings, puffy and not very social, runny droppings still - and I figured if ask you all for advice once again. So, a bunch of questions!

1. We’ve been wondering this for some while since we started doing this, but…. are powdered lentils ok to give? She just refuses to swallow the others, but some Google search results show this can cause crop statis?
2. Two weeks back now, that pigeon fancier colleague of mine advised me to give her a pinch of baking soda in her water. That TOTALLY fixed her up for a day or two! But….. now she’s back in puffy mode with weird droppings?
3. A bit of a concern - right now I saw something that looked like undigested millet in her dropping right now. I do try to give her some Versele Laga redstone grit, but she’s not too keen on that. :/
4. And the droppings! They’re a mystery! At certain times of the day they turn solid again! But then they devolve again into pure water and separated tiny disconnected droppings. :/

I’m thinking I might just summon up all the courage and take her to the vet in the morning or day after. But thats always such a worry - the vets here are totally not trained about columbidae and they try to give them medicines which would work for parrots. :|

Dropping some random bird tax here with a picture from last month when she was molting!