Dove Behavior, Sexing Doves I, Sexing Doves II, Sexing Doves III, Sexing Doves IV, Sexing 2-egg clutches
SEXING
DOVES I. VENT SEXING
by
Wilmer
J. Miller
Department of Genetics; Iowa State University
ADAN
Sep 1974 p. 3
Most species of doves and pigeons are notoriously hard to sex by external appearance, and even experts can be fooled by behavior. In the ringneck dove and in pigeons we can utilize sex-linked colors in our mating plans for sexing the young, but otherwise sexing is still a problem (until we get fertile eggs).
About 20 years ago when I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, I collaborated with another bird man there, Fred Wagner, in working out a method of telling males and females apart by looking in the vent. Vent sexing is a big commercial thing in the poultry business, for baby chicks and ducklings, but we couldn't do anything with baby pigeons and doves. Our success was entirely with mature birds.
Our method was published in 1955 (vol. 72: pages 279-285 of the ornithological magazine [journal] named the Auk). The idea is simply to open the cloaca and look for the opening of the oviduct (female) on the bird's left side, or for the openings of the two sperm ducts, right and left (male). The main problem is to find a good tool to spread the vent without damage. We first used a tissue spreader ground down to fit. Then we found a nasal speculum used by medical people. It needed no modification, The smallest size, for infants, was best. It cost $7.50 in 1963. Johnnie Blaine tested this method recently (Amer. Pigeon Jour. May 1974) and found the cost doubled.
In use, the speculum should be clean. A female with an egg in the oviduct may be injured by the instrument's use, so palpate for an egg first. If an egg is there, you know it is a female anyway. Insert the speculum closed, while the birds is held head down, feet on your belt. The last three fingers hold the bird's wings and body; the thumb and forefinger hold back the tail and vent feathers. It may be helpful to pluck some of the vent feathers. Now open the speculum and pull back (tilt) slightly so that the cloaca is wide open. If the light is good and the birds is mature, the oviduct will show as a whitish circle on the birds's left (female), or one of the sperm ducts will stick out as a reddish conical point (male). This method has been shown to work for 30 different dove and pigeon species.
It's easy - - after you get enough practice!
Dove Behavior, Sexing Doves I, Sexing Doves II, Sexing Doves III, Sexing Doves IV, Sexing 2-egg clutches