Trying to input text into a pre-formatted field does not show the text inputted

Question

I am trying to use the send keys function from selenium to send date of birth text into an input field. The input field has the forward slashes pre-formatted whenever you click on it.

I have tried using the Javascript executer to set the value to the format "07/24/1987" and it does send the value. After I click out of the input box, the values disappear.

This is the code I have to send the birthday.

WebElement dob = driver.findElement(By.id("userDOB"));
dob.click();

String stringBirthday = "07241987";
char[] charsBirthday = stringBirthday.toCharArray();

for (char ch : charsBirthday) {
    String userDob = Character.toString(ch);
    dob.sendKeys(userDob);
    try {
        Thread.sleep(100);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Answer 1

So I had to use the Actions class to try and replicate what a human would do.

Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
    actions.moveToElement(dob).click();
    actions.sendKeys(bday).perform();