diamond dove laid an egg

One of my diamond doves laid an egg in a food cup. I got back from vacation and my husband said he found her sitting on it that morning. I didn't know what to do! I had a hard time getting her to leave the food cup, unlike the zebra mommy who will usually fly away as soon as I open the door. I felt so bad! But I don't have a diamond dove book and I don't know anything about their requirements when breeding! What if the mom or the baby need special food requirements that I don't have? What if they become aggressive protecting their baby and the other birds get injured? Can a dove raise a chick in a food dish anyway?? I think they usually have open nests like a canary, and I thought about putting one in and moving the egg, but I don't even know what they use for nesting material! Do they only lay one egg at a time, or multiple eggs? To top it off, the female dove is the one bird in my cage that has been plucked lately. I haven't seen it happening, but she is still missing tail feathers. Shouldn't a mommy bird be in top condition to be allowed to breed and raise a baby?

I ended up taking the egg and boiling it and replacing it like I do for the zebras. I felt really bad. I don't know how common it is for a dove to lay an egg, although the breeder I got them from implied that they do it fairly easily if you give them a nest.

I am going to order a diamond dove book so in case this happens again, I will be more prepared. I wonder if she laid because I stopped covering them at night so their daylight hours are longer than they were...

Did I do the right thing??

 

Hi Jamiya u have added a link i hope its of some use to you, From what i can tell they only lay too eggs like pigeons do so that is not too bad it also states that they get along with other birds in the cage and aviary aslong as there is plenty of room.

http://www.diamonddove.com/AJ-Pt5,Breed ... etics.html

Mike

 

Hmmm, if she lays another one, maybe I should try to move both eggs to a nest and see what happens? Of course, only one egg would hatch at this point.

She was already incubating, though. Man, was she incubating. I stuck my finger through the cage bars and rattled the food dish up and down and she would NOT fly away. I waved my hands around her and she sat there, looking alarmed but not budging. I finally reached in and took the whole food dish off the bars and set it on the cage floor and THEN she flew away. It took her a while to go back to it after I put it back in, but when I left for work (45 minutes late by then, LOL) she was sitting on it.