The Wild in My Life: 1 dove + 1 dove = 2 eggs and a nest

We first found Gypsy then Tinker, they built a nest and Tink laid two eggs. We switched the eggs with fake golden ones, which we bought, and Gypsy sat on them for two days. Doves are supposed to to take turns incubating, but as soon as Tink laid the eggs she walked off and left Gypsy to do all the siting. He only took breaks to eat and drink and each night he flew up to sit next to Tink but otherwise he spent all of his time in the nest. He got bored of this and abandoned the eggs and went to make another nest upstairs.

Tink laid one more egg for him and we again switched it with a golden one (plus an extra) and fed the real eggs to Theo. Gypsy had been spending from morning (when Mama opens the cage) to night (when we picked his nest up and put it back in the cage). It is instinct that makes a dove not poop in his nest, and it is instinct to sit on eggs - Gypsy obeyed both of these.

As we have learned from our doves they go to the bathroom often but not in great quantities. So by the time Gypsy went to sleep with Tink he was needing to go to the bathroom, but it was stuck in him. Around dinner he started throwing up and was acting sick (very fluffy and not preening). We didn't know what was wrong and thought maybe it was something like a cold that he had to get over himself. By the time we had finished our tv show he was really sick. He had coughed so hard he fell off of the branch and was sitting next to the food bowl. We looked online and figured out that he probably had Pasting Of The Vent, which is the thing I told you about earlier.

One of the recommended treatments was to put him in warm water but when we had the water and Mama picked him up he was dead. John said "hmm" and went back to playing Minecraft. Ben said "oh, that's too bad" and went back to homework. But other then that the rest of us cared a lot more except maybe Theo and Tink who was still sleeping and still hasn't noted Gypsy's absence.

I think one of the saddest things about this is that when Tink (who I must admit is the worst at flying of all the birds I have ever seen) tried to fly up to their bed that night she accidentally landed on Gypsy's head which he did not like in the least. He pushed her away. So when Gypsy was dying Tink was sitting on the other side of the branch from him and didn't even wake up.

This drama doesn't happen to most doves because they usually share their nesting duties. We are hoping that we will come across another dove because both Gypsy and Tink were probably cheap, released wedding doves who couldn't find their way home and maybe another will find its way to us.