Broken eggs

[SouthOz]

I have two fantailed doves that have produced a couple of eggs. When I noticed the first egg it had a slight dent in it, so I patched it up with a tiny piece of masking tape.....seemed to work well. Then the next egg arrived and all was well until one day I opened the cage to see a broken egg. A few days later the other took the same fate.
Are dove eggs that fragile? They looked as though the doves had accidentally trampled them.
I have included shellgrit in their diet now hoping the next lot may be tougher. Or are doves just a bit clumsy around the nest?

I put a plastic bowl with shredded paper in the cage for a nest, but quite often I found the egg out of it. The doves I think tend to tip over the bowl when stepping on the rim. So I'm not so sure about using it for the next lot even though the hen seems to like sitting in the bowl.

I would like the doves to have a couple of babies so that they are more likely to stay when I do open the cage.
The last dove I had just flew away.
Some people I know who keep birds and seem to know about them have given two complete different answers as to why this has happened. One said he was surprised they took off as fantail doves cant fly very well and are not really homing pigeons, the other says they can never be allowed out unless they have babies....hence they may stay.

So now I'm confused
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[WhiteWingsCa]

1. Try using a dog food bowl as a nesting bowl.. the kind with the "flared" outside rim...they are more stable.

2. If the eggs are breaking that easily, your birds need more calcium. See if you can find oyster shell grit anywhere for them (yes, it looks huge, but they'll eat it. lol) Or, if you have chicken eggshells, wash them out really well, let them dry, then microwave them for a minute or two, or bake them on low heat in the oven for a bit, then crush them and put some in a small bowl in the cage.

3. Fantails USUALLY don't fly far. And they do NOT home well at all. However, they are capable of flight, and if they manage to take off, will likely not find their way home again. This is probably what happened to your other birds

Something to think about... if you have little babies, and let these birds out, and they DO take off, what happens to the babies? You're stuck trying to hand feed them. Plus, do you really have room for 4 birds? If not, what will you do with the babies?

If you really want to let these birds out, you might want to let them lay again, then throw out the eggs, after you've slipped dummy eggs under them. Once they've been setting for about 2 weeks, you could try letting them out.

Having eggs and babies will NEVER guarantee that birds will stay. So you want to think long and hard about how much you want these birds before opening the cage.