Eye problem

[Markbirdie]

Hey,

One of my button quails was attacked in the cage and as a result both her eyes were messed up; though I think she can see out of one the other is pretty messed up. I removed her to another cage, but she is not eating or drinking unless we hold her and put it near her beak. I'm hoping she'll get better, it is the second time she has had to be removed after getting attacked.

Do you have any suggestions of things I can do to help her eyes recover? Or why any idea why they pick on her.

Thanks

Mark

 

[DK newbie]

What's your setup like? How many birds of what sex in how big a cage and does the cage interior include hiding places and such? What do you feed them? A picture of the cage would help. I'd also need to know how the birds were introduced, how long you've had them, how long it's been since you last had to separate her and anything else you can think of.

It looks to me like her left eye is completely gone, poor girl

Does she eat on her own when you hold food near her or do you have to force feed her?
Hard boiled egg is easy to eat and has all the nutrients she needs, you might want to try that. Live bugs like meal worms also spur the appetite - assuming she can actually see them moving, that is.

 

[Binki]

Awww poor thing I don't have buttons, @DK newbie is very experienced though

 

[Markbirdie]

Hi,

Sorry for the extremely late update. The quail in the photos I posted survived and amazingly her eyes are completely healed. Now have another issue with her, we kept her seperated from the other quails whilst her eyes were healing. However when we tried to put her back with them, they attacked her again.

We have three other button quails (that we bought her with) who are all loving life. They are currently outside in a large converted double layer Guinea pig cage. They are getting along well, laying eggs and their fathers are full and looking good.

However, we tried putting her (the injured quail) back in one she was better but the other quails got really aggressive and she was singled out and left in a bad way. So I went to the breeder and he suggested getting her a new companion and putting them both into a fresh cage. So we did that and the new quail once again left her unable to move and covered in blood. So we took him back.

Since she's been attacked she's become really tame, she jumps onto your hand and will sit and go to sleep on you. She seems happiest when living alone, I just wanted to know if their anything else we can try or is it best we leave her be as a house quail.

Hope that makes some sort of sense

 

[Binki]

Hi,

Sorry for the extremely late update. The quail in the photos I posted survived and amazingly her eyes are completely healed. Now have another issue with her, we kept her seperated from the other quails whilst her eyes were healing. However when we tried to put her back with them, they attacked her again.

We have three other button quails (that we bought her with) who are all loving life. They are currently outside in a large converted double layer Guinea pig cage. They are getting along well, laying eggs and their fathers are full and looking good.

However, we tried putting her (the injured quail) back in one she was better but the other quails got really aggressive and she was singled out and left in a bad way. So I went to the breeder and he suggested getting her a new companion and putting them both into a fresh cage. So we did that and the new quail once again left her unable to move and covered in blood. So we took him back.

Since she's been attacked she's become really tame, she jumps onto your hand and will sit and go to sleep on you. She seems happiest when living alone, I just wanted to know if their anything else we can try or is it best we leave her be as a house quail.

Hope that makes some sort of sense

Awww, I don't have button experience but for coturnix it's best to introduce them in either seperate cages side by safe or with a partition in the cage keeping the birds seperate for however long is needed (days to weeks usually) so they get comfortable with each other.

Then remove the partition if they're reacting friendly/ignoring each other and supervise them with plenty of room and hiding spots/things to break their lines of sight from each other.

I feel a lot of bad introductions may be the result of the aggressor quail saying "GET OUT OF HERE I'm the boss!" Rather than "I'm going to attack until I kill you!" But because the picked on quail can't do what the aggressor wants (to submit by running away and out of sight/territory) it's seen as a challenge/invasion to the aggressor

 

[Markbirdie]

Yeah i built a cage with a partition. Indi (the once injured one) kept doing a pecking the floor motion, whilst the females in the other one made strange noise that I've never heard before(aggressive sounding)and started getting aggressive at the side of the cage. I've kept quail for a year now and never seen them single one out like this. I read that putting all the quail into new surroundings can help, but that didn't work. We tried a while ago introducing a second completely new quail, but it went the same way.

That second quail we bought settled in with the others no problem. It's just her

This poor little one hasn't really grown much, she eats fine and has a varied diet. Has never laid an egg. But she seems more at ease being around humans then other quails. She is currently in her own cage with lots of hiding places. We bought her a cuddly toy chick which she sleeps cuddled up to at night to give her some sort of comfort. Will try the side by side seperation thing again and see if that helps. Any more ideas welcome.

 

[rita2paul]

so sorry to hear of your problems, i know how stressing that can be.
as she is now really friendly house quail i would keep her that way.
i don't know why some quails or chicken get picked on that way, i some times wonder if the quail is not quite right and we can't see any problems but the other quails know.
she is a sweet quail and if she is not laying perhaps there is some thing wrong.
good luck.

 

[DK newbie]

Usually buttons just don't thrive on their own, they are stressed, pacing back and forth in the cage, calling all the time, boinking at night, and in that case I'd suggest you keep trying to introduce her, by placing a single layer of wire between her and the others for a couple of weeks and then take one of the others (the most gentle one) and put on her side of the wire (or put both of them in a new cage). If you could just make one of them accept her she wouldn't be alone.
However, as you say she has become tame enough to jump into your hand and sleep on you, as long as she's not pacing back and forth or calling a lot, I do think it sounds like she may be happier living with humans. They are very social birds though, so do let her out of the cage and allow her to choose whether she wants to be with you as much as possible.

Not laying is a sign of stress, so she might suffer from not being with you all the time - but it's definitely better than being pecked bloody.