I have ten- 10 day old Texas A&M quail chicks inside in a large brooder. There is one chick (sex unknown, but of course its my favorite) who has just started some odd behaviors in the last two days.
This baby has always been the most animated and will now jump up and down, scream/chirp at me, and flap its wings and jump on my arm when I open the top of the cage. It is also the only one who is flying. Yesterday, I noticed it is trying to make a hole in the shavings in the corner, scratching, wings spread wide, and head down. They do have a sandbox for scratching and sand baths, but it won't use it. Anytime any of the other babies came near this one, it would drop its head and chase after them, pecking them and jump on their heads, then return to its corner. The behavior stopped after a little while and it never injured any of the others so I left it alone.
Today, I had to do some moving around of my birds. I have one lone adult -9 wks (I believe to be a male by coloring alone). I put the babies in the big pen with him so they could have some sunshine and clean their cage, stretch their wings, etc. The male has been a spaz since he was brought to me but calmed down as soon as the littles were with him. We had a large storm come in tonight and the temperature dropped below freezing so I brought all of them, including the adult back in the house.
The group was doing great, no resource gaurding at all and the adult wasn't picking on the babies. Then that baby started picking on everyone else. It wasn't near the water or the food. It was while I was there and I'm not sure if that has something to do with it but it was even going after the adult which is at least 4 times its size. This made all the other quail scared and run all over the cage which only seemed to excite this one more. It was almost like it was hunting. It would drop its head, put both wings out half way, and then run full speed at whichever bird it was going to grab.
I did end up pulling it out of the cage for a while and just holding it until everyone else calmed down. Once I retured it,they all snuggled, ate, and went to sleep.
Sorry the post is so long. Any ideas of what to do? The behavior isn't constant, but I don't want it to hurt one of the other birds. Any idea what might be setting it off?
This baby has always been the most animated and will now jump up and down, scream/chirp at me, and flap its wings and jump on my arm when I open the top of the cage. It is also the only one who is flying. Yesterday, I noticed it is trying to make a hole in the shavings in the corner, scratching, wings spread wide, and head down. They do have a sandbox for scratching and sand baths, but it won't use it. Anytime any of the other babies came near this one, it would drop its head and chase after them, pecking them and jump on their heads, then return to its corner. The behavior stopped after a little while and it never injured any of the others so I left it alone.
Today, I had to do some moving around of my birds. I have one lone adult -9 wks (I believe to be a male by coloring alone). I put the babies in the big pen with him so they could have some sunshine and clean their cage, stretch their wings, etc. The male has been a spaz since he was brought to me but calmed down as soon as the littles were with him. We had a large storm come in tonight and the temperature dropped below freezing so I brought all of them, including the adult back in the house.
The group was doing great, no resource gaurding at all and the adult wasn't picking on the babies. Then that baby started picking on everyone else. It wasn't near the water or the food. It was while I was there and I'm not sure if that has something to do with it but it was even going after the adult which is at least 4 times its size. This made all the other quail scared and run all over the cage which only seemed to excite this one more. It was almost like it was hunting. It would drop its head, put both wings out half way, and then run full speed at whichever bird it was going to grab.
I did end up pulling it out of the cage for a while and just holding it until everyone else calmed down. Once I retured it,they all snuggled, ate, and went to sleep.
Sorry the post is so long. Any ideas of what to do? The behavior isn't constant, but I don't want it to hurt one of the other birds. Any idea what might be setting it off?
