4 week old male Coturnix quail aggression- help!

[oxymoron71]

hi - we are new to quail, so a very steep learning curve going on here!! We have hatched 3 Coturnix, now 4 weeks old, there seems to be 1 male and 2 females. They are in a 2 1/2 x 1 1/2’ guinea pig cage atm which I know is too small - there is a 7 x 2’ run in production. Over the last few days the male has become very enamoured with one of the females (the other one he ignores completely), & today has been pecking & following her round relentlessly, she seems really stressed. As soon as I opened the cage she tried to get out, I picked her up for a cuddle (she’s the only one that likes being picked up) & her little heart was racing, she sat in my hands for 10-15 mins before she got down for a look around the room (they are indoors) . We tried putting her back in the main cage & as soon as she was in he started hassling her again, & she was panting & cowering . So he has now been segregated into a smaller cage that we normally just use when cleaning them out- he is very upset & flapping around & crowing- but I have done some quick research and understand that it can turn nasty quickly and I don’t want to come down tomorrow to find Coco injured or worse I don’t really want them to live apart permanently- seems a bit pointless to have 1 male in a cage on his own, but if he’s being aggressive now will that continue? Or is it his teenage hormones?? And if We keep them separate for a bit would we be able to reintroduce them or not? Will the 2 females be good on their own? They have been in separate cages for about 1/2h now and she has settled right down, but he is still crowing & fussing about.
Advice gratefully received!!

 

[CoturnixComplex]

You can get rid of the male altogether, but it is not good for him to be on his own long term.

What I would try to do is buy more pullets from someone like, 2-3 more. He will still chase skirts but they will be less stressed. Some people even keep 10+ hens per male.

I go the opposite way as fertility rate of eggs is important to me, and my birds are usually in trios, but this takes lots of enrichment and a careful eye on the girls for an unacceptable level of stress or head-feather loss. Sometimes they get vacations!

 

[CoturnixComplex]

And honestly, be prepared to have injuries eventually, it is just part for the course when they are in confinement like this occasionally :/ just have some good basic first aid equipment to clot wounds (like quick clot or plain ground pepper) and clean them on hand (avoid commercial antibiotic ointment that sometimes contain numbing agents toxic to birds/easy to overdose them on). And a little temporary cage for QT if necessary.

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Do you have any lanolin, or vaseline or similar that you can put on the neck of Coco? Then when he tries to grab her he gets a beakful of yuck and will leave her alone.

When I'm really stuck, and a boy is being a dick. I put him in a cage inside the cage -so he is with them but can't hurt them. Maybe see if it's possible to do that?
Once they are all back together it will start again though..

If not, ditch the boy and let the ladies have a peaceful life

 

[oxymoron71]

hi - we are new to quail, so a very steep learning curve going on here!! We have hatched 3 Coturnix, now 4 weeks old, there seems to be 1 male and 2 females. They are in a 2 1/2 x 1 1/2’ guinea pig cage atm which I know is too small - there is a 7 x 2’ run in production. Over the last few days the male has become very enamoured with one of the females (the other one he ignores completely), & today has been pecking & following her round relentlessly, she seems really stressed. As soon as I opened the cage she tried to get out, I picked her up for a cuddle (she’s the only one that likes being picked up) & her little heart was racing, she sat in my hands for 10-15 mins before she got down for a look around the room (they are indoors) . We tried putting her back in the main cage & as soon as she was in he started hassling her again, & she was panting & cowering . So he has now been segregated into a smaller cage that we normally just use when cleaning them out- he is very upset & flapping around & crowing- but I have done some quick research and understand that it can turn nasty quickly and I don’t want to come down tomorrow to find Coco injured or worse I don’t really want them to live apart permanently- seems a bit pointless to have 1 male in a cage on his own, but if he’s being aggressive now will that continue? Or is it his teenage hormones?? And if We keep them separate for a bit would we be able to reintroduce them or not? Will the 2 females be good on their own? They have been in separate cages for about 1/2h now and she has settled right down, but he is still crowing & fussing about.
Advice gratefully received!!

A

Do you have any lanolin, or vaseline or similar that you can put on the neck of Coco? Then when he tries to grab her he gets a beakful of yuck and will leave her alone.

When I'm really stuck, and a boy is being a dick. I put him in a cage inside the cage -so he is with them but can't hurt them. Maybe see if it's possible to do that?
Once they are all back together it will start again though..

If not, ditch the boy and let the ladies have a peaceful life

 

[oxymoron71]

Thank you both for replying, I was wondering about putting him in the same run, (when it’s finished ) but with a wire separator - would this work? Or would he still feel like he was on his own. And would she still be stressed by his presence. They are safe for tonight anyway, they are in cages next to each other but with cardboard in between so they can’t see each other - the girls are happily settled down, he is pacing up & down looking at the cardboard

 

[Crazydoglady99]

He will probably start crowing too!

I dont know to be honest, my little white girl was frozen with fear at the sight or sound of hormone charged boy, brown girl complied with mating, but she was being nearly mated to death! So boy went to freezer camp.

 

[oxymoron71]

He will probably start crowing too!

I dont know to be honest, my little white girl was frozen with fear at the sight or sound of hormone charged boy, brown girl complied with mating, but she was being nearly mated to death! So boy went to freezer camp.

Lol. He’s certainly crowing! Full on teenage strop. Similar to my son

 

[Crazydoglady99]

 

[bhaugh]

Do u know for a fact the other bird is a girl? Usually aggression this early on is male on male aggression. There have been times I thought for sure I had a girl and was being picked on only to find put it ended up crowing. Over the years I've come to the conclusion its usually always male on male. 4 weeks is pretty young to start breeding even for cots.