5 week old quail (saturday and sunday officially) Suddenly randomly get aggitated

[j262]

I believe we have 1 male and 3 female. Have heard the little one crow and the 3 bigger ones haven't made a peep. One I am still questioning. It's golden, so hard to tell by the feathers.

The past few days, they'll randomly start going batty in the cage. I've seen them start and it's not any quail bugging another. It's just a domino effect when one starts up. There is one that just wants to be out of the cage exploring,so paces at the door but we can't let it wander about due to our dogs. If I cover the whole cage with something, they calm down and never act up. It's only when it is uncovered. Any ideas what might be causing this? Two of them seem to almost prefer being out of the cage. The cage is a bit small. We are waiting to make sure we definitely know the sexes because if we end up having 2 males, we want to get a double hutch so we can separate them by sex.

The cage is a birdcage we happened to have. It measures 24"x17". Could it just be the cage being too small? two corners are taken up by food and water, as well.

 

[Little Byrd]

I'm somewhat new to quail, but the cage does seem a bit tight for 4 quail. There needs to be at least 1 square foot of floor space per Quail, not including the space the feeders take up.

 

[geniash]

Male might be reaching sexual maturity and is trying to chase females. Most likely the case. Females reach sexual maturity a bit later.

 

[j262]

Yes, I know the cage is a bit small. Temporary.. Male isn't chasing yet. I've sat and watched and it's the shy timid one will just randomly start running around and the others follow suit. Weird that they don't do it if the cage is covered. Oh well. It's not for much longer and then we will move them into a larger rabbit hutch.