Advice on Dealing with Aggressive Coturnix

[SareHare]

Hello all.

I've had two female Corturnix quails for the last twelve months or so, and sadly had to cull them a few days ago as one had become dangerously aggressive towards the other. I came home from work and found that the less dominant had had half her feathers torn out and has been bleeding in several spots. I've not had this happen before and it's been quite distressing as I loved my girls .

In hindsight I don't think I've made the right decision, but I didn't know what else to do at the time. There had always been some fighting between them but it had never gotten that bad. I've heard that quails can just snap sometimes and go crazy, so I didn't know what else to do.

I'd like to get some more girls at some point and would really appreciate some advice so I don't have resort to drastic action like this again.

Some background: I had my two girls since they were chicks, they came from eggs that my former room mate hatched, so they knew each other pretty much their whole lives (though one was about a month older than the other). They had a large enclosure, with about 1sq meter each, were fed game starter, so were getting enough nutrients (and layed eggs all year round) with a few hidey places.

At one point the younger female that was attacked this time around was the aggressor, and had torn out the feathers on the others head. There was never any bleeding so I assumed this was just establishing the pecking order. About a month ago they became happy with each other and then things turned around. The older became very aggressive, and would actively chase the other around the enclosure to attack her. It was pretty much the same, with the head feathers being torn out. This week things got nasty and that's when I took action.

Am I doing something wrong? I'm thinking I should have at least 3-4 girls, to break things up if one of them gets aggressive, and have an enclosure that I can remove aggressive birds in for a short period of time (as I've read that can sort them out).

Any advice or suggestions would be truly appreciated. This has been a very saddening event.

 

[FirstTimeClucky]

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I'm going through similar issues with both my coturnix quail and my button quail.

With the coturnix, I had 4 hens and a roo, and acquired two more hens. One is very outgoing and tame, the other is more timid. They lived together since hatching. I quarantined the new ones before putting them in with my existing ones yesterday. The timid one immediately started viciously attacking all the other hens and the roo. The hen she chased and attacked most was the cage mate she grew up with. At first I left her in there and just added more fake plants and hides for the others. She wouldn't stop - chasing the others out of the hides, ripping feathers out, drawing blood. The rest of the birds were frantically trying to fly out of the cage. She wouldn't let them eat or drink either. I tried taking her out and putting her in one of my "bachelor" tubs with one of my excess roos as a "timeout". Of course he wouldn't stop breeding her, but it was meant as a temporary move to break her aggression. After a few hours I put her back in the main cage at night, hoping they'd sleep and she'd be less aggressive in the morning. Nope. I had to take her out in the middle of the night because even in pitch darkness she wouldn't allow the others to sleep. She's back in the bachelor cage for now. I chose the meeker of my two bachelors and things seem to have calmed down in there. Some might ask if this hen could actually be a roo, and I wondered the same thing. So I vent sexed her to be sure, then later on while she was in the bachelor cage she laid an egg.

Re the button quail, I have two pairs. Each pair is caged separately because buttons are more territorial. I've had them for two years. Just a few months ago, one of the males began attacking his mate for no apparent reason. First he was tearing off all of her feathers on her back. Then one morning I found her head and neck covered in blood, she was quivering in a corner while he strutted around as if nothing happened. He had torn the skin off of her head and the back of her neck. I built a mesh partition in the cage to separate them while still allowing them to see each other. She had stopped laying eggs and I assumed this was why the male was picking on her (my diamond doves do this if the female won't sit on the nest after breeding). I started giving her a strong calcium supplement in her water and soon she was laying again. A couple of months later when she'd healed and her feathers had grown back, I started supervised introductions again. At first everything went well, so I decreased the supervision and increased their time together. Eventually I felt comfortable leaving them together, checking on them a few times per day. Then a couple of days ago I had to go out for the day. When I returned, the cage was spattered with blood, she was on her side in a corner covered in blood from head to toe. I thought he had killed her.

Luckily she's not dead. I took her out of the cage and she moved, so I cleaned up the blood and found that he has now scalped her down to the skull. She won't open one eye and I'm afraid he may have pecked her eye out as well, but there's a lot of dried blood there so I'll have to wait and see. She wouldn't eat yesterday but is more active today and was pecking around her food dish this morning. Assuming she survives, she will never be introduced to that male again.

Moral of the story is that quail can and do suddenly become aggressive to the point of killing each other - even if they always got along before. Timeouts and temporary separations won't stop the aggression. It seems that some birds take it into their heads to attack and kill their cage mates for no reason humans can understand. All of my quail are kept in roomy cages and have hiding areas and even a couple of bird toys for mental stimulation. I provide two separate food/water stations in my big cage to prevent fighting over resources. Still - you get bullies.

Lessons I learned about quail introductions:
- always quarantine new arrivals for at least 2-4 weeks
- never dump new ones in with others. Set up a mesh partition in the cage so they can see each other, or put them in a separate cage beside or in sight of each other. Keep them separated so they can't hurt each other, and keep an eye on behaviour
- provide multiple places for them to hide. Never use blind ended hides like boxes, there must be at least two openings so they can escape if chased. I lean large pieces of cork bark, wood or ceramic tile on the sides of the cage, or I use fake plants attached to the sides of the cage with cable ties. If necessary I drill holes in the cork bark and attach them to the side of the cage, otherwise the quail pull them down.
- provide at least two water and food stations to alleviate fights over resources
- Once the quail seem to be used to each others' presence, try short, closely supervised trial introductions with all in the same part of the cage. Expect stress and chasing in the beginning as they establish a pecking order.
- If they won't settle down, see who the culprit appears to be and remove them. Watch the behaviour of the others, if they settle down right away you know which one is causing the problems.
- always check quail at least once a day for signs of injuries or blood. It's normal for hens to lose feathers on the head and neck from being bred, but feather loss is not normal when there's no roo, or on parts of the body a roo wouldn't grip during mating.
- never put a quail back with others if it has attacked and drawn blood. Cage it separately or cull it.
- don't breed from quail that try to kill others. You don't want subsequent generations to be prone to this habit
- always have a spare cage handy in case of injuries or to keep any that refuse to stop bullying the others. I have two large, clear plastic tubs with holes drilled into the lids, which I use for bachelors and quarantine/hospital cages.

 

[FirstTimeClucky]

Just an update. I had to move my "vicious" coturnix hen to the tub with my more dominant roo, as she started attacking the roo she was with. Surprisingly, within minutes of being introduced to the dominant roo, there was a bit of scuffling and then they both settled down. I've checked on them many times but they're both calm and not chasing or trying to breed each other. She laid another egg last night.

The "tame" hen is still terrified of the other hens. I believe this is because she's imprinted on humans and doesn't identify with others of her own kind. I built a partition with hides in my big cage so she has her own space but can still see the other birds. She loves to be picked up and tries to climb into my hand when I put my hand in the cage.

The button quail hen is doing well. Her head wound will take a while to heal, but she's started opening the eye that I thought the male may have pecked out. She's behaving normally, except she still tries to get at the male to the point of refusing food, so I covered the partition between them in hopes that she may forget about him. If she doesn't eat she will get sick and die. Today I'm going to make a mash out of their feed and see if she'll be more interested in eating.