Baby Chick pecking other chicks

[Quailaholic131]

Soo, i have about 2 week old baby quail, and one of them i noticed was pecking the other baby chicks backs. I thought it was just a funny peck st first, but after looking closer at a few of them i realized it was bad. I immediately seperated them, (put a cardboard seperator in their brooder) and made sure none of them were badly hurt. I was researching and some people said it could be from boredom, stress or lack of protein? So i threw a safe bug in the cage and they ran around playing keepaway, and it distracted him for a while but right after still ripped out some more feathers and fluff off the nearest chick. I also crushed up mealworms and put in his food for extra protein and im 99% sure he isnt stressed. They also have a lot of space to move around too.

 

[Quailaholic131]

This is what he did to one of the smaller chicks. They are all the same age, this one is just tinier. The bigger ones only have like one or two tiny little baldspots where u can see he nipped.

 

[Shezadandy]

Oh that is frustrating. I don't know about quail behavior specifically- but can you create some interruptions in line-of-sight? i.e. like walls the picked chicks can go behind so they're not in the bully chick's view 24/7? This applies more to chicken chicks, but you might find some inspiration here:

https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-to-reform-brooder-bully/

 

[Quailaholic131]

Oh that is frustrating. I don't know about quail behavior specifically- but can you create some interruptions in line-of-sight? i.e. like walls the picked chicks can go behind so they're not in the bully chick's view 24/7? This applies more to chicken chicks, but you might find some inspiration here:

https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-to-reform-brooder-bully/

ive been doing that, i put a cardboard wall to seperate the brooder but made a cutout that i put cleartape on both sides, so he could see the others but not peck them. I tried putting him back with the rest this morning, but he still pecked. Not right away, he kinda scooted between them and started eating but within a minute still ripped out one of their feathers. He dosnt seem agressive, and hes my favorite out of all of them. Very cuddly and friendly, yet just not towards them so much.

 

[Quailaholic131]

hes been escaping from his little area, i dont know how but its got to the point where hes been drawing blood and some of the chicks run from him. Whenever hes near them he pecks them to where they squawk, jump up and run from him as fast as possible. I dont know what to do.

 

[PerlyBee]

I had the same problem with my chicks. One would constantly be pecking their eyelids until one chick had them all bloody! “Bully” we would call her ... she was isolated for 3 days letting her sleep with the rest for warmth. After 3 days she stopped. She is also always been the sweetest and prettiest of the bunch.

 

[Quailaholic131]

ive had mine isolated for a few days now and still, nothing has changed. the damage on the other chicks is still pretty bad, no feathers have grown back on one of the babys yet and the one with the wing in the picture i posted, the few mini feathers that grew back on him seem to be mangled. not reallly and issue, just surprising that such a small little mouth can do that much damage. No other chicks have been pecking which is good.