Badly picked on male coturnix

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Came home today to find one of my males' head totally bald and bleeding. Looks worse than anything I've seen and I don't know if he's going to make it. My daughter thinks she saw brain (egads) but I just couldn't look that closely. We isolated him with a heat lamp and put some Neosporin with pain relief on it but I'm not holding out much hope.

They are 7 weeks old; I have them in a cage that is 5 ft long x 2 ft wide by at least 2 ft tall. In that cage there were two males and 3 females. I have to assume it was the other male but I was hoping with that much room they'd be ok. Did I do bad by having too many males to female ratio?

 

[shelleyd2008]

I have heard that the neosporin with pain will kill chickens, think it would be the same for quail. As far as the rest, I wish I could help, but I am just getting into quail myself. Maybe PC or Mrs. AK will jump in with advice. They sure know their stuff!!

 

[monarc23]

Awh Cindy! *hugs* I hope he makes it but yes i'd avoid the neosporin...I've used it on birds before and before I knew it they were dead no matter how minor the injury. I need to get actual animal antibiotic again from teh farm store as I will never use neospoirin on an animal again.

As for thinking it's the other male, before you do that I'd look around the top of the cage he was in and make sure you dont' see any flesh where he may have bopped his head.

Put it this way

The other day I was holding my golden coturnix male quail out of his cage to take off his leg band he was outgrowing, while doing so he struggled so hard in my hand a claw went up and gashed his throat....I didnt know it at the time and after I was done clipping off the leg band, I looked and saw two drops of blood on his chest....I looked himall over, I even looked me over as i had nO clue where the blood came from. I finnally put him away...and was feeding the quail, and then decdied to sit down and just watch my quails for a lil bit...here comes "Hawn" (my golden male) with blood spraying all over the place as he shook his head and he kept clawing at his own neck....I rushed to get him out knowing if i let him scratch anymore he'd kill himself. I took him out and he had the most biggest gash on a LIVE BIRD i've ever seen. A bandage on his neck for a day (feathers cut away from the wound) and you'd better believe he's fine and dandy.

What im getting at is a quail can make it's own minior injury turn into a life threatening injury by scratching. They can be such dumb dumbs!!!!

However your male to female ratio is a lil off...it should be 2 females per male OR idealy, 5 females per male. If i had to do 2 females per male, i'd only have one male per cage type deal, buf if i had 5 females per male i'd surely keep 2 males in the same large pen with the 10 hens.

HOpe this helps and i hope he gets better!

*hugs*

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Thanks for your responses - I had no idea that Neosporin could kill them! We really didn't use that much so I'm not too worried.

Aw Niki - sorry about your little one!!! Glad he made it. I'm very sure that mine was picked on and didn't just bonk. Every feather is missing from the forehead area all the way down to the base of the scalp - totally bald and bloody. The cage he's in has big openings on the top and it's big enough to get his head through but not the shoulders. On a positive note, he was still alive this morning and he had eaten so that's good. Now I just don't know what to do with him once he makes it (if he makes it!) I can't put him back in there...

I have another cage with 16 4 week olds and I know there are several males in there. I guess I need to start making more cages or (sorry) sharpen my kitchen shears.

 

[monarc23]

Always bums me out when I hear that it was deffinatly another quail doing the baddies! Atleast now you know and atleast so far he's still alive and well!

I hope it stays that way!

Before you know it those younger quail will be old enough and you can either give your scalped boy a few girlies, or..as you said sharpen your shears....I've had to sharpen my shears twice already...never any fun but coturnix quails are tastey! Only two excess males were lucky enough to find a home here...I had no use with culling only 2 male quail to eat...so I made sure to find them a home. My moms boss now has them living in a large horse stall in his massive barn (he's rich...so those quail are living the lavish life haha).

I'm greatful everyday when I go up and none of my quail are fighting. My ratios even may be messed up too, i only plan to separate them in the spring..so im greatful when i go upand theres no fighting and no booboos...sure they peck eachother out of the way over food but no adimate pecking to the point of no feathers and blood (shudders).

I have *thinks* 5 males, and *thinks* 14 hens, I plan to separate them to 2 normal males with 2 hens each (in separate breeding cages), Hawn (golden male) with 5 hens, and my tibetan (british range) males (if they both deffinatly are males im having trouble telling), with one with 2 and the other with 3. Ofcourse as long as they all survive the winter and stay peaceful as i'd rather keep them in the large group they're in for group warmth so so far so good! Ihope it stays that way!

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Well, he's still hanging in there but hasn't really eaten today. Hopefully he'll make it through the night.

Glad you found a good home for yours! Mine will be finding the shears. WHEN I work up the nerve to do it. How did you cook them?

I need to make more cages; not enough hours in a day.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
YOu will be obcessed with coturnix quail meat after you'v had it! I mean i dont look at my pet quail and drool or anything but it is delish! not gamey at all, it almost reminds me of ham and chicken mixed together (ofcourse everything tastes like chicken haha).

I just cooked mine with some italian seasonings, pepper and some salt, and lightly fried them. Delish!!!
They'd be great in the oven too but i haven't done it that way yet. I'd say 5 makes an okay meal but you won't be full if you're hungry

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Oh and i assume you'v never culled before? If you are deffinatly using scissors may i suggest something? Bonk them in the back of the head first, by either bonking them off a rock, (or counter top) something solid with one firm wrap, then asap after that cut the head off....then put the cut end into a bucket or the sink and hold on for dear life to the wings (unless you want your entire body splattered in blood...i know from experience) LOL!

If you're wondering whyi say to bonk em first...i do that for my own emotional needs...i tried one without bonking and the thing cried....made me so sad...no matter how fast i did it the poor thing knew what iw as doing made me sad so i only bonk first then cut.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Thanks Niki - didn't think about bonking them. I've done chickens but nothing this small (other than peeps that weren't going to make it). We're looking forward to trying the meat. I have a George Foreman rotisserie that I use for the cornish game hens so I might try it with these, or just bake in the oven. I'm waiting for a few more weeks until they get bigger. I've got the 5 7 week olds and 16 4 weekers. Planning to set more eggs soon and keep rotating. The eggs are YUMMY!!!! Do you think it would be ok to eat the male if it doesn't make it? I'm afraid infection might have set in so my gut says no but I hate to waste.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
if you're worried about infection, i probably wouldnt but if you cull him and are curious really inspect the head after you cull, may sound gross but even sniff it if it smells bad I wouldn't, if you dont smell anything horrid, and dont see any puss, might be worth it to cook him up to get your first taste of quail breast nummmyy!

Every deer i've ever shot had been wounded by an archer (my luck) before I got it, the one had a slightly infected leg where it was hit, however the infection didnt spread to the rest of the body so the leg was just removed and I continued butchering the deer. The meat was tough but the deer was old and im still alive and kicking.

My poor hubby however, his last deer he ever got YEARS ago was a doe, and she had no outward wounds he could see, he opened her up and he said gel like puss exploded out of her leg...and then they were able to see she had been hit by an arrow in archery, and all the meat was bad (the doe was laying down when he shot her...he unknowingly put her out of her misery). They ofcourse didnt eat her....yuck.