balding quail?

[spish]

i just picked up 11 little quail (think the guy said they are chinese dwarf quail? is that button quail?) they are 3 months old and laying. out of 11, 7 have no feathers on their backs...what would cause this? i see no mites. ive housed them in an old guineapig cage for now..seems the house i made them needs smaller wire over the bars (they could get through!) ive also given them a lamp to warm them up (its getting cold here)

 

[TwoCrows]

Looks like over mating to me. The feathers break on the females backs from the male mounting them too much. Nice looking quail!

 

[spish]

how do i tell with these which are male which are female? the guy said 3 are male the other 8 female ut i dont know who is who. had 5 eggs today already so am really pleased

 

[spish]

also i noticed on 2 a sort of yellow crusty substance round the bald spots...what would that be? (you can see it on the photos)

 

[TwoCrows]

I don't know what that yellow stuff is. I can see it in two of the photos. You might want to separate some of these out so they are not so crowded in. It could develop into something you don't want.

I am not an expert at sexing this type of quail, but if you have some time to sit and watch them, you can figure out who is who by watching them mate.

 

[spish]

hmmm..should i perhaps make a seperate post in the chickeny injury/disease section? maybe someone there knows what the yellow stuff is?

 

[iluvmyquail]

could it be the result of feather picking?

 

[spish]

since ive had them i havent seen any mating or feather picking, but i dont know how small a cage the other guy kept them in. they show signs of feathers growing back but they are only 3 months old, would they really get over mated at that age? tomorrow im going to attempt to split them up into 3 groups or more if theres more males (there *should* be 3 but i dont know who's who)

 

[GrandmaBird]

The lack of feathers can also be caused by having the wrong food. try adding some protein to the daily crumbles, I use hard boiled chicken egg that is crushed together with the shell. The hens need the extra calcium for the shell to have good eggs as well so kills two birds with one stone so to say.
Also I agree that is too many birds in that cage. these look like button quail, Chinese Blue Breasted Quail, and they are best kept to one pair per cage /enclosure although some people do keep them in groups with lots of hiding places and nest areas. The best way to tell the males from the females is to look at the vent area feathers, almost all males have red tinted feathers there and also a bib under the chin area. I do see a few silver birds and these are harder to sex. I would guess that the ones with all the feathers are males at this point and the ones missing feathers are female.

The yellow crust could be the start of infection so I would clean the area and use some antiseptic like Neosporin or the like but do not put too much as they will try to eat it and that's not good. It might just need to be cleaned off.

Do give them a pan of clean sand or dirt to bathe in and they will be fine.

good luck these look to be some nice birds and should do okay if you give them the right diet, clean water and care.

And I forgot to add that they mate at anywhere from 6-10 weeks old so not to young to be over mated now.

 

[holliewould]

They are over crowded for sure and they will pick on each other in those conditions. Males can be picked on severely by the females and vice versa. Remember, the males are smaller than the hens. It would be wise to separate the bald birds so they can recover some of their feathers. Work on getting them into larger living conditions and you will see a big difference. Otherwise, they will pick until bleeding and infected. Like chickens, quail love to dirt bathe and scratch the ground. It is one of their favorite activities. While you are working on bigger living space, plop a sand box in there and let them bathe. It's not only enrichment, but it helps their feathers and skin with circulation and is overall good hygiene.