Bullying quail

[ty01]

Hi all,

Can anyone help me....I had two European Quails for over 6 months now. One started bullying the other (quite severely, so that the victimt almost lost an eye and was pecked all over its head), so I separated them by placing a wire divider into the centre of their coup.

Now both have stopped laying eggs and the bully is now loosing a lot of her feathers. Both are eating well however but the victim is still quite terrified of the bully.

Any suggestions?

 

[Graphite91]

I would think that since they can still see each other through the wire divider they are probably stressing each other out. Maybe put a solid divider between them and give them some time to calm down and for the victim to heal. Are you talking about Coturnix coturnix or Coturnix japonica? How much space do your birds have? Sometimes they will fight if the pen is too small. How much light and dark are they getting each day?

 

[ty01]

Hi, thanks for your reply. They are getting about 12 hours of light each day. The pen is 1.2m (with a nesting box with hay) x 340cm.

They now live in half each with the bullying quail not getting into the nesting box.

The quails are about 150cm in size. I dont think they are Japonica's but am not certain.

Cheers....