Button Quail with bare spots on back

[marie_martin]

A few of my buttons have a raw looking bare spot on their backs near the tail. Looks like they are pulling each others feathers out. What causes this and is it serious? What can be done?

Marie

 

[WisconsinChick]

My only guess would be that they dont have enough room.

 

[PearlD]

We had this happen with our bobwhites, and ended up having to cull a few males. The feather pulling stopped, and the culled males are now growing their feathers out in a nearby pen!

We plan to reintroduce them in a few weeks, and swap out the other males left in the pen.
I don't have any females doing this, so I just assumed there were too many males and acted accordingly!