clip quail wings?

[quailmama 82012]

i have this one quail who is super afraid of me so whenever i try to get her from her cage, it always ends up bad. today it happened when i was trying to get a closer look at her head ( looks like one of the roosters needs to be excommunicated ?) she excaped and i had to go capture her, and she ran into like 3 things when i did. my mom doesnt think i should clip their wings, but if this is going to happen to my poor hen every time i try to get her, it will be a serious problem.
and another thing, when do you know if your quail are getting bred by the roosters to much? I do not want to get rid of one of my birds but I will if i have to.

 

[quailmama 82012]

i do need to do something about the roosters i'm afraid. my female hen had a bald, lightly bloody head. do you think that if i confined a rooster in a separate tank for a while
(if so how long) that the problem that i have would go away?
btw i have 4 hens and 2 roosters.

 

[Quailobsessed]

What species of quail is this? I haven't clipped my quails' wings so I don't really know what to advise. But it may be helpful to know the species.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

I would just separate the males from the females because it doesn't seem like there are enough females to go with males, unless you can get more. Or you can put one male with the four females, and see how that goes. From my experience, I've had a female who'd been targeted by a male, and the top of her head was covered in blood. She recovered after some TLC and she was separated from the male.

As for the wing clipping, I've clipped all of my quails' wings, and it's not cruel or painful to them. All you have to do is cut the edge of the flight feathers, and they shouldn't be able to fly away.

 

[quailmama 82012]

great. i have been keeping an eye on the female who gets picked on and whenever the male picks on her i separate the male. or should i be separating the female from the rest?
i think i will clip their wings when i move them outside (hopefully today) and the extra skittish female (her name is pototoe ) hopefully wont get away in the process. i will have my dad hold them while i clip. wish me luck!!!
(they are coturnix)

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

You can put her with the other females, and watch if they try to peck at her. If they do, put Potatoe in a separate cage until she heals. Good luck with the clipping!

 

[Roomi the quail]

If your quail is an escape artist and flighty, you probably should resort to clipping. My quail used to run into the ceiling, glass doors, air conditioner, basically everythimg when she felt skittish. Now that I clipped her wings she only flies 5-6ft max at a time. If you do it, clip the wings evenly with sharp scissors. I clip all flight feathers in line with secondary/cover feathers(there are many articles regarding how to do it) and never drew blood.

 

[BudgiesQuailsChickens]

If you need more help with clipping feathers just watch a video of someone clipping a chickens feathers. The same principle applies. There are a ton of helpful tutorials.

 

[MsJeannie]

i do need to do something about the roosters i'm afraid. my female hen had a bald, lightly bloody head. do you think that if i confined a rooster in a separate tank for a while
(if so how long) that the problem that i have would go away?
btw i have 4 hens and 2 roosters.

One male for every 4 or 5 hens