Coturnix Quail - mating aggression. Suggestions?

Miss Quail

Hatching
5 Years
May 23, 2014
3
0
7
Western Massachusetts
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Hi, I have three Coturnix Quails - 2 females and 1 male.
I can tell it is a male by the coloring on his feathers, and by his bird call. He also was born with some sort of deformity or had an injury very early on which has caused his neck to be crooked. They were all chicks when I got them, and are a few months old now.

This issue is that he gets on top of the females, mating I assume, and plucks feathers out of their heads. The gals really dislike it, and one is particularly "afraid" of him. Noticing today just how many feathers he plucked from one head, I put him in his own cage away from the others. He constantly cries out for them, and they even maybe call to him too. I tried putting him back in, but they immediately became skittish and he had no delay in beginning for mount, pluck again.

Is it basically "standard" to keep the males away from the females? Is that what I should do from now on? I'm not using them for breeding or anything, just as pets and for eggs.

Any guidance in this department would be appreciated!
Thanks.
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Give him a couple more females, that way he's not over mounting any single one.
If he still picks on a specific one remove that one for a while.
Remember to introduce them all back together in a new pen or separate them all for a week outside of the pen you are keeping them together in.
If you just want eggs and pets, you could do away with the roo all together. It isn't needed to get eggs. The hens will lay regardless.
 
Dragons X2 Coturnix quail need to be kept 1 male to 4 to 7 females. The males are very sexual and will over mate a couple hens. He can even kill them with over mating. So add more females to his harem.

Do it slowly however, keeping the new females on the other side of wire for several weeks. Everybody sees, nobody touches. If you throw new birds into this group, somebody will turn up bloody or dead. So let them get to know each other slowly over several weeks being together constantly but behind wire.
 

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