Feather picking problem

[JaeG]

One of my coturnix girls has started plucking the feathers out of the male she has been with since she came home last October.

He is a very gentle and sweet roo and even squats for the kids to be able to pick him up. All of a sudden I noticed he was bald on the back of his neck yesterday. This afternoon I find a big bald patch on his back and I caught the female in the act.

I've removed both the females he was with so he's not very happy with me - like I said he's a brilliant roo who is very gentle and his 3rd girl unfortunately died recently (she was quite a bit older than the other 3).

Is it a deficiency or is it end of season hormones? What can I do?

 

[fried green eggs]

Try upping the protein in their diet. Some layer feed is only 16% and my feather pecking stopped shortly after I started feeding 18% feed.

 

[JaeG]

I feed a Meatbird Crumble that's 20% protein (as that's the highest protein feed available in New Zealand). When I have the time I hard boil their eggs and feed that to them but I haven't had time lately. I'll try upping the protein and see if it helps. It's just so weird as it's only the boy who is the victim!

 

[fried green eggs]

Your boy must not mind the hens aggressive preening. 20% is pretty high for layers so, maybe she needs to ware a plastic no-peck device?

 

[JaeG]

That would look almost as funny as my boy does at the moment! Poor thing!

 

[TwoCrows]

Most quail need at least 24% to 28% protein for good health and feather growth, although I have used 20% protein in the past with no feather picking issues. Sometimes this becomes a habit and she may just be doing this because she is bored. You may never break her of this. You might put some natural branches with leaves in the pen with your birds. She may take to preening the leaves. Give her something else do besides pull out his feathers. Make a jungle out of the pen. Quail love this sort of thing.

 

[JaeG]

In New Zealand you can't get game bird food. I think I found a turkey starter that was higher in protein but it would've cost me as much to get it to my house as it cost for the product (which was expensive to start with). So I have been supplementing with alfalfa sprouts and egg (my daughter always leaves them a bit of her scrambled egg) though I haven't been as good lately as life has been rather chaotic.

She has only done this to the male and is absolutely fine with the other females I have put her with. I'll put some more interesting things in their cages anyway. I had potted up grass in there at one stage but because they are inside it inevitably died. Just wondering if some ponga fern (tree fern) fronds would be ok for them. We have quite a few in our garden and we have a lot of sticks and branches from the trees we've taken out. Thanks for that idea. The kids will have fun helping I'm sure.

 

[auntyb]

I have quail that are losing feathers around their head I mean all the feathers on their head one has even had its eyes bloodied help

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Sounds like aggression. You need to separate out the ones that have wounds and blood. Use some sort of ointment or neosporin on the injuries. Do not put these back until they are healed. You also need to find out who the bully is and remove them.

What breed are you keeping? How are you keeping them as far as space per bird, ratio of roo to hen, how old are they, etc....?

 

[JaeG]

Hi auntyb - I agree with TwoCrows as the same thing happened to me with a bunch of boys I put together (even though they'd grown up together inside). When I put them outside I had one that got scalped. He was a mess and I didn't think he was going to make it. But he did. I felt sorry for him so gave him some girls. He was the most horrid roo ever and would even attack my hand whenever I was giving them food or changing water (as well as turning into a sex maniac where the girls were concerned). So he now lives with another boy and they seem to be getting on ok.

As to my feather picking problem I think it may be a calcium deficiency, even though they get regular oyster shell grit. She laid a soft shelled egg yesterday afternoon. I'd got a series of soft shelled eggs towards the end of summer but I thought it was our older girl who has since died. But now I'm thinking it was my feather picker (who is called Tinkerbell by the way). Would liquid calcium in the water help? I had been giving them some chicken mineral powder on their food (just a tiny sprinkle) that my Mum had given me, but I stopped when I was getting 6 eggs out of 4 hens in one cage (I don't want to burn them out). Maybe I'll have to start giving them that again, or I know you can get liquid calcium supplements that go in their water. Any advice?