Female Quail has never laid??

[SummerQuails]

I have a female (im pretty sure) king quail who is well beyond the age they begin laying, but she has never laid an egg. She was fully feathered when i got her (just over 10 weeks ago) so she is an adult, and I’m like 95% sure she’s female. She’s a silver king quail, she has no bib and has the light stripes on her chest that males dont have. Her calls and behaviour are that of a female and the males definitely treat her like a female (trying to mate etc) but she’s made it clear she’s not interested in them and is now housed alone. Any ideas on whats going on with her?

 

[ChickMagnet121]

Hi SummerQuails

Assuming that your quail is a female, here are some tips which may be useful.

In the wild, quail are monogamous, so they pair off. When they’re kept on farms, male quail may breed with 2 or 3 females. You can pair your breeding quail in 1:1, 1:2, or 1:3 male-to-female pairs.

Don’t place more than 1 male in a cage at a time. The males will fight to establish dominance and impress the females.
Paired quails will usually produce more eggs and will pay more attention to their chicks. However, you will likely have more live chicks if you breed the male with 2 or 3 females.
If you want to eat the eggs, don't put a male into the cage. Female quail will lay eggs whether or not the male is present. However, they must mate with a male to produce fertile eggs that will have chicks. You can keep as many as 5 females together at one time.

Provide your quail with 14 to 16 hours of light daily. Sunlight is best for your quail, but you can also use an artificial UV lamp. This encourages the quail to breed because they typically mate during spring and summer when the days are long.
Don’t give them more than 16 hours of light daily, as they need at least 8 hours to sleep at night.

Keep your pen at around 70 °F (21 °C) to encourage breeding. Use a heater or fan to adjust the temperature of the breeding pen. Cool or very warm temperatures will discourage the quail from mating.
Place a thermometer in the pen so you can monitor the temperature and make adjustments when necessary.

Provide your quail with straw and hay so they can nest. In nature, building a nest is part of the breeding process. Paired quail will build a nest together before they mate. Giving your quail plenty of fresh straw and hay will encourage them to build a nest and lay eggs.
Change out soiled straw and hay that isn’t used for nest building. Replace it with fresh straw and hay so the birds have a clean, comfortable environment.

If your quail successfully mates, but doesn't produce any eggs then I would suggest you add a calcium supplement. Good calcium supplements for quail include crushed oyster shells, crushed limestone, and calcium premix. Mix your chosen supplement into their feed to increase the amount of calcium in their diet. The extra calcium will encourage the quail to produce more eggs. Additionally, the eggs may be of better quality.
You can find a calcium supplement at a feed store or online.
Calcium premix is the best option for increasing healthy egg production through supplementation.

Hope these help.

 

[SummerQuails]

Hi SummerQuails

Assuming that your quail is a female, here are some tips which may be useful.

In the wild, quail are monogamous, so they pair off. When they’re kept on farms, male quail may breed with 2 or 3 females. You can pair your breeding quail in 1:1, 1:2, or 1:3 male-to-female pairs.

Don’t place more than 1 male in a cage at a time. The males will fight to establish dominance and impress the females.
Paired quails will usually produce more eggs and will pay more attention to their chicks. However, you will likely have more live chicks if you breed the male with 2 or 3 females.
If you want to eat the eggs, don't put a male into the cage. Female quail will lay eggs whether or not the male is present. However, they must mate with a male to produce fertile eggs that will have chicks. You can keep as many as 5 females together at one time.

Provide your quail with 14 to 16 hours of light daily. Sunlight is best for your quail, but you can also use an artificial UV lamp. This encourages the quail to breed because they typically mate during spring and summer when the days are long.
Don’t give them more than 16 hours of light daily, as they need at least 8 hours to sleep at night.

Keep your pen at around 70 °F (21 °C) to encourage breeding. Use a heater or fan to adjust the temperature of the breeding pen. Cool or very warm temperatures will discourage the quail from mating.
Place a thermometer in the pen so you can monitor the temperature and make adjustments when necessary.

Provide your quail with straw and hay so they can nest. In nature, building a nest is part of the breeding process. Paired quail will build a nest together before they mate. Giving your quail plenty of fresh straw and hay will encourage them to build a nest and lay eggs.
Change out soiled straw and hay that isn’t used for nest building. Replace it with fresh straw and hay so the birds have a clean, comfortable environment.

If your quail successfully mates, but doesn't produce any eggs then I would suggest you add a calcium supplement. Good calcium supplements for quail include crushed oyster shells, crushed limestone, and calcium premix. Mix your chosen supplement into their feed to increase the amount of calcium in their diet. The extra calcium will encourage the quail to produce more eggs. Additionally, the eggs may be of better quality.
You can find a calcium supplement at a feed store or online.
Calcium premix is the best option for increasing healthy egg production through supplementation.

Hope these help.

thanks for your response The quail is kept indoors, so temperature and lighting arent the issue, as the other females are paying just fine. She was on the same feed as everyone else but due to worries about her lack of eggs, I switched her to a higher protein feed and gave her extra calcium. Still nothing. Honestly, im not super worried about her lack of egg laying, as i dont really eat them, but I’m more worried about her behaviour. Although the males show interest in her, she doesnt show any interest back, to the point where she’s actually becoming defensive when they approach her. Ive tried to pair her with 3 different males with no luck, she will literally fight them. So now she lives on her own and she seems content like that. Could all of this be a hormonal issue?

 

[DK newbie]

For how long has she been living on her own? I'd not expect her to lay when she's alone, nor within 2 weeks of any major change in her life (new enclosure, new partner, sudden change to new feed and so on).
When you try to introduce her to males, how do you do it? Put her in the enclosure of the male? The male in her enclosure? Both in a new enclosure? Throw them together or introduce them slowly through a layer of hardware cloth or similar? This could impact your succes rate significantly. Some birds will be fine just being thrown together in whatever cage, but it sounds like yours is a bit more sensitive.
I'd try a large enclosure with bedding, a sand bath and real or artificial plants to provide plenty of cover and place her with a male there. Before placing them together in this enclosure, I'd let them get to know each other in a different enclosure, through hardware cloth, for about a week. If she's still defensive when the male approaches, I'd add a hardware cloth separator in the new enclosure so she can get used to the male in the new environment as well, then remove the hardware cloth after another week. If she's still not having it, I'd either try a different male or a female partner.
The most likely answer to why she is not laying, is stress, so I'd try out the things above to create a more natural environment to reduce stress levels. Stress is a hormonal issue, so I guess the answer to that is yes. But it is most likely caused by external factors, and by fixing them you might get her into an normal laying cycle.

 

[SummerQuails]

For how long has she been living on her own? I'd not expect her to lay when she's alone, nor within 2 weeks of any major change in her life (new enclosure, new partner, sudden change to new feed and so on).
When you try to introduce her to males, how do you do it? Put her in the enclosure of the male? The male in her enclosure? Both in a new enclosure? Throw them together or introduce them slowly through a layer of hardware cloth or similar? This could impact your succes rate significantly. Some birds will be fine just being thrown together in whatever cage, but it sounds like yours is a bit more sensitive.
I'd try a large enclosure with bedding, a sand bath and real or artificial plants to provide plenty of cover and place her with a male there. Before placing them together in this enclosure, I'd let them get to know each other in a different enclosure, through hardware cloth, for about a week. If she's still defensive when the male approaches, I'd add a hardware cloth separator in the new enclosure so she can get used to the male in the new environment as well, then remove the hardware cloth after another week. If she's still not having it, I'd either try a different male or a female partner.
The most likely answer to why she is not laying, is stress, so I'd try out the things above to create a more natural environment to reduce stress levels. Stress is a hormonal issue, so I guess the answer to that is yes. But it is most likely caused by external factors, and by fixing them you might get her into an normal laying cycle.

To answer your questions about timing and methods, when i first bought her she was quarantined for about 1.5 weeks. I then introduced her to a male by placing them in two adjacent enclosures so that they could see eachother, but either one could walk away if they felt uncomfortable. After a week, i took both of them out of their respective enclosures and put them in a new one (neutral space), but she began to get increasingly stressed and agitated so I removed her after about 3 days. I did basically the same thing the next time and it didnt work. She has been in her current enclosure for about 2.5-3 weeks now, and she’s been on her new feed since i tried her with male number 2. She seems happy enough living on her own, so i’m content with keeping her in a seperate enclosure if thats what she’d prefer. Do you think issue with eggs and aggression could lead to health issues in the future? Especially if it’s hormonal

 

[DK newbie]

If she's not laying because she's stressed, then that is far from good for her health. I strongly doubt any button will be happy on its own, so regardless of how she seems, I'd continue trying to introduce her to other birds.
I'm not sure adjacent enclosures is close enough to get her accustomed to the new partner. If I have a bird where 'throwing them together' doesn't work, I put them in the same enclosure, but prevent them from getting to each other by placing hardware cloth between them. Usually this means peace and harmony right away, when the hardware cloth is removed after a few days - even if I keep them in the same enclosure when removing the hardware cloth.
Some roos are idiots and will peck, pluck or chase the hen after a while. I haven't found a way to permanently fix those (placing them with other roos with similar behavior seems to have a temporary effect though and faint light might also make some of them calm down). But if the roo is not treating her badly, then it should be possible to get them to coexist, though it might take a large enclosure with many places to hide, if she is very insecure.

 

[SummerQuails]

If she's not laying because she's stressed, then that is far from good for her health. I strongly doubt any button will be happy on its own, so regardless of how she seems, I'd continue trying to introduce her to other birds.
I'm not sure adjacent enclosures is close enough to get her accustomed to the new partner. If I have a bird where 'throwing them together' doesn't work, I put them in the same enclosure, but prevent them from getting to each other by placing hardware cloth between them. Usually this means peace and harmony right away, when the hardware cloth is removed after a few days - even if I keep them in the same enclosure when removing the hardware cloth.
Some roos are idiots and will peck, pluck or chase the hen after a while. I haven't found a way to permanently fix those (placing them with other roos with similar behavior seems to have a temporary effect though and faint light might also make some of them calm down). But if the roo is not treating her badly, then it should be possible to get them to coexist, though it might take a large enclosure with many places to hide, if she is very insecure.

I dont think the roosters are treating her badly, she just doesn’t like them. If i cant get her to get along with males, do you think a ‘sorority’ enclosure with a few other female would benefit her? At least then she wouldnt be on her own. I couldnt find any resources about whether female quail will fight eachother and ive never attempted it, but theoretically, like with chickens, females could be housed together right?

 

[DK newbie]

You can house females together, yes. I've sometimes had issues when several females are housed with a male, but females housed without males shouldn't cause trouble, apart from during the introduction phase. And being housed with one or more females (one is probably best) will be way better for her than being alone.