foot pecking

[da1goth2]

Ok so heres the issue, 1 of my female quail keeps pecking the others feet (all the time) but only since i gave them grass hoppers like a day ago, the thing is i have given them bugs before and she didnt do it then. I'm so annoyed at myself for causing a problem, i won't be feeding them bugs again obviously. Anyway iv'e separated her off with some mesh, she is upset obviously, so does anyone know ho to stop her doing that? Shes greedy aswell, always first at the bowl etc. So clearly she thinks other quail feet are food. Any help would be appreciated as they were getting along fine before i messed it up

 

[Aronia]

http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/on-107_metric_e.html

 

[HowieNZ]

Learned behaviour, smart quail! I am sure she will forget that movement on the floor = food in a week or so. Good luck.

 

[Dragons4u]

Could be too that she has pretty poor eye sight compared to the other quail and can't distinguish between feet and hoppers. Their sight isn't that great to start with in my experience. I've got one that seems to be as blind as a bat.

 

[da1goth2]

I'm hoping she will give up, but i'm doubting it, she's pretty obsessed. I have let her in with the others a few times but she goes straight back to it. Well you might be right about her eye sight but then again she seems to spot the movement from quite a distance. I kinda guessed problems may arise when keeping quail after reading about them prior to purchase, i just didn't realise they were this crazy lol. Oh and i have noticed she doesn't peck their feet in the dark.

 

[dc3085]

This is exactly why I say don't give them whole bugs or meal worms, cut them up first. They look like toes to them and they start doing this. Try leaving her out for a few days and don't give her any more bugs.

Are they young? This usually only happens to birds under 8-12 weeks.

 

[One Chick Two]

Perhaps you could try coating the others feet with Blue Kote. This tastes bad, so it may train her not to do this.

 

[One Chick Two]

Try some Blue Kote on the feet. Tastes disagreeable to them.

 

[da1goth2]

I always grind up mealworms as i had read they think they look like quail toes, i even googled giving them crickets before i gave them to my quail, and it didn't say anything about this happening. Yes they are quite young maybe just aproaching 12weeks i think. I will have to get some blue kote off the internet if i can't get it in my local pet shop, thank you for the advice.

 

[dc3085]

You usually won't have any problems with adult birds its only younger ones. The crickets and random bugs causing the picking habit probably isn't mentioned anywhere besides around here, I learned it from it an old timer. It just shows you that the birds will teach you as much about them as anyone else can.

There is a product called hot pick that will probably work better for spraying on. Blue kote is a skin treatment and i don't like putting medicine on things that dont' need medicine.