Gender & crow confusion!! + Adding females to mostly male group of hatch-mates?

[lauradrake21]

Our 6 quail appear mostly male we think. 3 have done the ka-trrrrrrr call. QUESTION 1 is this a male only call for absolute definite? They are 5 weeks old this coming wednesday. Only one LOOKS clearly male as 4 are all pale/blonde versions and the other brown has a confusing breast still. (my gut tells me male but im wishing for SOME females at least lol)

And QUESTION 2 if they are all male, or mostly male, does this mean trouble a) for the few females we (might) have (over mating), b) will our males start to fight (I have read here hatch mates can live together in harmony) and c) what would happen if we bought maybe 3-5 females to go in with them? We'd love to keep them as pets, but im worried we have NO females and cant really keep them without getting any eggs in return. Would we have to cull/sell nearly all the males if we bought in females?? i know about normal ratios, do other ratios really not work (i,e, more males).
Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[TwoCrows]

It is important for the female's health to keep the ratio of male to female correct. If there is not enough females, the male will over mate a couple of them and because they constantly want to mate, they end up killing a couple of females. So you want 1 male to 5 to 7 females.

You CAN keep all males together or all females together You cannot keep two males together. Occasionally it does work, but more times than not, the extra male gets gravely injured or killed.

As long as the males can't see the females and the females can't see the males, you can keep these together for the most part without aggression. Always keep an eye on them however to make sure the peace is always being held.

 

[lauradrake21]

Thanks! So, at the mo we potentially have at least a 3:3 or 4:2 male/female ratio (going on the number who've made that ka-trrrrrr call only). I take it therefore that'll be no good for the long term. Guess no point in hoping mine might 'break the habits of a lifetime' lol. They are peaceful but is that because they are still young-ish? or IS that indeed because they are all male?

when would/could we see aggressive behaviour start? I have seen some mounting but the sex was undetermined, and i have read hens also do that for dominance... have tried vent sexing but the birds are way too wriggly!! will have to persevere. and is the call a definitive answer to gender do you know?

 

[TwoCrows]

They are probably too young for too much aggression yet. Generally they are sexually mature between 7 to 9 weeks of age. More so by 9 weeks. But roo's can mature up faster than females.

Both males and females will mount each other. Some of this is dominance, some is practice and some of it is horsing around.

If you can't vent sex then post some pics for us to have a look see.

 

[lauradrake21]

Will try to get pics this evening!

 

[Halloweengirl13]

Are they regular colored coturnix?

 

[lauradrake21]

No that's the problem! Two are pale versions of wold type and two are blonde versions. Only two you can tell by markings but since then we have vented 4 or 5 and they all seem male. But they All run around trying to mate with each other and have bald patched on their necks! Would the presence of one female do this or can it happen with 6 feisty all male group?

 

[Halloweengirl13]

Same sex birds will attempt to mate each other. But the presence of a girl would tend to spur the male quail into fight mode. If they are just pulling feathers and mating that would suggest all boys. I missed a young male in my group and the result was not pretty. He survived and is now in a cage with two girls of his own and the name chop top because of the awful scalping the other boy did to him , he is still healing
I have three quail who were tuxes and the way I found out they were girls was basically planting myself in front of the cage and watching to see who crowed.