Genghis Khan...third quail

[Susannah4040]

We bought seven young quail, earlier this year, (one female and six males), from a friend when we had had our first pair about a year...the seven were kept together in isolation from them and everything was great for a few weeks - then the 'carnage' began - quickly...I had not experienced this before, when we had kept Button quails. They were separate into cages by themselves. It took awhile for the 'injured' to grow back their head feathers. GK and three of his 'brothers' had picked on each other slightly and had picked on one, severely - he became my favourite, though I don't have 'favourites', as such - but, I feel we bonded from pulling him through the horrid injury...these five crow and we are looking for five females to pen with them, as the two pairs don't make any noise, except for a low, soft 'singing' occasionally. Will post photos of the others soon, as they have different colourings.

 

[JaeG]

Button quail are naturally monogamous and Japanese/coturnix are in the wild but in captivity, where the females cannot get away from the males or hide from them due to being kept in smaller cages, you need at least 3-4 females to each male. Occasionally you can get away with a pair but the cage needs to be big (like an aviary) with lots of hiding places for the female to get away. Coturnix males will overmate hens if there aren't enough of them and stress leads to stress, causing poor laying and generally unhappy birds, not to mention bald females from the constant mating.

Males can usually live together relatively peacefully as long as they can't see females so that may be you best option - to pick your sweetest boy, get a few more girls and set them up as a group with the rest of the boys relegated to a bachelor pad.

He is a very pretty bird!

 

[Susannah4040]

Thank you for your advice, JaeG ...we are looking for females...seems to be not many around at the moment - can buy a lot of fertile eggs, though.

 

[purslanegarden]

They'll get on each other's nerves, too, if the living space isn't big enough for them.