Help! Has My Coturnix Quail Gone MAD?!

[Quailiesss]

Oh no.
Oh no.
nonoonononono....

I heard that its really easy for a quail to go mad and start pecking each other, and that the only thing you can do is kill and eat them. I have these quails as pets ( one rooster and two hens. ) Everything was going fine a few days weeks ago when we first got them, but recently the females stopped laying. We thought everything was fine and that they would start again, but they still aren't laying. But the huger problem is that one of the females started pecking the other quails. None are bleeding but they are really scared of her. Whenever she's around they run away, with her following behind trying to peck them. She also doesn't really let them eat, I saw her peck them whenever she comes close to the food bowl. Actually, she pretends its her territory now, so I had to get another food bowl for the others. She keeps pecking them arghhh I'm so scared has she gone mad?! Culling is not an option here because these are pets! Whom are loved already by me and my family! What do I do? Am I over reacting? Is she actually fine and just showing a teensy bit of rivalry? I DON'T KNOW!!!

HELP!!​

 

[birdmandan]

Looks like she is dominant. You need to get a larger enclosure or put them in separate cages. Otherwise cull or give her away. Such is the pecking order, especially in such a small flock.

 

[Dani xxx]

I had one girl who attacked another, once the injured quail was all healed I put her back and all seemed fine but went to feed them in the morning the injured quail was chased and pecked at by another female. I removed the nasty quail for a week of solitary confinement and when I put her back in all was fine and no problems since and that was last December. so maybe try something similar

 

[Binki]

Hey there, how's it going now? May I ask what you're feeding them and what percent protein it is?

You can fashion a divider/partition in the existing cage so the quail can see each other but not hurt each other - usually several days of this will return them back to normal!

But always ideal to observe them as much as possible especially at first and provide hiding places where the abused ones can hide until you can address the problem.

You have two females and one male? It's possible the one female is sick of being overmated and that's turned her offensive? Usually people keep at least four hens with a male, but some males mate nicer than others and can get away with less girls and everyone is still happy and fertile

 

[BaJa]

you need a bigger cage, the best would be an aviary, and if that still doesn't work, replace her with a nicer female

 

[Quailiesss]

arrrrrrggg I'm worried. I don't want to give her away because I've already become so attached to her. I don't know what percentage protein, but I've been feeding them Barastoc Golden Yolk pellets for chickens and churned it up so its finer for them. since some of my friends have quails they feed chicken crumble so I thought it would be fine? Could that be the problem? The cage is fine, each quail has about 2 squared meters of space so its pretty big. I just tried keeping her in a cage by herself for about 3-ish days but it didn't work and just put her with the others now. Should I keep her by herself longer? I don't think the male can mate yet because he hasn't started crowing yet and is younger than the girls. Should I get another female? Oh, please help. I'm so worried maybe I'm over reacting but I don't want to give her up.

 

[BaJa]

if you could maybe find her a good and loving home, and give an other quail a good home, I would do that.

 

[Binki]

Stopping laying, aggression/cannibalism and chicken feed - I am hoping that your quail problems are just a case of not enough protein in their feed - chicken feed is usually only like 2/3 of their required protein intake which is about 23% for laying hens. If they aren't getting enough, they will lay smaller eggs or sporadic eggs or none at all to conserve their protein for their own health.

Get yourself some proper game bird feed or turkey starter if you can't find high enough game bird protein (I don't recommend medicated feed). I would do it sooner rather than later

I am thinking with ideal nutrition they will settle down and start laying again

Do you give them oystershell or other forms of calcium?

 

[Binki]

Looks like a fine feed for chickens but I looked it up and yup it only has 15% protein

But again, good news because maybe just changing the feed will fix everything

 

[Nyla]

What breed of quails do you have? I have a lot of different breeds of quails. This happened to me with my Blue scales. But I had 5 females to 1 male. One of my females just wouldn't let any quails near her and kept chasing them around. They had sand as bedding, lots of hiding places and I thought they had stop laying eggs but reality they were burying them in the sand. One of my females went broody and was protecting her nest. I didn't find this out till late at night when all lights were off I opened their cage and caught her practically buried in the sand. When she got up there was 7 eggs.

Maybe you should check their bedding or do you have them on wire?