Help with Button quail newbie

[Ptarmigan]

I got a pair of button quails a few months ago. I'm new to quails (actually, I'm new to birds at all). I did a lot of reading before getting them and was confident I could provide for their needs, but I'm having some issues I haven't heard about before and I'm really struggling.

I'll tell the whole story so you know what's going on, sorry if this is long.

I planned to buy a pair from the pet store, but when I got there they only had males. They said they would get more in a week or two, and that a male would be fine alone for that length of time, so I bought a male and put my number down for them to call me when the females came in.

The male was not fine. He crowed constantly and was very stressed. I live in a small apartment and the only place for the cage is my bedroom, so this was bad for both him and me. I went hunting for females but there were none around anywhere.

Eventually I found someone looking to rehome a female. They had an overstocked aviary, and this female was the scapegoat all the others picked on. They'd plucked all the feathers off her back, some from her wings and some from her chest. It was so bad that for the first few days I was worried she wouldn't make it. I put her in with the male and it was love at first sight, no aggression, within a day they were grooming each other and huddling together. It was super cute.

After a week she started laying eggs. Her feathers were still coming back so it was very unexpected. I collected the first couple, but then she seemed to stop laying. Turns out she'd just hidden them and a few weeks later I ended up with 8 baby quails. They were good parents at first, but once the babies' feathers started coming in she would pull them out. I came home one day and the babies were bloodied and missing wing feathers. I'd see her grab a feather and pull it out, lifting the baby off the ground with the force of it. She was getting increasingly aggressive about it, too. I separated them but the babies wanted their parents and called constantly.

I eventually moved the male in with the babies, which calmed them down but stressed the female out. I had to move him back and forth every day or so to keep everyone calm. Eventually though she started pulling out the male's feathers as well, so he had to go in with the babies permanently.

Once separated from the babies the female started laying eggs again. I collected the eggs at first, but got worried over how many she was laying, so I let her lay until she got broody, then swapped the clutch out with older eggs that would no longer hatch (I also hoped this would stop her from getting too stressed while the male was away).

A few weeks after this the babies were fully grown and went to new home, and the male went back in with the female, who fortunately no longer tried to yank out his feathers. All was good for about three days, and then one of the eggs hatched. I must have missed one or miscalculated how old one of the others was. I hoped that the female had just felt crowded with the other 8 babies, and with 1 she'd be okay. No such luck, once the feathers started coming in she attacked this one too. I separated it from it's parents, but it's all alone. It cries constantly, and I can't comfort it because it's not bonded to me. It wants it's parents, but it's mum attacks it every time she's around it, and I don't know what to do.

Also, of course, she has started laying again. Guys, this is a mess. Everything I read said quails are pretty easy to take care of, but these quails have been non-stop drama since I got them. I love them, but I need to sort this out because I am tired. Did I just end up with a crazy quail, or is this just how it goes and I misunderstood what goes into looking after them? Any advice would be super, super appreciated.

TLDR: My female hates her babies but keeps having them. Also I now have a single rejected baby I don't know what to do with.

 

[JaeG]

What percentage of protein is in their feed? They need a high protein gamebird crumble. Feathers become a source of protein and a lack in the diet leads to feather picking. Hopefully it's not a bad habit.

I'd try a divider in the cage with the female on one side and the male and baby on the other so the female isn't alone but can't pluck anybody. They are naturally monogamous birds so can die from loneliness if kept alone. You were given bad advice by the pet shop. Males can live together peacefully if no females are about too.

@DK newbie can give you more pointers too - she's very experienced with these little cuties.

 

[Ptarmigan]

Hey JaeG, thanks for replying!

They get a mix of seeds and a crumble with 21% protein, and they'll normally get a few mealworms or some boiled egg each day too (plus fresh greens). I suspect it is a habit from the aviary she originally came from. She seems to be very aggressive towards other quails that aren't the male (I once left a mirror in there so I could see into their hide without disturbing them, the male ignored it and she attacked it). I'll give the divider a go!

And, yeah, the pet store advice wasn't great. I knew they were social birds and needed company, but I trusted the pet store that it would be okay for a week or so, which I feel dumb about because I'm experienced enough with pets to know you shouldn't trust pet store advice. Also they didn't get new females in for about 4 weeks, so all around it wasn't a good experience.

Everything I read said males would fight. I wish I'd known they'd be okay if no females were about, I would have got two males.

 

[DK newbie]

I actually have a similar issue myself. In my case it's the roo that started plucking though. He has been with the hen for half a year. They had 2 clutches of chicks but I guess I left the 2nd clutch with the parents for too long and he started plucking them. Not to the point of bleeding, but he removed the feathers from their backs. The mother was already broody again at this point and I just removed the chicks and hoped that would fix it. A few days later he was plucking the mother too though. I left him there because I didn't want her to leave the eggs. The eggs hatched, he was taking good care of them, but when they got their feathers he started plucking them as well. I separated him and put him with 2 of his sons from the older clutch, which I hadn't managed to sell yet.
He didn't peck those and when the hen had regrown her feathers I put him back with her after removing the chicks which were old enough by then. He was plucking her again though and I removed him after a couple of days. I put one of the female chicks back with the mother so she wasn't alone.

They live in my living room right next to my bed room, but they still wake me up with their calls every night.. The separated pair calls each other, the unpaired roos call for hens, the chicks call their siblings housed in other cages.. It's a mess and I'm sorry to say I haven't found the solution yet.
I think some birds just aren't compatible. The hen that gets plucked actually lived with another roo before. He didn't pluck her but he was aggressively chasing her around the cage to the extend I had to separate him. I then put him with her mother (whose previous mate had become snake food due to - guess what? Continuous plucking) and they have been living peacefully together ever since.

My birds are fed 24% gamebird feed by the way, so I don't think my issues are caused by lack of protein. Though I think lack of protein can be a trigger - as well as over crowding, lack of food or water and several other things. And once the birds have started plucking, it seems very hard to stop.

I'm about to move from my apartment to an old farm and I intend to build cages with separators there, so I can easily separate birds that misbehave, without preventing them from seeing their partners. But I also intend to cull every bird that plucks its partner 3 times (I should probably be more strict and say 1 time, but I just can't help but wanting to give them one more chance), hoping that this will eventually give me a line of birds that are more well behaved.
I'm not sure it'll work though, as the plucking sometimes doesn't start before they've hatched many chicks. Then I'd have to be really strict and not breed the offspring of any bird I've culled due to misbehaving, even if the offspring never did anything wrong..

In your case, I'd do as JaeG suggests and add a separator to the cage of the parents. Keep dad and baby on one side and mommy on the other, hopefully that will calm them a little. Once the chick is 4-5 weeks old you can rehome it to someone who has other buttons, let the parents live together again and perhaps let mom incubate hard boiled eggs every now and then - they are definitely not going to hatch. Mark them though, so if she lays another egg after going broody you can find it and remove it.

If you can reduce the lenght of the day for the quail, that might also keep mum from laying - you can cover the cage for 14 hours a day for instance.

 

[Ptarmigan]

Hey DK newbie, thanks for replying. Sounds like you're having just as much drama as I am!

It's super hard when they misbehave like that, it feels like a juggling act keeping them all safe and happy with different pairs/groups. I've put the divider in and everyone seems to be doing okay so far. The mum stalks the divider trying to peck the baby when it gets too close, but other than that things are fine. I'll use your idea of hardboiled eggs to try and stop her this time, and I've rearranged the cage so there aren't any out-of-sight places for her to hide them like there used to be. I've tried reducing their light before but I wasn't very strict about it, and definitely wasn't doing 14 hours of cover. I'll try the longer time and see how that goes.

Everything I've read about plucking says it's super hard to make it stop. I'm very nervous that babies will trigger her to start plucking the male again. She's definitely not having any more.

I wish you the best of luck with your selective breeding attempt. I even if the quail had babies before they started plucking, culling them will stop them having more babies and you might be able to slowly weed out the behaviour.