help with quail

[living dead dol]

my poor quail they just hit 8 weeks old and she was the first to grow up and way to many boys got her...shes inside and shes ok just got this big sore...all the skin is gone....my problum is i do not know what boy or girl in the cage to remove the boys.....any one know how to sex coturnix quail. i have red tux, a &m and golden and rosetta..any help would be great..these are my first quail ...this was taken when i found her she is scabing up now and in side . she was fine yestreday.. the cage is very big and theres not that manny in it but my gess is shes the only grown girl and the boys are all on her..i have not seen them mate and i hear no sounds of a male but then they all stop doing stuff when i am close.

 

[living dead dol]

i forgot to say.. now shes inside buy her self she is sticking her but up and runing backwards..is this normal or do i have a bird with brain injury.. please help as these are my first quail..

 

[Sill]

This is a brain injury not over breeding. The give away is the backwards walking which is typical after they boink their heads. You need to pad the top if their inclosure to keep another quail from getting injured like this, or reduce the height of your cages to under 12 inches. You can put some Neoporin on the injury, just make sure to get the plain kind without the pain killers as that is bad for birds. She will heal this wound just fine, but it will take time. These birds can heal some pretty horrific looking injuries and be perfectly normal. However the brain injury is a crapshoot. I've had one that returned to normal after a couple of weeks, but I had another that I had to cull because she never improved. If she is still able to get food and water into her mouth she may survive the brain injury.

A big clue to if a hen is being over bred is she will begin loosing feathers on the back of the neck and head and eventually will be bald, then bloody if the situation isn't taken care of by reducing the male ratio. Three hens is a minimum for coturnix, and 4-7 is much better.

 

[living dead dol]

the pen is very high theres no way they can hit thery heads...i tested that out right away..i can sit in there and not hit my head.
the top of her head is just fine its the back of the neck thats all bloody...shes all scabed up now and eatting good and seam just fine .

 

[ChrisandraO]

the pin needs to be at least 6-7 feet high for them to not be able to bonk their little heads. (this is why most people keep their guys in pins under 1 foot) as they fly up they gain momentum so at 3-4 feet would cause brain injury or be deadly.