Hi abit of advice on Chinese quail please

[heidib77]

I bought my first Chinese quail couple of days ago. I thought I'd bought 3 females and one male but now I'm not to sure. I have one classic male with a bib, two brown birds and a very dark brown and blue breasted bird. This one makes a low crowing sound sometimes and displays behaviour similar to male wild birds, it seems to offer food rather than just eat it, it holds food in its beak tipping its head low on its side around the others. It also took abit of a dislike to the male yesterday. Have I got another male ?

 

[TwoCrows]

I don't know a thing about this type of quail, but just wanted to welcome you to BYC and the quail forums!

There are a few folks on here that keep these birds and hopefully by bumping up this post, you will get an answer soon.

Enjoy BYC!

 

[Zrcalo]

Sounds like you have two males! Luckily for you, you probably have two females. Button quail are best kept in monogamous pairs. The behaviour you are seeing with the male offering food is courting behaviour.

 

[heidib77]

We Have heard it crow tonight so yep most definitely a male. I'm a little concerned about it picking on the other one as he has been pecking him and stressing him out. I've only had them 3 days do you think this will settle down??

I've got a funny feeling George ( WAS Georgina!) is older than Charlie ( they are all named after roald Dahl book characters ) as I've not seen any of this behaviour or crowing from Charlie.

 

[GrandmaBird]

You really need to separate the pairs. place one female and male in each cage or separate the cage they are in now, use screening or wire bars, its okay if they see each other as long as they cant reach each other. You will notice pacing and other nervous habits. They really should not be in groups.