BethsJumboJaps
In the Brooder
This morning I went to go check on my quails and noticed two out of my four adult quails had injuries to their heads. One is minor with no feathers gone and a little bit of dried blood and the other is close to being bald on the top of her head with a lot of dried blood. We have placed anointment on her head to try and help the process.
I recently had a bad experience with this type of aggression and though it was due to poor introduction (on my part) of new quail. The link to the thread is here:-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/998772/graphic-photo-severely-injured-quail-urgent-help-needed
After that incident I removed the new quails, placed them in a completely separate enclosure and have had no issues, since now.
My quails feed is around 25% protein, they get plenty of greens with the kale and silverbeet planted in their enclosure as well as a small amount of mealworms ever day or so. Their enclosure is massive with the capacity to hold 15-20 quails and they have plenty of branches, plants and sugar cane mulch to snuggle into and hide.
I also thoroughly inspected their entire enclosure and there is no sign whatsoever of predators or skin on top of the wire. I strongly believe it is one of my quails doing this. On weekends I regularly spend a lot of time around them and watch them and have never viewed aggression or even chasing of each other. I always find them snuggled together.
All four quail are females, are the same age and grew up with each other from hatch.
My main question is, what is the best way to figure out the bully? I really don't want to repeat the last instance of going out and finding a half dead quail that has her scalp literally removed.
I feel like I keep hitting brick walls with my quails, some things due to my lack of experience, but I am determined to get it right. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated...
I recently had a bad experience with this type of aggression and though it was due to poor introduction (on my part) of new quail. The link to the thread is here:-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/998772/graphic-photo-severely-injured-quail-urgent-help-needed
After that incident I removed the new quails, placed them in a completely separate enclosure and have had no issues, since now.
My quails feed is around 25% protein, they get plenty of greens with the kale and silverbeet planted in their enclosure as well as a small amount of mealworms ever day or so. Their enclosure is massive with the capacity to hold 15-20 quails and they have plenty of branches, plants and sugar cane mulch to snuggle into and hide.
I also thoroughly inspected their entire enclosure and there is no sign whatsoever of predators or skin on top of the wire. I strongly believe it is one of my quails doing this. On weekends I regularly spend a lot of time around them and watch them and have never viewed aggression or even chasing of each other. I always find them snuggled together.
All four quail are females, are the same age and grew up with each other from hatch.
My main question is, what is the best way to figure out the bully? I really don't want to repeat the last instance of going out and finding a half dead quail that has her scalp literally removed.
I feel like I keep hitting brick walls with my quails, some things due to my lack of experience, but I am determined to get it right. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated...
