How much balding is acceptable and how to counteract it?

[Anorakei]

Sometimes female quail will go "bald" on the backs of their heads/necks as a result of mating, especially if they are kept with a very active male and/or with just a male and no other females.

Since mating is unavoidable, some feather loss is inevitable. The question is how much feather loss/balding is acceptable? The standard I'm currently using is that it's fine as long as it's just back of head/neck feathers, what's you guys' opinion on this?

Also, do you know of any ways to reduce balding besides getting more females per male?

 

[le_bwah]

Giving hens low things to hide under will let them avoid overly amorous roos. I find that breaking up their line of sight inside the enclosure also helps.

Only one of my ladies gets plucked bald—my two boys seem to pursue her over the other hens.

 

[Anorakei]

Breaking up line of sight definitely helps, it's what I've already been doing. At one point one of my males was stressing out his female (they're in pairs), simply re-arranging some bendy hides into "walls" to give them more room to get away from each other instantly fixed the problem.

Hadn't thought of specifically going for "low" things, will see if I can find something like that. Thanks!