how to clip a quails wing feathers

[decomposed]

I have an injured quail that i bought from the pet shop his whole back is one giant sore because the other quails at the pet shop were attacking him it kind of looks like they were trying to eat him maybe because there was like 20 of them in one tiny cage with no food. I'm keeping him inside away from my 2 female quails because he needs to heal and he gets scared when i walk past him and tries to fly out the window and bangs into it because it is closed i was wondering can i clip his wing feathers to keep him from flying into the windows? i clipped his primary flight feathers on one wing but he can still fly well, should i clip the feathers on his other wing?


this is him 3 days ago i have mixed antiseptic cream with water and i have been spraying his back with it in the mornings it is looking a lot better now but i'm worried he will make his sores worse by flying into the walls and windows

 

[James the Bald]

This is a complete shame. That quail does not look like it is old enough to be out of the brooder, let alone be in a pet shop for sale. These quail are overcrowded. Just my opinion, but you should have contacted your local humane society and reported this quails condition. Otherwise, they will continue this travesty and other birds will suffer the same fate.
This critter needs to be in his own cage indoor with a heatlamp set around 85-90 degrees or so to aid in it's recovery. Here is a website that can be of more assistance.
I hope this helps,
James

 

[decomposed]

yeah the conditions they keep the birds in are disgusting i might give the RSPCA a call i got photos of the wounds on the poor little guy i might go in and take some photos inside the pet shop as well, i'm new to owning quails so i wasn't sure how big they should be before they are sold so thank you for the info i have just set up a cage for him inside and i have the heater on it is summer here and it is usually around 90 degrees or more but i will set my heat lamp up just in case its not warm enough if he keeps trying to fly i might try to clip the primary flight feathers on his other wing

here is a picture of his wound i just took

 

[TwoCrows]

I agree with James 200% on this. It is in the best interest in all those suffering quail in these peoples hands that you report this situation. Absolutely horrible. The place needs to be shut down.

 

[dc3085]

Buttons quail IMO suffer from some of the most irresponsible breeding practices. I'm in the middle of the same thing with two buttons I just rescued from a pet store this weekend. Try contacting the owner of the shop if you can. I spoke at length yesterday with the owner of the store I got the buttons from. I believe he will stop carrying them because he is quickly realizing that he doesn't have the time/space to separate them all out and properly provide for them. It is my personal opinion that pet stores shouldn't carry button quail at all. I have never seen a pet store that sells healthy buttons. The breeder is as much at fault in these situations as the store. Anyone who breeds these birds knows better than to let this happen and selling them to a pet store will almost ensure this happens.

As far as how big they should be when sold, buttons should be 6 weeks+. I don't sell them until they are fully feathered.

You are aware that, that quail you have in your hand is full size correct? It may be a stupid question but I have met many people who are waiting on their button quail to grow up. It won't get any bigger than it is now.

Keep his cage covered on the side you walk by until he gets acclimated to you/the new environment and that should slow down the boinking on the roof. Also maybe leave the TV/Radio playing.

You say that you have two female quail, do you plan to keep the male with them? I recommend against keeping buttons in anything except pairs. When buttons are in groups larger than pairs the mortality rate goes up exponentially. Buttons can be particularly vicious when breeding and I wouldn't want you to wake one day and find that the odd female out has been murdered or the girls get tired and murder him. Often they will do just fine together for months or more and one day they just turn on the odd man out.

Keep it up with the antibiotic ointment and he should be fine, but he is going to be ugly for quite a while. Good Luck.

 

[decomposed]

Alright i will get another quail from a good breeder im starting to think that one of the females i got is another male the pet shop also told me they only had one male and he was sold but 2 of mine are crowing now its a good thing i have so many cages lol they are rabbit hutches so they have quite a bit of room, i'm going to ring up and speak to the manager of the store and tell him all this info and i will encourage them to stop selling quails i also have some other complaints to bring up, I wasn't really sure how big they should be but i thought they might be fully grown because the injured male (i call him tiny ted) and one of the others has been crowing and i was assuming they only start crowing when they are adults i will cover his cage and try to keep him as calm as possible i have been feeding them small seeds and chick starter and whatever else they pick up outside in the grass is this alright? and is there any treats i could give them?

 

[dc3085]

Are they crowing or trilling? Both male and female button quail can trill. Male button quail crowing sounds like raspy wind blowing or kind of like a frog croaking. Most people assume the woo woo woo noise they make is a crow but that is not true. If you put up pictures of all of your birds I may be able to tell you which are male and female just by coloring. Gamebird food with 19%+ protein is recommended for a regular food(usually only comes in 50# bags which should last you about a year lol. I feed mine the gamebird crumble, white millet seeds, rape seed, sometimes a finch mix as a treat, and for dessert they love crickets and meal worms but they are high in fat so only feed a few a day per bird. Also green leafy veggies if they will eat them. buttons can be picky. The females if you have any should start laying by 8-12 weeks old and that might help you figure out whats what. If you don't have an incubator you may want to go that route. I get a lot better quality birds ordering eggs than I do looking around for adults. Aside from that a button quail chick may possibly be the cutest thing on planet (and this is coming from a big shaggy redneck).


As always good luck and feel free ask if anything else you need

 

[decomposed]

Tiny Ted died last night unfortunately. I'm so sad he looked like he was doing a lot better as well so i didn't expect it

and the brown one i have stands tall like a rooster then it makes a loud high pitched noise only in the morning and evenings so i'm pretty sure it is crowing but i may be wrong. They remind me of little chickens and roosters. Only ted and my brown one were making the noise and the other grey one made a quiet noise, ill definitely go into my feed store and buy some gamebird crumble for them, i will mix it with the seeds i have now for them. I will post pics of the 2 quails that i have left

this is the one i think might be a male


and here is the quiet one

 

[TwoCrows]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[dc3085]

Sorry to hear about that.at least he got A few days rest without the others picking at him.

With those two colors its hard for me to sex them visually. Silver males will usually have a white bib around their throats. I don't have a lot of experience with the other colors because all mine are the wild type color, I only just got my first off colored buttons this weekend after years of raising quail.The noise that you hear that sounds like a chicken crowing is not the button roosters crow. Button roosters literally sound like frogs or like a raspy wind blowing. Somewhere on YouTube is a video of Buttonquail roosters crowing

Sorry for the spelling/grammar errors im on my mobile