Huge quail problem...Please help!

[Ozarkhomesteader]

I am totally new quail, and need some help. I have 7 Texas A&M quail in a 3x2' cage, 4 golden Italians in a 2x1 1/2' cage, and 2 pharaohs, 1 Italian, and 1 A&M in another 2x1 1/2' cage. I feed them game bird feed.

In the last 3 days, the big cage has gone nuts. They all have evidence of pecking, and 2 had to be brought inside to recover. This morning, i also found one who had stuck its head through the wire and snapped its neck.

I got them for free from a friend about 2 weeks ago, and they had 5 in a 6 inch by 1 foot cage. They did have one pecked pretty bad, but had them for months with no deaths. I thought bigger was better.

I don't know the sex of any except the pharaohs. Could this be affecting it? What am i doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[GuineaFowling]

Your cage space seems a bit too small. I always have one square foot per bird at the least. So for your a&m it should be 7 feet long by 3-4 ft wide. Of course people have had lots of quail in small enclosures but in my opinion that is not very safe, the birds always looked pecked and in bad shape. My birds have perfect feather plumage and are healthy with a large enclosure. It is also due to male to female ratio. The a&ms are hard to tell gender thats why I personally avoid a&ms. You will have to wait to see if any crow or lay eggs. The other quail are easier to tell if they are male or female. I know there are many quail experts on here who will show up eventually. You should always have 5-6 females per male or else you'll have over-breeding and fights.

Good luck.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Thanks That's kinda what i figured, but because of everybody else keeping them in small cages, i figured they would be ok till spring...guess not
I agree, A&M's would not be my first choice, but when they are free, you can't be picky. I will separate them into one of my other cages and hope i have no more deaths. I will also try to figure out their sex.

Do you do anything to make them happier? I heard they should have sand, do you know what kind i should use?

I have begun building on the nice days the new quail pen, which will be much bigger...i hope i can make it until then

 

[COsteveo]

Changing the housing or roomate situation always seems to unsettle my quail; they usually act up a lot for the first 2-3 days and it takes about a full week for them to settle. Remove who you need to remove but my suggestion is to keep things as consistent as you can so they can settle down and relax.

 

[GuineaFowling]

Use very fine grain sand, like play sand. You can put it in a large dish thats a couple inches deep and they will love it. I would use a cat litter scoop to clean it out every couple of days because if they poo in it they tend to peck at the poo and thats not good. I chop up fruits and veggies and let the quails have at it. They enjoy chasing one another for it.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Changing the housing or roomate situation always seems to unsettle my quail; they usually act up a lot for the first 2-3 days and it takes about a full week for them to settle. Remove who you need to remove but my suggestion is to keep things as consistent as you can so they can settle down and relax.

thanks....i will try to keep it all as normal as possible

Use very fine grain sand, like play sand. You can put it in a large dish thats a couple inches deep and they will love it. I would use a cat litter scoop to clean it out every couple of days because if they poo in it they tend to peck at the poo and thats not good. I chop up fruits and veggies and let the quails have at it. They enjoy chasing one another for it.

ok, good. I will definitely get some thanks I do feed them veggies too, they love it. If they are not supposed to peck their poo, how can they be housed on the ground? I will scoop it out though...just curious.

 

[GuineaFowling]

As long as you dont have too much poo build up its fine. My quails were on the ground for a while but they had plenty of space and I only had to rake out the pen once a week because thats how long it took for the poop to actually be noticeable. If they often have dirty feet due to their waste then you need to get them more space or clean more often. You dont want your birds eating their waste. Its unhealthy and can cause serious problems. They usually leave their waste alon ebut when its in sand its covered in sand and they dont know its their poo and will sometimes peck it.

 

[Fat Daddy]

I am totally new quail, and need some help. I have 7 Texas A&M quail in a 3x2' cage, 4 golden Italians in a 2x1 1/2' cage, and 2 pharaohs, 1 Italian, and 1 A&M in another 2x1 1/2' cage. I feed them game bird feed.

In the last 3 days, the big cage has gone nuts. They all have evidence of pecking, and 2 had to be brought inside to recover. This morning, i also found one who had stuck its head through the wire and snapped its neck.

I got them for free from a friend about 2 weeks ago, and they had 5 in a 6 inch by 1 foot cage. They did have one pecked pretty bad, but had them for months with no deaths. I thought bigger was better.

I don't know the sex of any except the pharaohs. Could this be affecting it? What am i doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You'll likely find that you have a lot of roos in the white pen..... Changes are a problem to coturnix....Changes of light hrs also a big issue too. If you have even a small light on that they can see all night, thats a problem. Sounds like they are rolling into breeding mode and this has brought on the battles. 14-15 hrs of light will produce fertile eggs. All you really need... A 3'x 2' pen for 7 coturnix is fine.... 1 sq ft per bird works.... BTW, 7' x 3'-4 feet wide, is is 21 to 28 sq ft..... You could house a lot of cots in that! Good luck, Bill

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

As long as you dont have too much poo build up its fine. My quails were on the ground for a while but they had plenty of space and I only had to rake out the pen once a week because thats how long it took for the poop to actually be noticeable. If they often have dirty feet due to their waste then you need to get them more space or clean more often. You dont want your birds eating their waste. Its unhealthy and can cause serious problems. They usually leave their waste alon ebut when its in sand its covered in sand and they dont know its their poo and will sometimes peck it.

ok, cool thanks

You'll likely find that you have a lot of roos in the white pen..... Changes are a problem to coturnix....Changes of light hrs is also a big issue too. If you have even a small light on that they can see all night, thats a problem too. Sounds like they are rolling into breeding mode and this has brought on the battles. 14-15 hrs of light will produce fertile eggs. All you really need... A 3'x 2' pen for 7 coturnix is fine.... 1 sq ft per bird works.... BTW, 7' x 3'-4 feet wide, is is 21 to 28 sq ft..... You could house a lot of cots in that! Good luck, Bill

so light affects them that much? the last couple nights there was light that my dad had left on and i didn't turn it off because i figured a little light on the other side of the shed wouldn't bother them...guess i was wrong.

I will try to find the roos...if i have more than 1, can roos live together if there are no girls? Thank you so much for your help.

 

[Fat Daddy]

ok, cool thanks

so light affects them that much? the last couple nights there was light that my dad had left on and i didn't turn it off because i figured a little light on the other side of the shed wouldn't bother them...guess i was wrong.

I will try to find the roos...if i have more than 1, can roos live together if there are no girls? Thank you so much for your help.

Yes coturnix are very light oriented. Many folks will use only the small Christmas lights on a timer to stimulate egg laying/breeding... In fact this used to be the norm. It does not require direct sun, or full spectrum light.....Any game bird is sensitive to light. Aggression is usually due to just a few things. First things I try, More room, fewer birds, cull trouble makers. Then I look at mating/breeding issues. Always influenced by hrs of light. Also temps. if your birds were outside and you brought them inside. they are now warmer. cool birds are less likely to be aggressive... Keep them cool, reduce light hrs.... Simple way to ID roos, try removing your white birds, one at a time, and place them in a small cage a few feet away from the others. move them 8 to 10 feet away from the other birds, but be sure the lone bird can see the others.....It will want to return to the flock very bad. If the bird you removed is a roo, most will protest.....as in crow.... not 100% but will give you a good start.... Fact: extra males or mean birds taste better...... BTW, for the injured birds, Blu Kote is your friend..... Good luck