Hurt quails

[cfbrown]

We noticed about a week ago that one of our white quails had had the eyes pecked. I brought her inside the house. She has food and water, and we started putting calendula salve over the eyes and head that had been pecked. We weren’t sure if she was gonna be blind, but her eyes were there. She opened her eyes yesterday. She started hollering, which sounded like she was saying “outside”. I put her back in the coop today. About 20 minutes ago I went outside to check on them and apparently one of her eyes were apparently getting pecked again. She was in one of the hide hides from her belly. She looks like a female. I also checked each of the quails and a brown one had its eye pecked too. She’s hiding in one of the hides too.

We have six male and seven females. I’m not quite sure what to do from what I’ve been reading. It says to have one male to five females. Should I bring them inside and heal them with my calendula salve or separate them? Do females ever make a sound? I can’t stand the idea that they are being pecked. It breaks my heart that a couple of them are being hurt.

They did come from a breeder, but she couldn’t tell if they’re male or female yet. They are all about 13 weeks old. Please advise me as to what to do. Thank you so much.

 

[Nabiki]

As you've noted, your male to female ratio is very off. I would start by getting rid of five of your males.

Bring the injured ones in for a couple days, then, once the extra males are gone, clean and rearrange their pen and put all of the birds, including your injured ones back in and see how things go. Watch them closely in case you have a bully, though.