Is this egg bound?

[lisameow]

My brown female was sort of hopping around, then getting down flat and doing what looked like a little tap dance. She is pretty wild and I'm scared to catch her in case I break the egg or let her escape:/ plus it really stresses them...

 

[PeepersMama]

It doesn't sound like she's egg bound. If she was you'd probably be able to catch her cuz she'd just feel like crud and wouldn't run away. She sounds like a broody to me, but if she's out running around then she probably isn't. How do her eyes/nose look? Are they goopy and/or runny? Is she eating/drinking well? What other symptoms does she have?

 

[Binki]

Ohhhhh it sounds like the coturnix quail "Popcorn Dance"

They get frisky when they're happy/excited and will crouch down, then hop up, sometimes over and over

I have a few quail in particular that love to popcorn when I come around even though they're not too keen on being pet and definitely not handled

They kind of look like puppies, sprinting and popping around and sometimes they will even run to another quail and "peck" at them without opening their beak/no feather damage, kind of like when a puppy nips at another dog to try and get them to play

There's been a few posts where people seen the popcorn dance and were worried about their legs or other health problems but it's just because they're happy, it's cute you referred to it as a tap dance hehe ^^

 

[lisameow]

Thanks she doesn't have any other symptoms so I think she's fine but I'll keep my eye on her

 

[lisameow]

Awwww that's sooo cute I think that's probably what she's doing because she was also hopping around in front of my other quails.. Thanks for answering

 

[cshma11]

When my female coturnix quails hunch down and kind of flatten themselves and wiggle, the male hops on top and... takes care of business. Then the female hops back up. I've also seen them kind of pop over each other and hop around, popcorn style.

 

[lisameow]

Oh yeah the male actually did try that with her lol but then she tried running away from him