Lonely Quail in Hospital Cage

[amandalynn52698]

Recently one of my males were scalped, pretty badly. We moved him to a hospital cage to give him the TLC to get better. The first night, he was barely moving for anything other than to get food or water. Now he is running crazily, trying to get out to get to the other pen. I know bobwhites are very social birds but I know they also go after the weak and injured. Lil man is not ready to go back as his head is still scabbing over.
How do I combat his loneliness?

 

[RiverOtter]

Is your hospital cage big enough to add one other bird? Or you might try caging one right next to him.

 

[Kale the Quail]

when one of our quail got pecked up really badly by a female so we put him in the hospital cage and he wouldn't eat so we put a calm female with him, he perked up for a few minutes but then he got depressed and he wouldn't eat for days. We had to feed him 'soup' which is a mix of water and quail food.

Sometimes we would take him outside for bugs because we could feel his bones.
Weeks later he got better and could go back to live with his friends but he still had a huge scab on his head. Apparently he wasn't getting a lot of food because his big scab got in the way from eating so we gave him a bowl feeder and he was really hungry.

The feeder he couldn't fit his head into was a feeder like this.

 

[maadroj]

Depending on your setup and other circumstances, you could try a mirror, placing another bird inside or nearby, or placing his hospital cage inside/next to the other pen. The caged bird will probably still want out, but this seems to help keep my recovering birds' spirits up.

Sadly I just lost one to scalping. I brought him in under the heater, but he didn't recover his strength and passed away after two days. I don't know if it was shock and exhaustion or if he had another unseen ailment. I'm glad to hear yours is already up and running, though it will be hard to keep him safe and resting until he's ready to rejoin the others. Good luck!

 

[BESSIE THE QUAIL]

you could have little "play dates" every day with another nice gentle girl