So... Mr. Tumnus the pet quail met his first love and lost his ... innocence ... this past weekend. Chronicles here in my blog, if you haven't already seen them.
Today, he is acting very strangely, and I'm wondering what's up. When I go outside, he always runs up to the fence to say hi. But tonight, he ran like a bat out of hell and hurled himself furiously at the fence, over and over. I thought, "Oh no! Freckle (aka Mrs. Robinson) is attacking him and making his life miserable! He wants out!"
So I opened the gate and he threw himself into my hand and started climbing up my arm, making this very odd repeated sound: "Errr! Errr! Errr! Errr!" over and over, nonstop. Then he began biting me, not breaking the skin, but twisting it. All the while, furiously trying to climb higher up. I took him out and held him for a couple minutes hoping he'd calm down outside the pen, away from his "tormentor." But he just kept making that sound and acting weird.
So I went back in the pen and set him down. He ran over to Freckle and jumped on her back and mated.
And that's when it occurred to me that maybe he was competing with me for her attention. Or... maybe now that his sex switch is flipped, it occurs to him that he wants to mate with me, too?
After that, he came running back to me and began all over to attack. Then he noticed my three-year-old by the fence and ran over to him and started hurling himself at the fence over there.
A few moments later, he calmed down and went back to acting normal.
So which is it? Love or hate? Or something else entirely? Thoughts?
Today, he is acting very strangely, and I'm wondering what's up. When I go outside, he always runs up to the fence to say hi. But tonight, he ran like a bat out of hell and hurled himself furiously at the fence, over and over. I thought, "Oh no! Freckle (aka Mrs. Robinson) is attacking him and making his life miserable! He wants out!"
So I opened the gate and he threw himself into my hand and started climbing up my arm, making this very odd repeated sound: "Errr! Errr! Errr! Errr!" over and over, nonstop. Then he began biting me, not breaking the skin, but twisting it. All the while, furiously trying to climb higher up. I took him out and held him for a couple minutes hoping he'd calm down outside the pen, away from his "tormentor." But he just kept making that sound and acting weird.
So I went back in the pen and set him down. He ran over to Freckle and jumped on her back and mated.
And that's when it occurred to me that maybe he was competing with me for her attention. Or... maybe now that his sex switch is flipped, it occurs to him that he wants to mate with me, too?
After that, he came running back to me and began all over to attack. Then he noticed my three-year-old by the fence and ran over to him and started hurling himself at the fence over there.
A few moments later, he calmed down and went back to acting normal.
So which is it? Love or hate? Or something else entirely? Thoughts?
