Male court losing back feathera

[tennesseequail]

I know why the females are but the Male is now also

I checked them all again for mites and not a speck of them. Egg production is normal and has been steady even with 96 degrees

They seem. Normal in every other way

I thought maybe I had a 2nd Male but I get 4 eggs a day from that cage and it has 4 hens and him

Any thoughts?

They get a 28% game.feed with meal worms and greens from the garden

 

[mixedUPturk]

Could be a bored or aggressive hen. Quail are real mean to eachother in general dont beat yourself up about it. How big is the cage theyre in? What kind of enrichment do you offer?

 

[tennesseequail]

What do u mean by enrichment?

 

[tennesseequail]

Cage is 1.5 x 2.5 only 5 in there

 

[Ebony Rose]

Sounds like your top hen is asserting her dominance with him; perhaps she's not impressed.

 

[mixedUPturk]

I mean like a dust bath, anything they can interact with and keep them from getting too bored.

Thats only about 4 square ft and they generally ask for 1 ft per bird.

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

I think that you should move them to a larger enclosure, that seems on the small side for 5. And as stated above definitely add some type of enrichment for them. It helps keep boredom away so they don’t decide to bully each other.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Cage is 1.5 x 2.5 only 5 in there

That's a total of 3.75 square feet, already short by 1.25 square feet for five birds, and you need to also subtract the square footage that your feeder and waterer use up and anything else in the hutch, let's call that one square foot combined so they're effectively living in 2.75 square feet for 5 birds. Sadly, putting in a shoe box full of sand will not only take up another half a square foot of space, but won't fix the overcrowding issue. All is not lost though... I'm going to guess that you have some upward space that they're not using, because quail don't perch etc... but... If you put in some of those cupboard extenders (wire racks on legs), you can effectively add a second floor to your hutch, as long as they only have to hop up to the next level. If you did that, you could add that coveted sand box without giving up living space, AND give them some quality (and healthy) enrichment at the same time. The image of the cupboard extender that I'm uploading with this post is an excellent option as it's actually two pieces and enables it to be expanded.

 

[tennesseequail]

My waterer and feeder are on the outside of the cage

I have commercial breeding cages designed.for courtanix

I rotate dustbins.and such jn there all the time.and.gice them.tasty things in their feed bins

 

[tennesseequail]

My cage