Molting questions?

[tweetyflights]

Hey all! I'm not sure if my quails molting or not? He's losing his tail feathers, though i'm not noticing much other feather loss (though most of the other feathers are small enough to not be noticed as much). He's a male valley quail and he'll be a year in august (it's may

). Does anyone have pictures showing their birds going through a molt? This is one of the topics that I know absolutely nothing about.

 

[tweetyflights]

anyone?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quail don't normally 'look' like they are molting, usually you just see a few feathers here and there. Check to make sure he doesn't have mites. You can add Sevin Dust into his dust pan and that will take care of the mites.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have a female Bobwhite that has very few tail feathers and sometimes none at all. She had cocci really bad as a baby and at 6 months old contracted WEE. (Western Equine Encephalitis). She is still not extremely healthy, although lives a normal life. So it is possible that your male has some sort health issue, even if you can't tell. As said above, mites will also make them lose feathers.

Also, are they any other quail pulling them out? Quail will do this to each other during breeding season while fighting.