My male is a racist. I think my beautiful tux is not going to make it.

[CovidtimeQuail]

I put 2 new females in a large enclosure with my one breeder male. He beat one hen up so bad I don't think she will make it. He's shown this behavior before. He accepts all birds without white on them, and picks on the whites. I didn't think he would react to the tux. I was gone for 2 hours, and I think I'm too late to save the tuxedo hen. She seems comfortable, but I believe she will be blind even if she pulls through. Her head is a bloody mess. I am so sad. Has anyone else had issues with bird color and pens?

 

[Nabiki]

I've noticed that quail can be racist little birds. I had a customer that had purchased all light coloured birds and wanted a new hen. The one he got was a dark one. The other birds picked on her until I came to pick her up and trade her for a hen the same colour as the others. There were no problems with the new hen.

Don't give up on your hen. I have had birds completely scalped and look like they've lost an eye heal up completely with a bit of care. The "missing" eye even turned out to still be there under the swelling and closed eyelid.

Give her head a rinse with warm (quail body temp or a tiny bit warmer) water, and an antibacterial wash if you have some. If you have some Blu-cote, cover her eyes and give her head a spray with that. Keep her warm and isolated until she heals.

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

Yep! I one hundred percent agree with Nabiki!

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Thank you Nabiki! You give me hope.

 

[Kale the Quail]

I put 2 new females in a large enclosure with my one breeder male. He beat one hen up so bad I don't think she will make it. He's shown this behavior before. He accepts all birds without white on them, and picks on the whites. I didn't think he would react to the tux. I was gone for 2 hours, and I think I'm too late to save the tuxedo hen. She seems comfortable, but I believe she will be blind even if she pulls through. Her head is a bloody mess. I am so sad. Has anyone else had issues with bird color and pens?

I’ve had a couple I thought were going to be blind but they were both alright. I’ve also seen a few of my birds get pecked up by the other ones and all of them pulled through.
Good luck! I hope she’ll be ok!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Quail are little champs when it comes to healing from head wounds. She might grow a tuft funny, but she should be rather fun

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

Here's a story about a quail named Apple who was scalped by my male quail. I did not keep that quail. Apple wasn't the only quail he scalped! He attacked females! No he wasn't trying to breed he was being aggressive.
Apple looked fine. Five minutes later she had her head stuck through the bars of her cage with Cricket (the aggressive male) viciously attacking her freshly scalped head. I'm fairly certain that he attacked her so she pushed her head through the cage to get away from him. She actually healed from that injury when I put some vetrycin on her and gave her time to heal. Now she just has a small tuft of feather that don't grow back on the back of her head.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

@Misfits Farm 92 ,

This aggressive male was once bullied by white birds, 3 females and a male, before I culled the white male. All this little dark bird wanted was the one non-white hen as his. Maybe power has corrupted him now that he has six five females of his own? He's pretty good with the others so far, as long as they let him jump on them. This tux though, he doesn't like. He also didn't like the 3 white females; once the male white was gone, he beat them up. Now they live alone in their own convent.

Raising quail can be so hard sometimes.

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

Oh. He's a complicated little quail then.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I had a hen (she finally got over her prejudice when I put my 3 single ladies back into one pen but we'll see if it comes back when I add a male again) that hated tuxedos too. Didn't matter if it was a male or another female. She's an AH though too, of I didn't for whatever reason love her so much, I'd have culled her months ago