Need help with pairing up my female button quail with new male!

[NicoleCS]

I need advice!

I had a bonded button quail pair, then the male passed away. The hen was so unhappy and lonely. I was finally able to find a male, and at first put two seperate cages next to each other for a week. They seemed to call to each other, and the hen seemed much less stressed and lonely.

I then moved them to a larger cage, and divided it with a screen(2 weeks). They called to each other, the male definitely vocalized towards the female, and the female peeped back. They lay next to each other on opposite sides of the screen. However, when I put them in a tank and change the landscape, so they aren't territorial, the male fluffs out his feathers and wings and chases the female, then grabs the back of her neck with his beak. He also seems to peck at her back. It looks very aggressive. The female sporatically runs off, jumping, and peeps while laying low to the ground. This repeats until I replace the screen. I feel so bad for the female. This doesnt look anything like the courtship she had with her mate.

Additionally, I've put in millet, meal worms, fruit and veggies, no decor, decor, and hiding spots. The same behavior occurs and all of the food is completely ignored.

Any advice and feedback is appreciated!!

 

[JaeG]

This site might give you some ideas: https://floridabuttonquail.wordpress.com/how-to-pair-up-male-and-female-button-quail/

 

[blackdust951]

hidid that website answer your question?

 

[DK newbie]

I have one male, that I'd successfully paired up with a female. Most of the time they were fine, but every now and then he went into chase mode - growling, puffing up and chasing the hen. This caused her to boink in their cage.
He had done this with his old mate as well, but she figured out how to fly to a low shelf in the cage when he chased her, staying put till he had calmed down. The new hen didn't catch on to this, but the chasing was occasional and I really wanted his color genes passed on, so I put up with him.
Then the hen went broody and all of a sudden the 'occasional' chase happened several times a day and very violently.
A few days in to the broodiness, I put him in the bachelor pad - he was absolutely fine there, no aggression to the other males.
Then when the chicks had hatched and were several days old, I tried putting him back in - he completely ignored the chicks and went straight into chase mode, chasing the hen around so focused he didn't even see my hand coming when I caught him again.
I then but him in a different cage with two wild colored hens - both his previous partners had been blue face - and he has now been there for around 1½ months with no issue at all. I haven't seen or heard him chasing them once. I think he is even kind of helping one of the hens incubating her eggs.
I introduced another male to the blueface hen and she did growl at him and chase him a bit for the first few hours, but by the next day they were fine.

I have a couple of theories as to why his attitude changed so much:
The new environment could have done it, at least initially. It wasn't his 'kingdom', everything was new. And there were two girls - his had had his previous partners at the same time for a while and this did not cause him to stop chasing them though.
Then there was the color of the girls. Maybe the bluefaces just brought something up in him.
Finally the new cage is darker than the old one. It's illuminated by a Christmas light chain and whatever ambient light that might enter - the old one housed budgies as well and was kept more well lit for their sake.

In conclusion, I suggest you try the multiple hiding places suggested in the link, perhaps a low shelf for the hen to escape to, possibly reduced light, pad the top of the enclosure so the hen can't get hurt from boinking and then allow them a few hours together so the roo has a chance to get it out of his system but separate right away if you see blood - and keep in mind that sometimes compatibility just isn't there no matter how hard you try.

 

[MageofMist]

I noticed that the 'umbrella dance' thing appears to be part of the courtship, the male chases the hen around for a bit before they suddenly settle down. When I put Coco in with Rex.JR, I didn't really divide them, though they could hear each-other from before that when I had her in another enclosure. I just put her in with him and carefully watched. After the chasing and what looked like fighting at first, though there wasn't any injuries from it, they then settled down and Coco, well, decided she REALLY liked Rex.JR.

She was shy at first, and was hiding in the nestbox, but she'd pop out, run over to him and squat next to Rex.JR so he'd mate with her before darting back into her box. She did this multiple times before he finally went into the box with her... I swear, I could hear their mating squeaks all night and poor Rex.JR looked exhausted in the morning after! And she was still pestering him to mate with her, I was worried she was gonna mate him to death! Thankfully they calmed down with that too and the mating isn't that frequent now.

The two are very closely bonded now and Coco is quite the feisty hen I found out, she has lunged at my hand a few times when collecting her eggs.