New Here Had 3 Quail, Now 2 :-0 Since Last Night, My Story

HarleyQuailison

Chirping
Sep 20, 2018
43
69
59
Hi everyone. I recently got 3 Bobwhite Quail for therapy(was suggested) and I love them!! But recently I've had an issue I don't understand at all. So first let me tell you a little about myself. I'm 50 years old and disabled. I have bred Bluenose American Bully's for Show for over 9 years, and 7 years ago we bought a male pup for breeding, with Champion and Grand Champion Bloodlines. He ended up being my baby boy from day 1, and by 6mo was my registered Emotional Support Dog. We were together ALL the time. We were about to freeze his semen for future sales because he was 6 1/2 years old, when he suddenly wasn't feeling good, vomiting, drinking lots of water, so I called my "trusted vet of 10 years" emergency line, which no one answered for over 2 hours, and when they did, he was sleeping and fell asleep on the phone. I woke him long enough for him to tell me to bring my dog in right away. I got my dog there as soon as I could, being it was almost a 2 hour drive. We were made to leave him there for 5 hours for testing, then were given some crazy diagnosis, and given all kinds of medicine that was supposed to make him feel better within a week. But not only did he not get better, he got worse, new symptoms, etc. So I called to see if I could ring him back in, only to be told they were "too busy" and, "the next step is to neuter him"????????? I was so upset, but I figured, he was the all knowing vet, so I am just going to have to trust him. A few days later, my fiance' and co-owner of my boy called again, and got the same response, but he blew up because it had been far too long since he ate, we were forcing all these medications on him he knew were not good so he was trying to reject them, and so they prescribed another medication that was supposed to make his appetite increase. He died within 3 doses of this medication, an agonizing death. I was devastated, especially after finding out the "trusted vet" had mixed my dog's tests up with other dogs, because he was "too busy", and the medications poisoned my dog to death. That said, I began going to grief therapy, and since I had other dogs and that was not helping, so bobwhite quail were suggested. I had a really hard time with hatching my first time, and only 3 hatched alive, one died in the first two days, and the other at three weeks old after I took them from their brooder into a beautiful bird mansion I bought and secured for them from Cocci, something I learned about from you guys here in a post "Quail Diseases and Cures" So then I was left with 1, which I could have sworn was male, but turns out is female. She began getting lonely and demanding my constant attention, which I could not give obviously. So when she was 15 weeks old, I set out to find her company. Not an easy task as you either have to incubate eggs or buy at least 50-100 at a time. I finally found someone who was local with two 2wk old Bobwhites, and bought them for $5 each. I prayed one was male and one female, but it is looking like both are males, one much bigger than the other, and now the same size as my girl Harley. So they are now 12 weeks old, and Harley girl is 27 weeks old. All has been great for 10 weeks, but suddenly, in the last week, the larger male has been mating with her, but she has been receptive. I don't think he was even doing it right, I don't know for sure, but it looks like the videos I've seen. Then the past couple days I've been really busy and haven't spent the usual hour I spend twice a day with them. Last night we had a big storm, thunder, lightning, etc., and I was gone all day. When I got home, I did my normal routine, take dogs in pairs outside to potty, but they went fast because they don't like storms, and then, Harley was freaking out! She went berserk!! Flying up hitting her head, running all around the mansion, just freaking!! I tried calming her with my voice but she had lost it! Then, after finishing the dogs, I brought their mealworms and water over, and sat down and opened the door calling her to calm down. She ran out to me, jumped around a minute, then ran up my arm and I grabbed her and held her close, calming her down. She snuggled in tight and burrowed into my neck and chin and I just held and petted her talking calmly. She was out of breath and stuff and very nervous, but did calm down after 45 minutes of holding her. I did notice that she had that cream stuff on her genital area, but I don't think that would do it, because she's been letting him all week, inviting him even. I'm thinking the lightning maybe? Anyways, I decided after calming her that i was time for them to go to bed, and turned the lights off, and they went to sleep. But this morning, she flipped again!! I read a thing about getting them to drink raw sugar and salt in warm water, and it seemed to work, but she is still isolated and acting weird. I'm worried she is going to injure herself! What is making her freak out and how can I stop this?? I can't sit and hold her forever! ***NEW DEVELOPMENT!!! SO AFTER YESTERDAY'S POST, I SPENT THE REST OF THE DAY SITTING WITH MY QUAIL, WHEN SUDDENLY I REALIZED THE ISSUE! SOMEHOW, THE LITTLE MALE HAD DEVELOPED DOMINANCE OVER THE OTHER MALE, AND MY FEMALE HARLEY, AND SHE WAS PETRIFIED OF HIM!! EVERY TIME SHE TRIED TO MOVE AROUND OR COME OUT OF HIDING, HE'D ATTACK HER AND SHE RAN IN FEAR RIGHT BACK INTO HIDING OR A BIG CRAZY CHASE ENSUED WITH FLUTTERS, ROOF OF THE MANSION HEAD HITS, WHOLE CRAZY THING. THEN I NOTICED THE OTHER MALE TIP-TOEING AROUND HIM CAUTIOUSLY. NOW SHE HAD ALREADY CHOSEN THE TIP-TOEING MALE (JAX) AS HER PARTNER, SO THIS IS AN ISSUE. SO AFTER SEEING THIS HAPPEN SEVERAL TIMES, I DECIDED TO REMOVE THE AGGRESSOR OUT AND BACK TO THE BROODER BOX, WHICH IS HUGE, UNTIL I COULD FIGURE THIS OUT. BUT WHILE DOING THAT, HE FLIPPED AND FLEW AND GOT OUT MY BACK DOOR, WHICH WAS OPEN, NOT ALLOWING ME TO TOUCH HIM WITHOUT FREAKING, UNLIKE THE OTHER TWO WHO I HOLD AND PET ALL THE TIME, HE JUST NEVER ALLOWED ME TO, AND I WAS TAKING IT SLOW WITH HIM. NOW MY BACK YARD IS A DESERT JUNGLE RIGHT NOW FROM A LEAK I WAS UNABLE TO FIX FOR A COUPLE WEEKS, SO THERE ARE 10 FT TALL CLUSTERS OF THESE HUGE BUSHES, AND HE DISAPPEARED! I TRIED TO FIND HIM, BUT COULD NOT. I'M A BIT WORRIED ABOUT HIM, AS BOBWHITE ARE NOT INDIGENOUS TO THIS AREA, SCALED QUAIL ARE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW. PEACE IS BACK IN THE QUAIL MANSION, TO AN EXTENT (I'M STILL TREATING HER WITH RAW SUGAR, SALT, WARM WATER EGG CUP MIX, AND VITAMINS) AND THE REMAINING TWO ARE SEEMING MUCH HAPPIER. BUT WHAT NOW DO I DO ABOUT THE OTHER MALE? THAT IS, IF HE EVEN SURVIVED THE NIGHT. I FEEL BAD FOR HIM, BUT HE WAS A BULLY TOO AND CAUSING ISSUE IN MY THERAPY QUAIL MANSION....SIGH. SHOULD I TRY TO FIND HIM? OR SHOULD I LET NATURE TAKE OVER?
 
let nature take its course, it is had when a pet escapes, however, trying to catch a small quail is often very stressful for the small thing. I would put food out for it and see if it reappears in your garden. Hopefully, if it gets hungry or horney if he has been breeding with your female it may come back on its own seeking the female.
 
Sorry to hear your story. Generally, when a cage bird escapes, their gone. They may hang around or may not. Predators usually get them pretty quick.
If you had a recovery cage, you might be able to recover the one that "flew the coop".
 
Thank you. I have to be at appointment so cannot do anything until I return. I don't have much hope, and don't have anything but the brooder I made. I'll put that out for him, maybe he'll go in it. I have another issue though. My female is still being nuts. And I just found a centipede in my tub. Do you think she got stung? If so, would that make her go nuts? I don't know what to do. She seems active enough... Over active like running in fear, hiding. She's always been held by me, comes to be, but seems so frightened. I don't know what's going on but scared she's going to hurt herself bad. So far, I don't see injuries other than feathers and one spot where the other male ear pecking her. I'm stressed!
 
I'd just make sure she has plenty of places to hide so she feels as safe as possible - put branches against all walls of the cage so there is a 'tunnel' behind them she can walk in while feeling hidden, piles of hay to hide in, maybe hutches of some kind.. Don't know what they have now, but from my experience with quail (not bobwhites though) they prefer to hide rather than fly when scared, so if you can stuff the cage with hiding places she might get better.
If she doesn't seem to get scared of anything specific it might simply be because she hasn't really realized the other male is gone yet - she still thinks everything that moves is him coming at her.
Be aware though that quail sometimes can't help but pecking at an injury at another bird, so her partner might actually be pecking her, not because he is aggressive, just because the injury is already there.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom