New Quail Arrived - Are They Okay?

[pterry97]

Hi all,

my roosters have finally come into maturity and have finally been seperated to their own cages... which means I had to go get girlfriends for them haha. 6 hens arrived today to be housed between them, and now my house is way too full of quail (14, god help me).

For the most part the girls seem to be good health, but since I know nothing about how they were raised I have some questions.

First, one of the hens has very noticeably slanted eyes. Out of all 14 she’s the only one who doesn’t have round eyes and is quite easy to tell apart. I’ve called her Damsel haha. Anyways, can slanted eyes mean anything about her genetics? Eg: chances of inbreeding, genetic faults, etc. Just wondering if there’s some sort of guide regarding who to breed and who not to breed. I obviously don’t want to be selling her hatching eggs if it’s some kind of fault.

She also seems to have been bred by a rooster previously since she has a little bald patch.

Here’s one of the other hens in comparison:

This individual seems to have a weird hairline - would that indicate she might have been scalped in the past and her feathers regrew, or does she just have a funky hairdo?

And finally, one of the hens came with an injured wing. I can’t tell if it was done during the journey or if she already sustained it where she came from, but her left wing is droopy compared to everyone else’s, and I haven’t seen her hold it up all day. I gave it a feel and it seems like there’s some swelling along the bone, I don’t know if it’s just like a mild injury (whacked it in a panic flight) or broken. She seems okay otherwise, but is there anything I can do to help it heal? Quail bodies aren’t really the best shape for makeshift slings I feel haha.

 

[FloorCandy]

In my experience, it’s hens that peck the top of the head like that. There’s no blood so it was probably mild or a long time ago. There might have been a bully the breeder had to remove. The squinty eye one might be a little dehydrated from travel, but looks ok otherwise, it doesn’t look like there’s discharge or swelling or anything. Just keep an eye on behavior, I have a droopy eyed hen that’s almost a year old and has always had droopy eyes but no other issues.

I’m not sure what your quarantine procedures are, but most people will keep new birds separate from the existing ones for 30 days. I know you’re very attached to the existing birds.

 

[pterry97]

In my experience, it’s hens that peck the top of the head like that. There’s no blood so it was probably mild or a long time ago. There might have been a bully the breeder had to remove. The squinty eye one might be a little dehydrated from travel, but looks ok otherwise, it doesn’t look like there’s discharge or swelling or anything. Just keep an eye on behavior, I have a droopy eyed hen that’s almost a year old and has always had droopy eyes but no other issues.

I’m not sure what your quarantine procedures are, but most people will keep new birds separate from the existing ones for 30 days. I know you’re very attached to the existing birds.

Yes I’m aware of quarantine, though sadly I can’t do it too well as there’s no room in my house. They’re in their own cage but it’s in the same room.

the head thing isn’t just hens; my rooster Rocky has the same bald spot from where my other rooster Peach has been grabbing him. They established a pecking order when living with each other and Peach was top roo. No injuries but Rocky has the same hairstyle as Damsel now haha