wannabebirddad
Hatching
- Oct 22, 2020
- 3
- 1
- 9
Hello! I’m new here, for some background I work in a live rainforest exhibit and we have a lot of baby button quail popping up from the batch of adults we introduced to the exhibit a couple months ago. About two weeks ago we released the newly acclimated juvenile quail into the exhibit from the first batch of chicks we found. One male juvenile was a little too friendly and following others out of the exhibit and we were worried he would get hurt/was too used to human care so we had to remove him from the exhibit. Long story short, I adopted him and he has been alone for about two weeks in a good sized enclosure with plenty of care and attention while we waited for a second batch of chicks to be old enough to chose one to pair with my quail (Walnut).
I am a relatively new bird owner despite my experience caring for many different birds at my workplace so I am rightfully anxious about how Walnut is adapting to being in a domestic, apartment environment. He crowed quite often and paced/glass surfs a lot in his enclosure. We brought a younger quail which we are pretty sure is female (a bit too young for myself or my coworkers to tell yet) and the age difference between the baby and Walnut is about three weeks. They have been cohabitating with a divider and have had some supervised undivided time to meet each other over the last few days.
the baby really likes Walnut but walnut is unsure of her. He doesn’t act territorial really, he just prefers to keep his distance. But the baby is adamant about following him around and trying to burrow herself up underneath him which he hates. When she tries to show affection, he will peck at her, or run away, or both. This morning, he plucked a hunk of feathers out of her back and chased her quickly, showing a little more aggression than he has been previously.
im wondering if anyone could give me some insight on what they think this behavior means? Will they ever be able to get along? Is the age/size difference just too much at the moment? Are these early signs that he’s unhappy with her or that maybe she is male? He crows less since she has come home with us, but he paces just as much. They both just seem so stressed.
this was so long I am so sorry, but any response will be helpful. I just can’t find anything about quail behavior and I want my birds to be happy.
thank you!
I am a relatively new bird owner despite my experience caring for many different birds at my workplace so I am rightfully anxious about how Walnut is adapting to being in a domestic, apartment environment. He crowed quite often and paced/glass surfs a lot in his enclosure. We brought a younger quail which we are pretty sure is female (a bit too young for myself or my coworkers to tell yet) and the age difference between the baby and Walnut is about three weeks. They have been cohabitating with a divider and have had some supervised undivided time to meet each other over the last few days.
the baby really likes Walnut but walnut is unsure of her. He doesn’t act territorial really, he just prefers to keep his distance. But the baby is adamant about following him around and trying to burrow herself up underneath him which he hates. When she tries to show affection, he will peck at her, or run away, or both. This morning, he plucked a hunk of feathers out of her back and chased her quickly, showing a little more aggression than he has been previously.
im wondering if anyone could give me some insight on what they think this behavior means? Will they ever be able to get along? Is the age/size difference just too much at the moment? Are these early signs that he’s unhappy with her or that maybe she is male? He crows less since she has come home with us, but he paces just as much. They both just seem so stressed.
this was so long I am so sorry, but any response will be helpful. I just can’t find anything about quail behavior and I want my birds to be happy.
thank you!
