OMG can a centipede sting make my quail go crazy?

HarleyQuailison

Chirping
Sep 20, 2018
43
69
59
Ok so I posted something about my quail and situation before, hot just found a centipede in my bathroom and was wondering if a centipede sting can make my Quail go mad? She's still acting crazy and I don't know what's going on. Help!
 
Hello, welcome to BYC! I have a few questions:
Do you know what kind of centipede it was?
What kind of quail is she?
How long has she been acting this way?
Did you see a centipede bite her?
Is she displaying any other symptoms?

If you could take a video that would be great. BYC hasn't implemented a video feature yet, so you have to upload the video to youtube, and copy-paste the link here.
 
I'm sure a centipede bite would make any bird freak out for minute or two. When I was a kid I was digging through the wood pile by my barn and was hunting for salamanders, I found a centipede and put my finger on it's back and it swung up and bite me, it hurt worse than a bee sting and I was in pain for over a half an hour after that. I have seen my turkeys get stung on the head by yellow jackets before and they freak out but usually stop after a minute or two.
 
I have
If a bird were bitten, it would probably be the pain alone causing them to act strange. Do you have any video of your quail's behavior?
Only video of the first time she freaked and only when she crawled up in me for comfort. In fact, my profile photo is from get being comforted
 
Centipedes don't sting, they bite.
She may be in pain from the bite, but it should be easing up now. Can you describe what she's doing?
Well there are other possibilities with things that happened night before last and yesterday. She began when I returned from being gone all day and a huge storm had gone through here with all kinds of crazy I'm guessing, and when I returned, another came with lots of lightning flashes. I was taking my dogs out first for their potty runs (I keep all my animals in my house as I'm alone mostly, disabled, and worry about the predators here) but for 27 weeks since she hatched, she's always been used to the dogs running by and barking, and they kennel after the run out for a bit, so it was possibly the lightning #1. Then, #2 possibility is that I noticed the next day, that the smaller male had taken a cruel and bullying turn, and when she attempted to walk around, sneak to me at the mansion door, or anything, he chased and pecked her and she was petrified of him, which was very new as she and the larger male had paired up and were the dominant ones until about a week ago when the battle between the boys happened (more like a display than violence) and the larger male stopped the confrontation willingly, which I'm guessing made the smaller male feel dominant. It wasn't really an issue until yesterday when he just wouldn't let my female do anything! She's so scared of him!! Running around, flying up to the top hitting herself and then finding a place either in the second story roost or the run side of the bottom behind the weed flower bushes I placed in there for them to hide in. But that male is now gone (escaped while trying to move him to another enclosure) , so after he left, I sat with her and the other male, her mate, and everything got calm, it seemed. After a while, she went back to normal and I turned the lights off, and all SEEMED fine. They snuggled together and everything. Then this morning, spazz again and just hiding up in roosting second level. Now I can open that door and pet her, hold her, etc. She is acting afraid of everything but me. But tonight I held her, gave her mealworms and oyster shells with feed, water, and put her back in her hiding spot. She stayed there and didn't come out, but when I shut off the lights and came to bed, she suddenly came out with the male and ran the fence a minute and now I think is sleeping. I don't know what is going on, but finding the centipede is making me wonder and adding to the possibilities.
 
So your quail was by a companion attacked and put through a stressful situation, and now she's acting stressed? That sounds like a normal response.
If it's intermittent, it's not pain from a bite. Probably the centipede didn't bite her. And I would NOT put an ice pack on such a small bird anyway! You'd chill her to death. You can check her over for bumps or signs of bites if you want, but I don't think this is a response to a bite. I think she's really stressed out by recent events. Continue doing calming things and see if that helps. Let her do what seems to make her calm. If the others are still bullying her, separate her, but make sure she can see and hear them so she doesn't have an instinctive "something ate the other birds" stress response.
You said "smaller male". How many males and females do you have, and what kind is she? If she's a button quail, you should have them in m/f pairs. If she's a coturnix, you should have one male to multiple females.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom