Overcrowding quail or mixing breeds

[Prettiest Frog]

I've seen these questions a lot lately, and I thought I should post this:

This is why you don't put to many roosters together, and this is why you don't mix breeds. This was what a button did to another button in the time span between the victim's first squawk of alarm and me getting to the cage and getting it open. Less than two minutes.

Tux here will probably recover, I got him separated and doctored quickly.

I have 6 button quail in a 2' x 2' x 6' aviary with plenty of pine boughs to provide cover.

 

[Quail_Cottage]

Wow, thats not pretty. And they are the same breed, just to close for comfort. newbie question coming ...so what do you do to doctor for that? I ge the separation, but do i need a cupboard full of meds too? Trying to get an idea what to get before I get any birds. Thx! Hope the little one makes a full recovery.

 

[Prettiest Frog]

Quote:
We actually misidentified Tux here as female and left him in the aviary with another rooster. I cleaned him off and disinfected him, and separated him from the others in a nice, clean area. There are a lot of different disinfectants that can be used. I recommend Blue Kote as a dressing and suggest if you have any type of birds, keep some on hand.

They are all buttons, but different colorations.

 

[First To Hatch]

Consider yourself lucky thats an easy injury to deal with... mine always go for the head, had birds living to gether comfortably since Auguest then they attacked each other last month. Had six injured birds---alot of blood-- 2 had serious head injuries with a ton of blood and the skull showing on one of them, 3 had messed up ears, and 2 had there eyes pecked, I thought one had his eyes completely pecked out. And they were able to do that within less than 24 hours, they work FAST!!! But all those birds are healthy again and have been nursed back to health as much as they can be, they have theirs eyes and everything lol. But yes you never can tell what animals will do.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

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Me too. I had one Bob roo that would scalp any other male in the pen

 

[Prettiest Frog]

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So have most of mine, but this is the first injury I've had in a while and it was dramatic as heck for how fast it happened. I've had to put a bird down in the past, it's injuries were so severe. Little Tux here probably would have been killed if the attack had occurred when I wasn't home or I hadn't gone to check on the sudden squawking. But he's probably going to make a good recovery and is already perking up a bit (a dozen mealworms all to himself, what quail wouldn't perk up at that?).

I have culled a roo or two in the past for being just too vicious, even attacking hens and my hands when cleaning their pens or providing food. There is a limit to how much aggression I'll put up with, even in a nice looking well-sized bird.

 

[JJMR794]

IME.... Back wounds like that are usually inflicted by hens, not roos. I have seen very agressive and territorial hens that will take on any and all comers, including roos. (just an observation...)

 

[aprophet]

on the not enough space part I am new to quail and to keep the number of newbie questions to a minumum I have been reading university studies mostly texas and california the space recomedations from TAM are after 6 weeks 3/sq ft cali say 1/sq ft soemwhere betwwen these 2 is good?

https://agrilifebookstore.org/tmppd...essionid=9030e2df24edae3e761474d5332c21281853 (PAGE 2 ABOUT HALFWAY DOWN)

http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/japanesequail.pdf ( PAGE 5 BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER )


Does the amount of space change with the style of pen /cage because I have seen on a 24"X24"x12" holding 25 birds and they doubled the amount for a 4' x 2' x 12" are these good recommendations? thanks for any help

 

[Prettiest Frog]

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25 birds in a space that is 2 feet wide, 2 feet long, and 1 foot high? That's just abusive to the quail. I wouldn't put 5 birds in a space that size.

1 square foot per bird is the bare minimum.

 

[JJMR794]

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NOT NECESSARILY.... Depends on the birds and the sexes mix. But as a general rule(NOT AN ABSOLUTE RULE...) 1 sq ft per bird with coturnix. Most of my breeder pens are 4 sq ft but they house 1 roo and 4 hens without any problems/ pecking/ squabbles. Technically thats 25% over crowded, but because of the sex mix it works fine..... So there can be variables.