plucked feathers on head

[ChickieMama84]

Most of my coturnix females have feathers that are plucked from the back of their heads. I noticed one of the males doing it while he tries to mount. I have been looking through the forums but not finding some consistent information. Should I just separate him? Clip the tip of his beak? Make him meat? We only have 2 males right now and 8 females. Would a plastic tote work for him that is normally used for a brooder box? I read that sometimes just separating them for a day or two would change it but it doesn't work for all quail.

 

[Tdubg22]

Kind of new to this, but I believe that is pretty common. Most birds do it.

 

[dc3085]

The female without feathers on her head is being over-bred. If you have 2 roosters to 8 hens in the same cage this is probably why. It's normal for some feather mussing but they shouldn't be scalping girls to the skin. you really don't have enough hens to have 2 roosters in the same enclosure. You can do ok with Coturnix set up 1:3 or 1:4 (roostersns) when they arent mixed but if you have two roosters you should have at least a 1:5 and preferably closer to 1:7. You can either break them up into two groups or give them a lot more space to solve this problem. If her head looks wounded at all you need to separate her until her feathers come back and then slowly re-introduce her. If a bird bleeds the rest of the flock will kill it out of instinct and this can lead to bad habits that are almost unbreakable.