Quail attacking

[Bettyboop1975]

I purchased 3 Japanese quails from a breeder. She told me they were ( as far as she was aware) 3 females. I bought them in April 2015 as 3week olds. after a few weeks I noticed one of the quials had a large chunk of skin missing so I put her at the top of the cage away from the other 2 untill she had healed. I rung the breeder and she said she had never experienced this problem(I am now starting to think she has no idea at all). Only a week ago I noticed one of the quails singing loudly and have now found it to be male so he has been removed. However the other 2 are very quiet. the day after I removed him the same quail had both eyes pecked and closed and bleeding so once again put at top of cage till healed ( Im now very confused). Yesterday I have come home from work and the very same quail has had her head half pecked off. She is now removed completely never to return to that same cage as I feel soo sorry for this little battler. Does anyone know why the other quail would be attacking her? is it to a male and not singing yet? Do 2 females together attack each other? I have just bought a leghorn chicken which is new to flock so is in the cage with the quails would it be the chicken not the other quail?

 

[The Quail Guru]

You can get female bullies of the flock, it could be a lack of space maybe? They need 1 square foot each. Or she might just be very aggressive, I have had this problem before and could never keep the two quails together. And I wouldn't recommend keeping chickens with quail as quail can get very dangerous diseases off of chickens. There's a possible chance that the chicken will be the bully and not the other quail. The best thing to do is to keep the chicken and quails all separating in their own cages and try to buy them another partner - same goes to the chicken.