Quail being bullied...

[QuailMom14]

Hello, I have three female bobwhite quail in one cage (originally I had more) the cage is I think "big" for the three of them. Yesterday i noticed one of the females is picking on the other one, her beak area was bleeding yesterday but I wasnt sure it was because of fighting then I just recently came out and noticed there was blood around the cage and her nose was bleeding again. They have plenty of food and water throughout the day and have been fine since ive gotten them last year I dont know why she is being so aggressive all of a sudden. My question is... I'm seperating the one with the bloody nose all I have right now is a good sized tub, should I bring her inside? I was planning on leaving her outside but just want to make sure. I don't want her being attack or something :|

 

[Ebony Rose]

Do you know which is the aggressor? Might wish to remove her from the covey instead for a half-week, knock her down a peg or two on her perceived pecking order.

 

[QuailMom14]

I just noticed another one of the birds has a less severe injury to the nose but I'm not sure if that's the aggressor or also being picked on.

 

[QuailMom14]

This is the other quail

 

[le_bwah]

I'm not a Bobwhite owner, but are you certain that what you have are females? I was under the impression that a white "face mask" and throat indicated a male bird, not a female.

I also thought Bobwhites were better kept in pairs during their breeding season—if it's that time of year in your area, they might be feeling territorial regardless of their sex.

 

[Danny C.]

The bobwhites you have in pictures are Males.

 

[QuailMom14]

Oh ok I might have mixed the gender up. I originally had them in pairs but a few of them had died. I'm worried if I put more bobwhites in with these they might become agressive to the new ones? Does anyone know if that's true or not?

 

[QuailMom14]

Thank you for opening my eyes up to that

 

[DK newbie]

You can keep bobwhites in 'coveys' with several birds of each sex during winter. In the breeding season, you will most likely need to split them up in pairs of opposite sex. So you should either get/make two more enclosures and get a female for each of your males, or get rid of two males and get a female for the remaining one.

You can't just get 3 females, put them with the males in the existing cahe and expect all to be fine - they are likely to kill each other.

I'm not sure how much aggression you should expect if you just put a single male and female together without introduction first - I'd probably put a divider in the cage for the first week or so, so they can see each other before you let them live together.