Quail problem, injury and behavioral Great News 12/23

[WriterofWords]

I have three Coturnix quail, I thought were two girls and boy, turns out it is two boys and girl. One of the boys was picked on by the other male, that is when I found out it was a male. It has lost an eye and the back of his head looked like raw meat. I brought him in and treated the back of his head with Nitrofurizone and he is healing wonderfully. Today I noticed the female who was still with the male outside was pecked clean from the top of her head to her tail so I brought her inside and she is with the other male in my office.
What do you think I should do about that other male? I don't think I can put these other two back in with him and have them live very long. Is this common behavior among quail? I guess I'm spoiled to all my roos that get along so well and I wasn't expecting this to happen.

 

[chickenma]

Since they are both males, one of them will start a fight or they will both start. This is simply because they want to show who is the boss, and show off to the female. It is good of you to to treat him and the female, and to take them away from the aggressive male. What my DH does if there is a lot or to many males for the females is kill them. It is better for the wellfare of the rest of your flock

.(or the other few

). Or, if you want to keep him, my DH puts it alone in a little compartment by itself, and it is a goody-to-shoes thereafter. Aggresive males will hurt your other birds. The best thing you can do is get rid of it. There is no cure for fighting.
Good luck and merry christmas

 

[WriterofWords]

Thank you, I agree they can't go back together and the two that are hurt are happy in the office with a heat lamp and nice big cage to themselves. Meany is outside by himself in a nice roomy cage with a quilt and feedbags for warmth tonight because the temp is dropping. I'll try and find him a home, if not he's stew.

 

[WriterofWords]

Mr. Meany is now a Texas quail,,, and the other two adults are thrilled for him.
Now the great news!! The scab peeled off the back of my males head that was hamburger a few days ago and it looks great, but even better the scabbing over his eye came off too and he still has the eye! I was sure it was gone. I think he can see out of it too, but I was just so excited to see that he had two eyes I didn't really check.