quails are fighting

[HappyBirdo]

i got 2 pairs of quails a month ago. one female somehow flew away 2 weeks ago. the remaining were living happily until a week ago the female laid three eggs and one male started pecking the other male. his head is injured. i want to separate one of them but i dont know who is the father of the eggs.the injured one or the other?should i keep the mother and father together?

 

[Binki]

What kind of quail are these? I would make sure the injured one is safe by either dividing the cage with his own food and water or in another cage where he can still be close, making sure there are places to hide/break their line of sight from each other so they aren't overly stressed until we can figure this out

 

[AuQuail]

I too been having trouble with fights... Got two cage.. Both with 1 roo and 6 hens.

First issue was cage 1 with one hen fully going nuts at the roo. After separation and re introduction of the roo... And separation of the offending Hen, (resulted with the roo nearly blind... Bleeding . head and eye.. .. Bald...) ended up fixing the problem by moving the crazy hen and placing her with my new females @ 5 weeks old (26 of them in one cage) after like a week.. The hen was at peace again....


Now.. I have the other cage with one female who is bald.. And bleeding... Eyes shut... From. What I can see it's the roo doing this to her... Got her removed when she shows signed of getting picked On.. Then after few days when her head feathers grows back.... I would put her back... Then she would get injured again... I have removed and re intro her abt 4 times. Now.. This time she got badly pecked... Blood.. Eyes can't open..

Hmm.. Really do not know what to do now..

I know not to re introduce her when bleeding.. Needs to heal up n first...
Still. No luck ...


They are a funny bird... Just trying to get into their Tiny heads and work out what's the fuss abt!!



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[AuQuail]

Mine are Japanese Quails.

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[DK newbie]

Quote:
Assuming those are button quail, from your picture - in general you can't keep more than one male in an enclosure that has females. When it's worked till now, it's probably both because it was new territory - none of them felt it was theirs and that they needed to defend it - and because breeding hormones hadn't kicked in yet. Now they've gotten used to the enclosure and the female is laying, meaning breeding hormones have started, and so trouble also starts. I'd remove the male that's hurt and see whether the hen is calling for him or seems content with the remaining male. It doesn't really matter who is the father of the eggs and both roos might have mated with her, so if she's happy with the aggressive one that will give the other one some time to heal while you either sort out a second enclosure for him and his future friend (they can die from stress if kept alone) or find someone that's willing to take him off your hands and give him a friend. If the hurt male seems very stressed being separated, I'd do as Binki suggests and keep him where he can see the others, until you can get him a friend.

 

[HappyBirdo]

thanks. i am keeping the injured one with the female and giving the other to someone (because no one would take an injured bird). i just want to make sure that the male doesnt mess with the eggs or the chicks when they hatch (if they are not his) and any advice about taking care of the chicks?

 

[PoultryAddict 1]

you can't keep mail quail toghter, they will fight to the death.
A good ratio is 3 females to ONE male,
seperate them immidentially!

 

[DK newbie]

Assuming these are button quail, one male to one female is actually a good ratio.

With regards to chicks - is the hen even sitting on the eggs yet? Some hens do go broody a lot, but there are people who have buttons for years and never have one go broody. They can lay an egg a day and never show any interest in them. So it might be a little early to worry about chicks.
If you do get chicks though, even the real father (and the mother) of the chicks sometimes attack them, so there is no real way of telling if yours will be a good dad. I don't think he's able to tell if he's their biological father though, what really matters is that he and the hen are comfortable with each other. If you see her laying down asking him to mate her and he does, the bonding between them shouldn't be an issue. Then it's just up to their instincts. And the cage and the feed and the water dish and the general temperature and the bedding and lots of other things ^^ But plenty of time to worry about that. You have 16-18 days from the day after she starts sitting on the eggs.