Scalping indication of gender?

[Dingo]

Last night my pharaoh roo decided to scalp one of the english whites I bought a few weeks ago. I'm not certain of the whites gender, but it's not swollen nor has it started crowing but no eggs either. The 2 that turned out to be roosters are both breeding, swollen and crowing. Will a roo scalp a hen for no good reason?
I had checked on them looking for eggs, s/he was fine, checked back 10 mins later and there was blood everywhere. S/he was in a set up with a 1:4 ratio.

 

[mochicken]

are you sure it just didnt jump up and tear its head up on the cage?

 

[Dingo]

Positive, my pharaoh roo was also covered in blood, mainly on his face. And the one big spot of blood inside the cage was toward the middle on a branch they have to climb on. There was no doubt as to who dun it.

ETA: the cage they were in has a solid OSB roof.

 

[bfrancis]

What is your cage size and what are you feeding them? Also you said "that you bought a couple weeks ago"...how did you integrate into the existing birds?

These are basic questions...but if you are feeding a sub-standard feed, less the 24% that could cause issues.

Minimally there should be 1 sq ft per bird...but some quail need more, others can do with less.

If you just put another bird into an established "territory", that too can cause problems.

1:4 is good...if you're sure of the sexes...2:3 could cause problems with not only in fighting but the hens getting pretty abused.

There could be other reasons for the attack, but maybe this will give you something to troubleshoot with.

For giving your scalped bird first aid, you can apply "blu kote" it will hide the red blood that gets the quail to act like sharks as well as an antiseptic wound dressing...you can put neosporan with out the pain reliever on it. (there are two schools of thought on this...positive and negative, I use it with no issues when required)

hope this helps.

 

[The Critter Place]

I'm sorry to hear about your bird. i hope it recovers just fine!

I had something similar right before thanksgiving, and like you, it was a white bird that was attacked. and It was the only white in the cage.
I wonder if it has something to do with white?

I had no squabbles in that cage, it's in the laundry room in the house so I saw the birds alot. lol.. woke to a horrible mess, and the only bird hurt was the white.

The other males got along until just 2 weeks ago. I had to separate 2 out. They are 8 weeks now .

 

[Dingo]

Quote:
They eat Manna Pro, I believe it's min protien is 24%, plus oyster shells and grit. The cage they were in was new, the pharaoh was in solitary confinement cause one of my other roos didn't like him. It was just 5 birds in a 4x2 cage(cage can be seen in the new home for tut thread). The only ones who were established as a colony were the 3 other hens but they were new to the territory. The only bird I'm not certain of as far as sex goes is the white bird. I put neosprin on the wound, I also gave it a little sugar water to give it a little boost. It has been eating and bathing in the shavings so unles infection sets in the bird should make it.