Scratched Up Guineas

[newb1rdmom]

I have a set of young guineas in a pen, as I’m trying to acclimate them to our home. They’ve been inside their pen for probably about a month now, more or less, and I noticed last night several of them were all cut and scratched up.

They’re about 2 months old now so I’m not sure if maybe this is getting close to the age where they might fight for dominance or become more aggressive towards eachother or what..

I’m not sure if them developing their calls plays into their maturity/development or not but I have noticed only one of them really calls like a normal guinea — she’s female, too! — the rest still just kind of chirp.. they’ve never been very vocal even as new fresh keets they didn’t make a lot of noise so I’m not sure if maybe they’re just quiet or still working on doing calls? When they do try and call it sounds very raspy...

But we also have a metal building in the pen to be used as a shady spot for them and it is pretty old, a little rusty and beat up.. but I would assume if they were going to get cut or beat up by it they would have done so much sooner?

I know we have had a snake problem previously — about five snakes total in the span of a month and a half !! — but I haven’t seen any signs of a snake and I’m not sure if their injuries would even be a result of one, especially with it being about 5/8 guineas with injuries.

They’re acting perfectly fine; I’m just concerned because I dislike seeing them injured and I’m not sure if I need to be worrying about them fighting or injuring themselves on their building. Or even if I should worry about them getting sick similar to humans when we get cut by rusty metal, etc..

 

[Sydney65]

how bad are they scratched up? I have one that bonked his nose on the plastic screen over his play pen hard enough to leave a small mark right at the edge of the beak. I don't remember mine ever scratching each other, it was feather pulling or pecking, and that left wounds, not scratches.
If something is scaring them or they are having dominance battles,trying to get away, they very well could be injuring themselves on sharp/rough edges or hitting hard enough.

 

[newb1rdmom]

how bad are they scratched up? I have one that bonked his nose on the plastic screen over his play pen hard enough to leave a small mark right at the edge of the beak. I don't remember mine ever scratching each other, it was feather pulling or pecking, and that left wounds, not scratches.
If something is scaring them or they are having dominance battles,trying to get away, they very well could be injuring themselves on sharp/rough edges or hitting hard enough.

It’s mostly just small scratches but the one that caught my attention was one of my white guineas because they had a scrape above their eye. I’m not sure if I’d consider it a large scrape but it was maybe a few cm long? Their heads are still small so I’m not sure how to measure the size.. It wasn’t very big but it wasn’t super small either..

But yeah most of the little scrapes and cuts were around their face area/near the beak or above the eyes. I’m not sure if that’s just from pecking or what?

There was an armadillo out near the pen last night though so maybe that spooked them? I’m not sure when it happened because I check on them around 5-5:30 whenever I go out to collect eggs from the chickens and they looked perfectly fine then — I noticed around 10pm.

I know before we had a snake right inside the pen under the board they were roosting on and they were perfectly calm so I’m not sure if the armadillo would have flustered them or not?

If you’d like I can try and get a picture of some of them for reference. It will just be a little difficult because they tend to run from me quite a bit lol. I was only able to notice the cuts because they were already roosting for the night.

 

[newb1rdmom]

Here is a picture for reference. This one has the most cuts on it. They’re actually not quite as bad as I thought but they’re still cut up which bothers me. I couldn’t really get any good pictures of any of the others because I couldn’t get too close and the zoom distorted the images a little too much to notice anything especially on the darker guineas.

And I know they are panting in this image. I live in Texas and its 95° out right now. They have cool water and before I disrupted them they were laying in the dirt cooling off.

 

[R2elk]

Here is a picture for reference. This one has the most cuts on it. They’re actually not quite as bad as I thought but they’re still cut up which bothers me. I couldn’t really get any good pictures of any of the others because I couldn’t get too close and the zoom distorted the images a little too much to notice anything especially on the darker guineas.

And I know they are panting in this image. I live in Texas and its 95° out right now. They have cool water and before I disrupted them they were laying in the dirt cooling off.

That looks like wire cuts to me. If you are concerned, paint them with Blu-Kote.

 

[newb1rdmom]

That looks like wire cuts to me. If you are concerned, paint them with Blu-Kote.

Wire cuts?? How do you think they managed to do that? And why now when they’ve been in their pen for a month or so now?

I’m not sure what Blu-Kote is but I’ll look into it! Do you think I should be concerned or do you think it’s nothing?

 

[R2elk]

Wire cuts?? How do you think they managed to do that? And why now when they’ve been in their pen for a month or so now?

I’m not sure what Blu-Kote is but I’ll look into it! Do you think I should be concerned or do you think it’s nothing?

I don't bother about it. It can happen if they get cornered or are just running the fence trying to get out. Thin wire cuts very easily. Using Blu-Kote will keep the others from pecking at the wounds.

 

[newb1rdmom]

I don't bother about it. It can happen if they get cornered or are just running the fence trying to get out. Thin wire cuts very easily. Using Blu-Kote will keep the others from pecking at the wounds.

Oh okay! I have noticed whenever they get frightened they run into the corner fencing and huddle and will push eachother around and I had disturbed them quite a bit that night because I tried putting some treats on their board and they got very upset by that.. That may have been what did it. Hmph. I guess I’ll have to keep a closer eye on them! Thank you for the feedback!

 

[Sydney65]

You'll find blu-kote at TSC or whatever your farm supply store is. If they huddled, whoever was on the inside cld get pressed against the fence. You're going to see more as they do start pecking at each other, and they can be brutal about it.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Wire cuts?? How do you think they managed to do that? And why now when they’ve been in their pen for a month or so now?

I’m not sure what Blu-Kote is but I’ll look into it! Do you think I should be concerned or do you think it’s nothing?

Last year I was brooding keets in my garage while building a new coop. I ended up leaving them in the garage brooder too long, and the brooder has a hardware cloth top. The guineas would startle about something ridiculous, like me walking past for the 500th time, and then one would fly into the wire top, startling the rest who would also all fly into the top... Their heads looked a lot like your pic and they were about the same age too. They also had some dominance battles that I’m sure contributed more to their banged up heads. Since they were already so panicky, I did not attempt to catch and treat them. Their head scrapes healed quickly once I got them into the new, larger coop space, and I did not observe them pecking each other at the scrapes.