Troubleshooting cage setup

[RubiconChicken]

I built a 2ft x 3ft quail cage which has 1/2in hardware cloth on all sides but one. There was chicken wire on the back side yesterday and one quail had scraped its head (we could see feathers and blood). We took the chicken wore off and replaced it with a pet proof house screen yesterday after the initial incident. Well, I came home today to 2 quail that look like they got scalped and I cannot figure out why...they are still moving around and eating and drinking but look terrible.. how/why did this happen?! The only thing I can think is that my cage may be too tall and they are trying to fly up and hitting their heads on the hardware cloth. My other thought is placement of the cage. We have it in our garage but next to a window - could that be a reason for the crazy activity/injury?? Thank you in advance for any ideas!

 

[sarabeth485]

Do you know for certain the sex of the birds? Mature males will fight and cause severe injuries like that.

 

[RubiconChicken]

I know that one is for sure a female (the one in the picture). The other is a male I believe.

 

[sarabeth485]

So typically you want at least three to five females per male to avoid overbreeding and balding of the girls. Males will rarely live together peacefully and can fight to the death.

 

[RubiconChicken]

So typically you want at least three to five females per male to avoid overbreeding and balding of the girls. Males will rarely live together peacefully and can fight to the death.

Thank you. When I went to check on them this morning, I actually saw one of the males (that has no injuries) was pecking at the heads of one of the injured birds. Would males attack female birds as well?

We separated the male that was pecking at the other birds and will see how today goes.

 

[Kiki]

May I recommend adding some hiding spot type things in your cage.
Even if it's just fake plants it will help prevent some issues.

I do believe your cage is not big enough to ever house two males together in.

 

[Kiki]

To give you an idea of what I mentioned above...

 

[RubiconChicken]

May I recommend adding some hiding spot type things in your cage.
Even if it's just fake plants it will help prevent some issues.

I do believe your cage is not big enough to ever house two males together in.

Thanks for the idea! We were going to build a couple of little huts for them to hide in. I like the idea of fake plants as well!

 

[Kiki]

Thanks for the idea! We were going to build a couple of little huts for them to hide in. I like the idea of fake plants as well!

I keep fake plants in all of my cages, They love to hide underneath them.

 

[ColtHandorf]

The quail are doing that to each other. Not the cage.