What can quail not eat?

[Lady_Bat]

I wouldn't. 2 males will wear 3 females out. Think of the males like human teenage boys, they want sex, like all the time. The females don't. Sadly, quail (or birds in general from what I've seen) don't get the whole "no means no" thing.

 

[Fishkeeper]

You need at least 3 females for every male, more females if you have multiple males. For 1 male, you need 3 females. For 2 males, you need at least 7 females.
Animals don't have a concept of sexual assault like humans do. Forced mating doesn't generally traumatize them. Your quail ladies really don't want to have a male after them all the time, though. Among other things, the males will end up plucking out a lot of their head and neck feathers trying to hold onto them.

 

[Lady_Bat]

Nonsense. Don't you ever watch Law & Order, SQU (Special Quail Unit)? It covers all the legal ins & outs of quail sexual assault/rape.

I can tell you for a fact that stressed birds don't lay eggs. Having too many males creates a lot of stress on the females, complete with bald patches. Our ladies didn't lay when the boys were over loving them.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Right, because being jumped on a lot, especially by multiple males at once trying to compete, is stressful. It's not the mating that's the problem, it's the fact that mating requires jumping on. And if they were traumatized, they'd do things like avoid males strongly even after the number of males was lowered. You'd run into the same issue if you had, for some reason, an overabundance of female quails that tried to mate with other females, like some will if their hormones are out of whack.

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

Nonsense. Don't you ever watch Law & Order, SQU (Special Quail Unit)? It covers all the legal ins & outs of quail sexual assault/rape.

I can tell you for a fact that stressed birds don't lay eggs. Having too many males creates a lot of stress on the females, complete with bald patches. Our ladies didn't lay when the boys were over loving them.

Haha that gave me a laugh !
To op:
Now last month a racoon ate all but one of my adult hens,
But i had 3 females 4.5 weeks old in the house, i put my adult hen in with them and i guess because they were younger than her they didnt bother her, and because she was out numbered she didnt bother them.
A week later i got 2 , 5 week old males and added them, they are now very content, all laying eggs and getting along good, it really worked well to put one hen to 3 younger hens (before they started laying!) It was nice not to have to wait several more weeks until they were full adults so the hen didnt have to stay alone much.
I am planning to add 3 more hens when they are old enough so my ratio of male to females is better.
I have kept a male with a female before, it worked for maybe 1.5 to 2 weeks before she got so plucked and bedraggled looking, that i finally had to separate them for a while til igot more hens, it just doesnt usually work.. .

 

[CuteQuail]

Ok thanks for all the help! I haven't seen signs of fighting yet in my now 6 week old quail but still keeping an open eye. Would 1 male to 4 females be good? My one hen has been making a sound a lot like a cat purring but higher pitched and in intervals. What is that supposed to mean?

 

[CuteQuail]

She usually does that sound when I get near and is a lot more scared of me then usual. I haven't done anything to her and I don't see any injuries. Is this a common occurrence?

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

She usually does that sound when I get near and is a lot more scared of me then usual. I haven't done anything to her and I don't see any injuries. Is this a common occurrence?

They can make a suprising amount of different sounds. When they start reaching laying age mine seem to go through a skittish faze too, i think its normal. I even have one young hen right now that decided my hand is an enemy and pecks me when i go to steal eggs haha! She still eats out of my hand come mealworm time though.

 

[CuteQuail]

I think my quail have started to fight. One quail pecks at the others and fights over mealworms.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Yes, that happens with the non-ideal gender ratios. You really need to take all the extra males out.