What hurt my poor girls?

[quail newbie]

We have a colony of coturnix that are all the same age, about two months old 12 girls and 3 boys. The other day one of the girls was going to lay an egg (the first one to reach maturity) but she looked a bit banged up so I brought her in because the boys were riding her pretty hard. I guess the next girl to be ready took some abuse last night but the damage was so bad that I'm wondering if something else could have gotten in the pen. she had a huge gash under her wing and her leg was broken badly. The bone was sticking through the skin and she was in BAD shape when I found her the boys were all over her. I took all of the boys out and put them in the new bachelor pad until I know what is going on. The poor girl was in so much pain and we couldn't do anything more for her so we had to put her down. My question is will roo's do this or am I looking for something else?

 

[citalk2much]

I have never seen a roo do that much damage. Wow poor thing

 

[JJMR794]

You Have A Problem And I Dont Think Its The Roos....

 

[Crazy4Chicks]

I have 3 females with 1 male - and my hens have the bald spots on the back of the head and they all have lack of feathers on the back side and I think one of them has alittle feather damage on her wings

but none of them are badly abused - no blood drawn no broken bones

so i think something is either trying to make a meal out of your birds ar something has scared the crap out of them and they hurt themselves jumping around

only a guess though

hope you figure it out soon

 

[quail newbie]

I checked the pen inside and out, nothing could get in or out and the inside has netting pulled tight so if they get freaked out and fly they just bounce They were all a bit stressed but now that they are all separated everything is calm again. I don't know what else it could be

 

[shelleyd2008]

I don't see anyway that a roo could cause a hen to break her leg, not even if the roo was 10 times bigger than the hen. I would say that something has tried to grab the poor girl from underneath the pen.

 

[rbar]

Do you have a cat?

RBar

 

[quail newbie]

We have a cat as do all of our neighbors. The pen is more like a chicken koop with a run, metal wire on the outside to keep the bad guys out and netting on the inside to keep the birds safe. We're going to put them in for a few days and see if that helps

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
DITTO! I'M WITH SHELLEY ON THIS ONE! ARE THEY IN A WIRE CAGE UP OFF THE GROUND? CLD SOMETHING HAVE REACHED UP AND GRABBED HER AND TRIED TO JERK HER THRU THE BOTTOM, OR A SMALLER CAGE THAT A LARGER ANIMAL HAS SHAKEN UP AND DOWN TRYING TO GAIN ACCESS MAYBE???

 

[quail newbie]

The koop is 8'x5' and the run is 8'x5'x5' and if there is a cat they stay by the building. I don't know what to do I went out there to do role call and one of my roos Dex is missing. No holes under the run no rips in the netting and the fence hasn't been touched. I have searched the entier place and the largest hole is 3/4 inch. The latches were not opened and the combination lock (to keep my 3 year old pest out) is on there. What could this be? We have no raccoons or snakes. Anybody? Please?