I have an all male group of Chinese Painted Quails in my aviary for a few years. They all get on fine and everything has been great up until this week.
About 2 months back one quail got a disease like fowl pox all over its feet and legs and, despite treatment, and showing some signs of getting better, it suddenly got a lot worse, with large corns growing on its toes and it was not able to walk at all and I had to euthanise it earlier this week.
Then a few days ago one of the quails was eaten by a predator in the nigh.... such a random thing, as if must have been sleeping right up to the aviary mesh at the only place there was a very small hole in the wire (which i only noticed when i looked for the missing bird as saw a ring of feathers around the hole).
Since that day the 3 remaining quails have been constantly crowing and calling..... none stop... day and night. At first I thought they were calling for the missing bird, but its been over a week now and they won't stop. I can't believe how loud they are... and we cant sleep as we can hear them in our bedroom.... and i am worried the neighbours will complain soon!!!
What is going on with them? I have had them over 3 years now and they have never been so noisy before.
I was thinking of adding a female each for the males, but I so worried that will cause problems like them fighting each other.
What does anyone think I good idea would be now.... to get them to quiet down.
PS... I have fixed the hole in the aviary mesh... and also put extra wire all around the base of the aviary in a double layer to prevent further attacks on the quail if they snuggle up to the wire at night.
About 2 months back one quail got a disease like fowl pox all over its feet and legs and, despite treatment, and showing some signs of getting better, it suddenly got a lot worse, with large corns growing on its toes and it was not able to walk at all and I had to euthanise it earlier this week.
Then a few days ago one of the quails was eaten by a predator in the nigh.... such a random thing, as if must have been sleeping right up to the aviary mesh at the only place there was a very small hole in the wire (which i only noticed when i looked for the missing bird as saw a ring of feathers around the hole).
Since that day the 3 remaining quails have been constantly crowing and calling..... none stop... day and night. At first I thought they were calling for the missing bird, but its been over a week now and they won't stop. I can't believe how loud they are... and we cant sleep as we can hear them in our bedroom.... and i am worried the neighbours will complain soon!!!
What is going on with them? I have had them over 3 years now and they have never been so noisy before.
I was thinking of adding a female each for the males, but I so worried that will cause problems like them fighting each other.
What does anyone think I good idea would be now.... to get them to quiet down.
PS... I have fixed the hole in the aviary mesh... and also put extra wire all around the base of the aviary in a double layer to prevent further attacks on the quail if they snuggle up to the wire at night.
