Wounded Feet Northern Bobwhite Quail

[PennysHennys]

Yesterday I noticed one of my male bobs limping and found the tops of both feet where they join the leg (ankle?) had what appeared to be pecked places. I cleaned them and placed him in a cage by himself. Today, I found the other male and a female in similar condition. Eleven bobs were in a 3x5 mostly wire pen, 2 males and 9 females at 35 weeks of age. I check on them 3-4 times a day and had not noticed any fighting. Does this sound like the type of injury from bobs fighting? I also wondered if the injuries could be from rodents? The cage is pretty tight, so it would have to be a small mouse at that. If I separate everyone, can the males be put together? Will the 9 females fight? Thank you in advance!

 

[DK newbie]

I never heard about pecked legs from fighting, but but keeping 11 bobwhites in 15 square feet sure does sound like trouble.
Once healed, I'd give each male its own large enclosure along with one female. Then I guess you might be able to keep the remaining 7 females in the 15 sqft pen, but I'm not too sure - more space would definitely be better.

 

[PennysHennys]

I never heard about pecked legs from fighting, but but keeping 11 bobwhites in 15 square feet sure does sound like trouble.
Once healed, I'd give each male its own large enclosure along with one female. Then I guess you might be able to keep the remaining 7 females in the 15 sqft pen, but I'm not too sure - more space would definitely be better.

Thank you for your advice! What are your thoughts on putting the recovering males together until they are healed? There are just 2. Running out of cages! My goal is to end up with 4 breeding pairs, the others are scheduled for dinner or release.

 

[DK newbie]

I'd put them in separate enclosures. You might be lucky and they are ok together - you might also be unlucky and one bird kills the other.

 

[PennysHennys]

Thanks again. I think I will use caution and cage separately!