The Quail Fiasco

My quail breeding attempts finished when the mother Lucy up and died one day with 6 of her babies for no reason. The father Ben brought up the remaining two (both male) until they turned on him. When I found him he wasnt dead so I brought him inside and bathed his head and kept him warm but it didnt save him . I was a little cranky that I couldnt save him as his wound wasnt as bad as another one I had and I managed to save her. Maybe his will to live just wasnt very strong after losing his mate.

So I was left with 12 quail all up from various clutches and I had them spread out in 3 different cages. The 4 females were in one, and each of the other cages had 4 males in it. This was all good and well (except for the female that died from an unusually cold night) until winter started approaching its end. I went out one day to find one of the males with a bald and bloody head and neck so I rushed him inside, bathed his head and rushed out to buy a new heating source (the last one stopped working after ben died). I set him up in the padded room which is a large styro box I have with a large hole cut in the lid. I sandwich a piece of flyscreen between the box and the lid.

I thought that he was just the waekest one and therefore got picked on by all the others but when I went outside the next morning I found another male from the same cage with a large bloody spot on his head. I rushed him inside too into the same room as the other one (I was effectively starting up a hospital). I set him up the same as the other one and went outside to fix the problem. I had a close look at both the male cages and found that the two remaining quail in the cage that I pulled the injured ones out of had no sign of being pecked on at all and looked really healthy. As I watched them some more, I saw them attempting to pick on each other. I separated them and went to look at the other cage.

Two of the males in the other cage had bald backs with little wounds on them and the other one had red bald spots on his head. The last one was completely fine so I watched him for a few minutes as well and saw him bullying all the others so out he came as well.

I rang up the pet shop and asked the lady really nicely to take the three trouble makers off me and she kindly agreed. She  told me that it actually happens alot except most people just threaten to let them go into the wild  if she wont take them whereas I asked nicely.

Now, the two with head wounds are healing nicely and the others are doing fine. Im going to have to make another cage though cause two of my females have bald head while the other one is fine. No blood on them but im sure they would prefer to have head feathers and they will need to be separated to do that.

Its amazing how something so small and cute could be so evil !