CPQ quail calling

[Jaquilee]

Hi
I’ve some Chinese painted quail I hatched. I’ve 2 males and 2 females. I’ve tried pairing them either way. But the males are still doing their bachelor call? They both largely ignore the hens. Does anyone know why they’re doing this? Will they settle with the hens eventually? I’ve not seen either of them make any courtship efforts with either hen? Anyone have any experience with this?
There’s no fighting going on tho...

Thanks for any advice

 

[Marigold]

Hi Jaquilee - how old are they? Are the hens laying? Do CPQs have a special 'bachelor call' or is this just the male call indicating maturity? Is it possible that they are just not fully grownup yet if they're this season's birds? my experience is only with coturnix so I can't be much help I'm afraid. CPQs do seem to be more domestic in their habits than coturnix from what others have described on here so at least if they're not fighting or mating roughly no harm is being done. Are you keeping the pairs separate? Ideally 1 male and 2-3 females seems to work well from what I've heard.
i think you may just have to be patient and feel glad they're not fighting! do let us know what happens.

 

[Sandrine]

Hi Jacquilee,
In the past when I have had more than 1 male to more females I have separated them in 2 separate cages and I did notice that the males were calling the females often... If one started, the other one would soon follow and often some of the females were also doing their call afterwards.... There were 2 females to one young male in one and 2 females (or might have been 3, I can't remember) to 2 males (1 young and 1 more senior). I wasn't convinced that the male were that bothered in mating either, even though they had clearly been doing so before they were put in separate cages. They may have been doing whilst we weren't watching though lol ?
Anyway... When I got back down to 2 males + 2 females, (through natural causes unfortunately), I put both couples back together in one cage, and although it took a little adjustment at first, they soon settled together, and kind of are coupled but sometimes they seem to forget lol. The males aren't fighting, or at least very very rarely, which I was most worried about. They hardly ever do their call. At night all 4 of them bunch up together to go to sleep. They now live in a tank as well, and I think that's contributed to them becoming much calmer, instead of taking off several times a day, as soon as something would spoil them, or when I was feeding them..... Not sure that helps? Hope yours get to get along with each other at some point soon

 

[Sandrine]

Just seen my two couples dust-bathing as a couple they just dug their own little hole and were having a good time. Apologies for the poor quality of the photo but I couldn't get close enough without disturbing them lol and stuff reflect on the tank glass. But there are two CPQ's on one side (Blue and Hedgehog) and 2 on the other (Penny and Charley Jr) though you can only guess at Charley's bottom lol Blue is pretty much buried under Hedgehog, so you can mainly see a CPQ heap ?.

 

[Jaquilee]

Thank you all for your replies. I tried swapping the girls as one girl answered the call of the male in the other tank. But they weren’t happy with that. They seem to have settled now. One male is still doing his call and growling noise. But he’s sleeping cuddled up to his hen. No fighting anywhere so I’m leaving them as is.
As to the calls; I’d read in a book about the call and that it was a bachelor call inviting hens to join him. Hence my query as he has a hen with him.
Haven’t seen any mating behaviour.
Funny tho, one morning the young cock was doing his call and growl, a hen from an established pair answered him. Her Cockbird immediately started chasing her as if to tell her off.
They’re very amusing little birds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sandrine]

Yes ours used to do that too ? our bantams did that too when we had two cockerels and yet they weren't paired as such lol
When the CPQ hen got broody, she used to tell anyone off that used to venture too close to her nest... She made this cackling noise...

 

[Jaquilee]

Ahhh. That makes sense. She keeps chasing the male. She does have a nest full of eggs. If she hatches any do I need to remove the cockbird?

 

[Sandrine]

No no need. In fact he may help out on the last day before hatch by sitting in with her. He will keep going to her periodically but she's more than capable of looking after her nest. In fact, I think Mr CPQ reminds her to look after herself too and get food and water... Well he might get what he wants too at the same time ? just be ready for the hatch because I wasn't prepared the very first time and didn't realise that the chicks would be that tiny and make it through the bars of the cage first chance they got... I rescued a couple that had fallen on the floor, luckily not to their death. Once they hatched, we still left everyone together until we knew what the ratio was of boys and girls...