blood in the house

rita

rita

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today i found blood in the quails house. i have a male and one that i am unsure of as he is not showing any foam but has the feathering of a male, any way this one had blood on his chest where some one had attacked him, do you think my male had a go at him because he might be a male even though there is no sign that he is, i check him every day but there is nothing no swelling or foam.
should i take him out and leave him on his own, i have been watching them most of the day and all seems ok, i have just put them back into their house and all is well at the moment.
 
Oh dear, my heart sank when I saw the heading to your post, Rita!
The one you know is a male will know the sex of the others, even if you don't. So it would be natural for him to try it on with a less dominant or less mature bird. Lets face it, if you leave him in with the others, all might be OK, but the likelihood is that he will either attack another younger male, or have a go at mating the girls, it doesn't matter whether or not they are laying yet. In my limited experience, such attacks seem to take place mainly overnight, even when they seemed OK during the day. To be safe, you will need to either remove him, or perhaps it would be better to divide the cage so he isnt able to get at the others but can still see them. It's useful to be able to do this when separating injured birds so they stay integrated by being in the sight of the flock, just like chickens.
 
Thank you Marigold, all was well last night no problems but you are correct it will only be a matter of time, this one must be a male but he's definitely taking his time to mature. i am going to look at some other quails tonight and i will have to separate the house up with the new comers until they get use to them, will the girls attack the new girls.
they are all out in the garden at the moment enjoying a rare bit of sunshine. the little boy has a lovely call on him not intrusive at all.
 
The new girls will probably be OK with the old ones if you could put all the girls into a cage which is new to all of them. However it may be a good idea to split the cage with mesh for 24 hours or so all the same. When I put the only girl from my second hatch in with the girls from the first hatch they seemed OK until my back was turned and overnight they had a go at her. So she lived in my hamster cage in their cage for a couple of weeks whilst her feathers grew back. There was consternation through the bars at first, but by the time she was better it was OK and I think at that point I put all of them in a new cage anyway.
Are you sure that you do know which ones are actually girls? Hope all goes well, keep posting!
 
Hi Marigold i didn't go and get any more quails, i rang Sarah and decided to wait until the weekend, hoping by then that i will know the sex this other quail is, if it's a boy she might have him to go with her red head girl quail, so at least i will know that he will go to a good home, if it's a girl i will keep what i have 4 girls and 1 boy, which would be great, but if it's 2 boys and 3 girls i will get another 2 girls from Sarah and leave her my one boy. that will give my time to set up the house to keep the girls safe from any bullying that might happen.
 
Keep an eye on the females they are normally worse then the males.
Most of the blood that I've had spilled is from females, I call them the _itches
 
0:-) Fingers crossed that i don't have to upset this happy group, still concerned if this other one is a male, taking a long time to show it's true colours, no eggs from any yet. :cry:
 
Would any of you experienced people be able to give us some advice on introducing new birds!
And should you quarantine birds from other sources, as you would do with chickens?
Theres so much written about introducing chickens, but I haven't found anything really about quail- I feel I'm playing Blind Mans Buff here!
 
i know what you mean Marigold there doesn't seem to be any information on quarantine quails and how to introduce them.
i think i will keep them separate but they can see each other so that they get use to one and other, i don't want them to get hurt.
when your male attacked your girls, was he a new male or did he grow up with them.
i know the girls can be just a nasty, as i have had problems with adding new chickens, never add one on it's own its to easy for them to pick on one, i always put in a group to a new group that way they have company when the others get a bit bossy. if i get one that is being trouble some i put that one in a cage in the run so that she can see the others
my male is laying down foam on the floor now and he does chase the girls, especially my brown one he likes her the most, but she is not hiding from him and will often come and lie down next to him.
how old were your quails when they started to lay Marigold.
 
Shazzybird said:
Keep an eye on the females they are normally worse then the males.
Most of the blood that I've had spilled is from females, I call them the _itches
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you on that :evil: 1st quartet I had about 4 years ago, one of the girls would attack the male badly. Trio Ive had for a year (touch wood) dont seem to have any problems. Yet the 6 young girls I hatched, 10 weeks approx, found one this morning with blood coming from her leg & 2 of the others pecking her relentlessly. Shes seperated in a cage within the hut so hoping all will be well when it has healed. I do think that if the main culprit continues to do this she will be culled, as I dont want a constant battle again with a nasty one.


Marigold said:
Would any of you experienced people be able to give us some advice on introducing new birds!
And should you quarantine birds from other sources, as you would do with chickens?
Theres so much written about introducing chickens, but I haven't found anything really about quail- I feel I'm playing Blind Mans Buff here!
Click to expand...

i just do the same re quarantine etc as with my chickens Marigold. :-)17 I agree theres nowhere near enough info on quail, I did learn quite a bit from the original CC site, but thats gone & the new one... well you know :-)07
 
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