can anyone ID this breed please?
- Thread starter eidolonX
- Start date
They look like coturnix to me
You might have problems with the males if you introduce females. Coturnix females on their own will usually live peacefully and productively together, but males will fight each other and will also be very rough and can cause really horrible injuries to the females when clinging on to the unwilling females with their beaks when mating. Have a look at some of the previous posts on here for more information.
How did you come to rescue them? Surplus males are always a problem for people who incubate quail eggs, as there are usually more males than females in a hatch, and they simply can’t all go on living together, as I found out for myself, the hard way! Commercial breeders usually sell the males to restaurants etc.
How did you come to rescue them? Surplus males are always a problem for people who incubate quail eggs, as there are usually more males than females in a hatch, and they simply can’t all go on living together, as I found out for myself, the hard way! Commercial breeders usually sell the males to restaurants etc.
Marigold said:
Funny you should say that...
First of all, I work at a prison and the prisoners have an aviary to look after. As you correctly pointed out, they had an excess of males and the females were being harrassed and practically assaulted all day so they separated two males out. Problem is that these two males just sat in a cardboard box for a week. I wasn't happy with this so I took them home.
I got 5 females yesterday, didn't end well either. The two males went mental, ended up fighting and one was badly injured so I've pulled him out and the other male is now living harmoniously with his 5 females. The injured male is much better today so I'm going to get him a new coop and give him some company in there.
Can quails live in male-female pairs? Or should the ratio always be higher?
There are threads on here about Chinese Painted Quails (CPRs) who can live in devoted family groups where the male takes loving care of a couple of females and where the females lay eggs, sit on them and rear chicks.
But with coturnix I can only speak from my own experience. I got really fed up with coming down in the morning and finding yet more blood all over the cages and another badly injured female. The males grab hold of the females with their beaks, on their shoulders or heads, without any preliminaries, it’s basically rape. The females try to shake the males off but the males hold on even when dislodged, and their weight often tears chunks out of the females body. I had to put down one female who had her eye and much of her face removed. At the time I was hatching them, so I tried removing the males as soon as I could sex them, but often they seemed to turn into boys overnight - they would be peaceful, quiet little birds one day, then the hormones would come raging in during the hours of darkness, and another female took the brunt.
Also the male-female ratio was crazy - out of two hatches, totalling 19 chicks, I got 7 females and 12 males. I got to the point where I simply culled the males as soon as I could be sure of their sex, and the six remaining girls lived happily and peacefully together for several years and laid hundreds of eggs between them.
I’m not surprised that your males fought in the presence of the females. However I am surprised that all the females are still intact. I would watch the situation very carefully, prepare a hospital cage and make sure you have some of that purple antiseptic spray for birds in stock, in case of injury. I hope you’re right and that they can live together, and I’ll be very interested to hear how they get on.
If you do go ahead with finding more females for the other male, again I shall be interested to hear how it goes. You are going to end up with rather a lot of quails though. If you do find the females are suffering, I’d advise the chop for the males. The eggs are lovely, however!
But with coturnix I can only speak from my own experience. I got really fed up with coming down in the morning and finding yet more blood all over the cages and another badly injured female. The males grab hold of the females with their beaks, on their shoulders or heads, without any preliminaries, it’s basically rape. The females try to shake the males off but the males hold on even when dislodged, and their weight often tears chunks out of the females body. I had to put down one female who had her eye and much of her face removed. At the time I was hatching them, so I tried removing the males as soon as I could sex them, but often they seemed to turn into boys overnight - they would be peaceful, quiet little birds one day, then the hormones would come raging in during the hours of darkness, and another female took the brunt.
Also the male-female ratio was crazy - out of two hatches, totalling 19 chicks, I got 7 females and 12 males. I got to the point where I simply culled the males as soon as I could be sure of their sex, and the six remaining girls lived happily and peacefully together for several years and laid hundreds of eggs between them.
I’m not surprised that your males fought in the presence of the females. However I am surprised that all the females are still intact. I would watch the situation very carefully, prepare a hospital cage and make sure you have some of that purple antiseptic spray for birds in stock, in case of injury. I hope you’re right and that they can live together, and I’ll be very interested to hear how they get on.
If you do go ahead with finding more females for the other male, again I shall be interested to hear how it goes. You are going to end up with rather a lot of quails though. If you do find the females are suffering, I’d advise the chop for the males. The eggs are lovely, however!
Marigold said:
Thanks for the information, I can already see similar issues arising with my birds so I'll keep a close eye on things.
I'm doing this more as a hobby than anything else. I'll pinch the eggs but I won't be breeding and I don't eat meat so won't be killing any birds. I think I'll try to set the injured male up with a couple of mates and hope he treats them ok like his brother does, if not I'll have to rethink the setup.
Thanks again!
Good luck! If and when you need the purple antiseptic spray for birds, it’s best to spray some in a saucer and apply it with a cotton bud to the injury, rather than ending up with an all-purple quail. I got a small second hand hamster cage for injured females, which I put in their bigger cage, so they could see her and she wouldn’t have to face integration problems when returned to the group. Like all poultry, introductions to an established group can be difficult.
