plucked quails

[finchboiuk]

i went to a pet shop today and in there they have 7 Chinese painted quails everyone of them plucked really badly with blood coming from the neck and on there backs and the top of there heads. it was pretty sad to see these guys liked this they were in a very small cage 50cm by 30cm
now i know i did a bad thing because i brought 2 of them the 2 that were in the worst condition i am pretty sure i have a male and a female but buy buying them i understand that its kinda "fueling the fire" but i don't think i could have left them. anyways my question is whats the best way to get these guys back to full health i have some hibiscrub for the dry blood on there heads but is there anything else to you would recommend? also as it was dark by the time i got home there 2 small travel cages separate as i did not want them to pluck each other in these small cages however tomorrow morning i will move them in to a bigger quarantine cage but should i keep them together or keep them separate? the cage they are going into is 7ft by 3ft. if anyone can help it will be much appreciated

[Dayna]

I would keep them separated until you're positive you have a male/female pair. If you don't and it turns out to be two males they will continue to fight and inevitably one of them will end up losing the battle and their life. I really don't know much about the button quail diet but if you can get them eating something with lots of nutrition like eggs it would help perk them up. I know they love meal worms so if you got some and gut loaded or dusted them with a bird safe vitamin that would help. Otherwise I would say keep them comfortable and if possible in separate enclosures but side by side so they still have each others company. Within a day or two you will find out for sure if they are male or female. Best of luck with them

[tinysparrow]

hi, i have some button quails. i'm sure that you are going to love them! they are great birds. unfortunately, i too have seen them housed in very small cages in stores, with bleeding feet and with half of their feathers missing as well. its very sad to say the least. i think you did the right thing by buying the two of them. you will have them looking good in no time

i have a few ideas for you. like dayna said, the diet that you should give them right away is mashed up eggs so that they can get their feathers growing back quickly. as well, they require high protein, so meal worms are important, as well as a high protein duck or chicken starter (or i have heard it called duck or chicken crumble). this is available in farm stores and bird specialty stores. it usually comes in small chunky pieces, so i grind mine up in an old coffee grinder to make it into a fine powder. other than this one requirement, they will eat everything that the finches eat... seed, pellets, greens, etc.

i have also found that it is very important to provide the females with a lot of calcium sources because they lay an egg every day. so, cuttle bone is a must! i also have had them bash their heads on the top of cages, so hopefully you can watch out for that. some people put foam on the top of their cages, but if your cage is going to be pretty high you may not need to do this. they also love sand baths.

one more thing... how are their feet? do they have a lot of poop stuck to them? if so, you can put their feet in a small bowl of warm water to loosen the poop. if it stays on their too long, the skin and toes will fall off. i try to check their feet once a week.

i hope that things will go well with their recovery! if you get a chance to post pictures i'm sure we can all try to help out some more

[BlackCobra]

Hi
If the feathers missing are on the back of the neck, its pretty good chance its from mating, I learnt a long time ago, you really cant have a pair of quails, the males are too horny & don't stop mating, so the only safe way is to have around 2 or 3 hens per cock, I use to have a trio in every aviary but now I wont have any quails in my aviaries now, even tho I have bread thousands of quails, I bred over 1000 jap quails in 1 season.
The reason I don't have quails now is they fly up at night & can scare finches from nests & from perches, also there calling at night calls Cats.
Also if you have quails in a aviary don't add new ones, if you want to combine them, throw all into a new aviary at same time, that way there's no dominance or territorial fighting.

[DanteD716]

If I were you, I would have made a huge scene, and demanded every birds be givien to me or they have them seek medical attention immediatly! I feel so bad for birds in these conditions. Odds are the plucking and fighting is due to several males and females in the cage.

Feed them fresh eggfood, with maybe feather fast in it. It will help them alot. Also, I would leave them both in two spereat hospital cages. This way they can rest. Also, line the top with padding or cotton so they don't try flying up and breaking their neck. Good luck!

[finchboiuk]

hi everyone after keeping them separate for a week i have decide to put them together and there getting on really well and are starting to act abit more happy and less lethargic i put meal worms in today and watched the male feed them to the female witch is very cute a few days ago me and my friend called the RSPCA and told them what we saw not just the quails but the leopard geckos and other animals and the RSPCA have replied saying they understand out concerns and are looking in to it but have not take the other quails off them anyways i just hope they do or someone else takes the poor things

[DanteD716]

hi everyone after keeping them separate for a week i have decide to put them together and there getting on really well and are starting to act abit more happy and less lethargic i put meal worms in today and watched the male feed them to the female witch is very cute a few days ago me and my friend called the RSPCA and told them what we saw not just the quails but the leopard geckos and other animals and the RSPCA have replied saying they understand out concerns and are looking in to it but have not take the other quails off them anyways i just hope they do or someone else takes the poor things

Go in and make a scene!!

[Snow finch]

I had a couple of buttons I loved them I feel they are a nice little addition to any avairy.

[lonchura_boi]

the balding is caused by being raised in very crowded conditions and this encourages feather picking, a habit once they are in, is almost impossible to break. keep them separate for a few weeks to allow the feathers to re grow, but once you put them back together you will possibly find they will start plucking one another again very quickly. you can try distracting them with things to pick at like millet spray and broccoli but you will probably find they go bald again fairly quickly. what you may have noticed is that the birds were plucked according to their rank in the pecking order. the bird that was most feathered was top and the baldest one was at the bottom.