what are some techniques to prevent baby quail from pecking at each other until their beaks bleed? over twenty of my quail have bleeding beaks!
There is not just one bird pecking the others; a lot of them are pecking, sometimes each other. Some don't peck at all. a) pecking chicks who aren't pecked b) pecking chicks who are pecked too c) chicks who aren't pecking but are pecked d) chicks who neither peck or are pecked
Any help would be great!
hello you dont say how old they are or where you keep them but this many quail all pecking at each other makes it sound to me like they are either overcrowded or bored, there are members on here who keep quail hopefully they will be able to offer advice when they see this
Hi,
They will peck more if they see blood so if you can try to bathe those that are bleeding. You can also get an antiseptic spray that covers the red colour so less chance of them pecking at the blood.
Do they have places to hide in their enclosure, you could put some branches in a corner with straw on so that quail have hiding places to get out of the way. alos you could hang some veg up so they have things to peck at other than each other.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriends
I agree with Sara, its bordom! i have never had this problem with chicks. Make sure they never run out of food I keep the floor covered with chick feed.
I have about 175 Bob White quail chicks. They’re a week and three days old. They're in an old two-stall horse barn. They're sectioned off into a corner by two planks of wood with a red heat lamp. Inside that there's paper towels and pine shaving bedding underneath. Yesterday I bought some powder to stop bleeding and put it on some of them. I’ve added lettuce for them to peck and separated some of the injured into a small cage with food and water so they wouldn't get pecked more.
I agree that they’re overcrowded but if I let them out of the planks there are small holes near the bottom of the stall door. Multiple times to my dad I've mentioned plugging them up. I've place some cardboard there in the meantime.
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