Keeping quail: practical guides
Incubation, feeding, laying performance, housing and winter — practical guides to keeping quail, with figures given as working ranges instead of invented precision.
Feather pecking and fights — why quail injure each other and what helps
How to recognise feather pecking and fights, which husbandry mistakes are behind them, what to do straight away, how many cocks a group can take and why beak trimming is no solution.
Quail peck at each other all the time; that is how they settle who stands where in the group. It becomes a problem when feathers are missing, skin is broken or blood flows: then more and more birds join in, and a scuffle turns into cannibalism. The cause almost always lies in how the birds are kept, rarely in a single bird.
How to recognise it
- Feather pecking: bare patches on the back, wings and neck, plucked feathers on the floor; individual birds pull feathers out of others on purpose.
- Pecking at the head and eyes: typical of fights between cocks. A bird with head wounds presses itself into a corner.
- Bare neck on hens: usually from the cock, who grips the neck when mating.
- Vent pecking: after laying, the red mucous membrane protrudes briefly and draws pecks from the others.
- Toes and feet: these are pecked too, until they bleed.
Why they peck
There is usually no single cause; several often come together.
| Cause | How you notice it | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| Crowding | birds stand close together, weaker ones never settle | more space or fewer birds |
| Bright light | lamp directly above the birds, sun on the cage | dim it; 30 to 40 lux is enough |
| Heat | hot days, house in the sun | ventilate, provide shade |
| Too little space at feeder and drinker | high-ranking birds occupy them | more feeding and drinking points |
| Feed | little protein, home-mixed feed | a complete feed for quail; protein, methionine and salt must be right |
| No dust bath, no litter | birds peck at the wire and at each other | dust bath, litter to scratch in |
| Several cocks | fights, head wounds | one cock per group |
| Strange birds in the group | pecking starts after they are added | see below |
| Mites | birds restless and pale at night | see «Spotting a sick quail» |
| Wounds, dead birds | blood draws pecking | take injured birds out at once, remove dead ones daily |
What to do straight away
- Take injured birds out at once. Open skin and blood draw the others' pecks. The bird stays separate until the wound has healed; deep wounds and injured eyes need a vet.
- Dim the light. Bright light encourages pecking.
- Find the cause — with the table above: space, feeder and drinker, temperature, feed, mites, number of cocks.
- Act early. Once pecking has become a habit in a group, it is hard to stop.
Cocks
Several sexually mature cocks in one group fight, and these fights do not stop by themselves. In a trial with breeding groups of Japanese quail (Wechsler and Schmid, 1998), 12.5 to 20 per cent of the cocks in groups with two to five cocks had to be removed because of serious head injuries. Visual barriers, light intensity and the age at which the cocks were put into the group changed nothing. In groups with a single cock, no cock was seriously injured, and fertility stayed good: with eight hens per cock, 92 per cent of the eggs were fertile; with twelve hens, 84 per cent.
So: one cock per group — or none, if you do not need hatching eggs. Keep surplus cocks separately and out of sight of the hens (see «Do you need a quail cock?»).
Adding new birds
Strange birds in an established group set off fights over rank and pecking, and every move costs eggs. If it has to be done:
- add new birds only after quarantine (see «Spotting a sick quail»);
- never put a second cock into a group that already has one;
- set up an extra feeder and drinker so that high-ranking birds do not push the newcomers away;
- watch for the first hours and take out at once any bird that bleeds.
Trim the beak?
Some large farms trim the tip of the beak. In Germany this is an amputation, which the Animal Welfare Act prohibits in principle; the authority may allow it only if it is indispensable for protecting the animals in their intended use. Other countries have their own rules. In quail, trimming has reduced pecking between cocks only to a limited extent. In hobby keeping, you start with space, light, feed and the number of cocks.
Frequently asked questions
- Why do quail peck each other?
- Mostly because of how they are kept: too crowded, too bright, too hot, too little space at feeder and drinker, unsuitable feed, no dust bath, several cocks or strange birds in the group. Blood and open wounds draw further pecking.
- What should I do if a quail is bleeding?
- Take it out of the group at once and keep it separate until the wound has healed; deep wounds and injured eyes need a vet. Then dim the light and look for the cause.
- How many cocks can be kept with the hens?
- One per group. In a trial with several cocks per group, 12.5 to 20 per cent of the cocks had to be removed because of serious head injuries; in groups with one cock, none was seriously injured.
- Does dim light help against feather pecking?
- Bright light encourages pecking, so it should be dimmed; 30 to 40 lux is enough. Against fights between cocks it does not help — the cocks have to be separated.
- May quail have their beaks trimmed?
- In Germany only with a permit from the authority and only if it is indispensable; the Animal Welfare Act treats it as an amputation. In hobby keeping it is no solution.