TPFringe Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Hi I got 8 wonderful little female Italian quail in March of this year. (Unfortunately I lost one due to a leg injury a couple of weeks ago and I'm now down to 7. Lesson learnt - never use leg rings!!) They are housed in a 4ft square run with housing attached and have a large dust bath, chunks of wood and plants etc for plenty of interest and have greens as treats every other day. Over the past few weeks I've noticed one of them persistently chasing the others around the run. She seems to pick on one and chase it for a while, then move to another. I've separated her from the rest a couple of times now and this seems to work but only in the short term and within 24 hours she's back to persistently chasing again. She's not caused any damage but there are times when she pecks heads too. She also squeels at the others when she's chasing them. Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether I should get one male to keep the girls in order? I have concerns about the noise levels associated with males though as I have neighbours. And I'm wondering if I'm jumping out of the frying pan into the fire as the males can cause upset through aggressive mating too which would worry me probably more than the chasing that's going on now. Grateful for your thoughts. Thank you Tracey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beach chick Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 are you sure she's not a he? in my (not very huge) experience, males peck other males on the head and particularly going for the eyes; on the other hand, if the cock is getting it on with his ladies they will lose a few feathers from their backs and the back of the head. if you did want to add a male, you have enough ladies, I would just make sure they are all girls before you add one!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
