u/Magic-Sands-296

How should I treat this??

My favorite little hen is mysteriously injured. I went to Check on them before I went out for the evening (because it has been hot) and found everyone looking stressed, and Peepers bleeding. She had blood on her beak like she attacked someone, but the only injury is her own. It looks like her wing was pulled almost OFF! The very tip of her beak is slightly chipped, but I think most of the blood was from her trying to preen her wing injury.

I rinsed the wound and flushed it with Veteracyn+, wrapped her in a hand towel and put her in a well ventilated box to isolate her. Also got her to take a couple drops of Nutridrench from a dropper. Wondering if I should try to wrap her so she holds the wing still and doesn’t mess with the wound, or just watch her to make sure she doesn’t mess with it? Can I use Neosporin (the kind without pain meds) on this? I don’t want her to eat it off.

I had a couple of scalped quail a while back (different group), but this is the first I’ve dealt with a wing that she could move or peck at.

After treating her, I went back to check everyone else more thoroughly. Everyone is stressed and panting (more than they would from the heat), and most of them are gathered upstairs in the hutch hiding. I can’t find any sign of a struggle besides a couple of small drops of blood spattered on the wall upstairs. I would have missed them if I hadn’t been looking. I can’t figure out what she could have caught her wing on. There is no sign of predators trying to breech the cage.

They live in a modified rabbit hutch. It is very secure with 1/4” hardware cloth surrounding, including under ground, double latches with safety clips, pavers around the base, etc.

Peepers is by far the calmest, sweetest, most curious quail I have ever had. She is not easily spooked (no one in this particular group is aggressive or flighty at all). She will walk right out of their hutch, stand there looking around, and let me pick her up without a fuss. I checked her in her box a few minutes ago and she stood there looking at me, then tucked her beak into her good wing and went to sleep. Poor baby

Rosemary, one of my coturnix quail, says hi! I put my BirdBuddy in their coop to keep an eye on them while I was gone. Too cute not to share!

This is Marshmallow. She suffered heat stroke mid May on an unseasonably hot day. She has been rehabbing inside since then, and has made slow, steady progress. Her progress on getting spoiled has not been so slow! 😂 I have never seen a quail who wants to snuggle all the time, haha! 😍

Marshmallow slowly regained strength, and now some balance is starting to return. She still is a bit weak on her right side, and needs support to balance. She wants to go though, and will RUN with my hand for support - until she reaches the bed of my arm. She is preening and loving to dust bathe and peck for seeds in the little sand box I made her, although she falls over a lot. She even made friends with my Bengal cat somehow (don’t worry, they are not allowed to close to each other, I always have my hand right there)!

She has started to develop a slight cross beak (see second pic). Any advice on correcting it? She didn’t have it before, and I’ve never dealt with one.

Just sharing a funny egg! It’s smaller and much different color from the usual. It also oddly matches a ceramic bird I have, haha!
Either it’s a funny one-off misprint, or the quail I always thought was a boy as a chick, then vent sexed as female, but then discovered foam after observing that he wasn’t being mounted by the other boys in the very unbalanced little covey (don’t worry, reinforcements have been purchased and are almost old enough to go in with them). Maybe it was from being bred recently? I don’t know. The bird in question has an attitude (but not violent) and I haven’t seen it participating in mating or crowning. Also an escape artist. Little stinker.

UPDATE: *He’s eating, drinking, and feeling better enough to not hold still enough for me to weigh him, so I’m very happy! When I checked his beak this evening, it already seems to have grown a tiny bit. I’m going to give him a couple more days in the garage to make sure he can eat solid crumbles well enough to go back out, and I think he will be fine! Thanks for the advice everyone!*

One of my quail managed to break its beak pretty badly somehow. I think because I separated him from the females to give them a break, and he was trying to get through the divider. It looks like he lost most of his top beak unfortunately.

I separated him right away and cleaned it with Vetericyn+. He drank some drops of water I dripped from a straw, and he seems alert and is moving around fine. I have him in a carrier box temporarily while I set up a hospital cage in my garage. I will update once I get him settled and see if he is eating and drinking ok.

Planning to get him some softened food and egg yolk.
Anything else I can do? Should I trim the lower beak slightly to make eating easier?

Squirrels are eating all of my peaches, before they even ripen! This tree has been here for probably 6 years, and usually they only eat a handful. Now it’s EVERYTHING. ARGH. I don’t mind sharing with nature, but I wold like to actually eat some of my peaches. Any humane ideas?

I have frequently heard that broodiness and nesting have been mostly domesticated out of coturnix quails, but this looks very intentional to me! There are two hens and a roo in this cage currently, because they started laying recently and we sorted out the other males, plus two other females who were scalped when they all came of age and started squabbling/mating. The other hens have fully recovered and are ready to return to the cage, but if one of the hens wants to nest, I don’t want to disturb them! The two eggs pictured here were both laid today, so I’m guessing one from each hen? Do they lay eggs together like chickens will?

They are housed in a rabbit hutch on the ground, so they have natural sand as bedding. They eat high protein starter/grower game bird feed, supplanted with seed mix, mealworms and greens as treats. They have grits and eggshells available. I threw in a fresh handful of hay for enrichment last night, and this is what I found this evening. Left the eggs to see what happens! Anyone have any experience with this?