our new quail girls.

They are very bald, the guy said they are moulting, but mine were never this bad. They were in with a lot of males, so it could be mating damage or lice as the coop they were in was stinking, about an inch of muck on the floor.


the only golden one,


their backs are all like this.

They are so pretty. Have they been introduce to their new husband yet?

No, were going to let them recover a bit, and get something to delouse them and worm them.
I have to say Charlie seems much brighter now he hears them, he was starting to get depressed.
Charlie.

Bless him. He a handsome chap. Are males different colours to females then or is he a different breed?

Males have chestnut colouring, and females have speckled chests in the 'normal' types. Its a lot harder to sex the more fancy colours, you have to look at the male's bum for a scent gland instead as you can't go by colouring. When you look into it, there are loads of different colour types and people keep them as a hobby.

Oops, just realised I've put this in rabbit chat instead of pictures and stories- sorry.

I have always wanted quails

Are they hard to care for?

Not really, I've only had japanese quail, they seem to be the least flighty. They do fly up when young and risk hurting themselves but tame very quickly. Ours are in hutches at the moment until they can go together.
They don't like the damp and wet, so are best to come in over winter.
They need a high protein food- 50-50 chick crumbs- finch food.
Oyster shell and grit and water.
They generally live 2-4 years.
The only real problems are-
You need 1 male to about 4 females as they are very frisky., and the females can be badly hurt but male attention.
Males will fight to the death.
You can't really add quail to an establised colony, I should be OK adding a male to females, but I will still be very careful about it.
Great little birds who are as abused as chickens, as they are also intensively farmed.

We have chineese painted quails.
They get a bold back when the males hang onto them to mate...
Or if they get picked on..

Their feathers should grow back soon :wave:
We only have four.. but it looks like you have quite a few :lol:

LilVicky said:

We have chineese painted quails.
They get a bold back when the males hang onto them to mate...
Or if they get picked on..

Their feathers should grow back soon :wave:
We only have four.. but it looks like you have quite a few :lol:

Click to expand...

I think it is probably damage from the males, there were far too many in the group.