----------BACKGROUND----------
Still looking for a permanent, loving home for these little guys! (NYC area)
I recently made a post about finding a small group of button quail, abandoned in a far-too tiny enclosure on a bench at my local park.
Making this separate post to show their new enclosure, and get some advice on (as the title says) bullying behavior, as well as signs of illness in the smallest of the quails.
I'm newly in possession of five quails total. There were originally six, but as I know/knew nothing about quails, I thought these little guys were chicks and underestimated their abilities, leading to one fully escaping. I am still on the lookout for him around my neighborhood, and have asked my neighbors to keep an eye out. From advice I've gotten in this sub already, I understand that if he can hear the others, he may return, so I have had them outside for the warm hours of the day.
----------Signs of Illness, Bullying Behavior----------
The black and white quail, the smallest of the group, has not been feeling well since early yesterday. They curl up and rest quietly away from the others, even when the other quail are active, and close their eyes even when they're not sleeping, especially their right eye. When they are active, they will often have their left eye open and right eye closed. They do still open their right eye on occasion.
I noted these signs of illness alongside some bullying behavior from the dark brown quail and one of the grey quails toward the small black and white quail. I am uncertain which began first. The white quail and the other of the two grey quails are friendly with the b&w quail, and I believe have even butt in once or twice to mitigate the bullying. My two running theories are that either (1) the b&w quail became ill or injured, and the bullying pair are doing the same thing that chickens do, where they attack the ill bird to eventually kill it, or (2) the bullying quails injured the b&w quail, and this is causing the signs of illness.
Last night, I set up a larger enclosure and moved all of the quails there, to see if more space was the solution. This morning, the bullying was still going on, so I moved the aggressing pair to the original enclosure. As of now, this does seem to have fixed the issue! The trio in the big tub get along great, and the two in the original smaller enclosure seem to like each other as well.
----------New Enclosure Arrangement----------
I am fully aware that this set up is not ideal and the quails still need more space, but things are MUCH better than before, and this is just what I could put together for the moment, without having to buy anything (I am extremely broke).
I emptied out and cleaned a large storage tub that was in my closet, fixed it with air holes in the sides, and lined the inside of the lid with a double layer of bubble wrap, so that the quail don't get any (or any further, possibly, in the case of the b&w quail) injury from smacking their little heads on the ceiling of the enclosure when they pop up, as they do. The ceiling on the large enclosure is also much higher, so that helps as well.
Bedding is sisal rope, cut and shredded from the giant roll of natural, un-dyed sisal I keep for when my cats' scratchers need to be re-sisal'd. The quails seem to like this a lot, yay.
----------Etc----------
I believe the white quail is male. He crows and does some silly other stuff that I will try to post a video of, maybe in a separate post.
I would love any tips on set up, cleaning, etc. I really appreciate this community!
