What happened to my quail?

[NjQuailer]

After being gone all day, I came home to collect eggs and found one of my females completely scalped. She was in a pen with 4 other birds, and she had one eye severely damaged and it looked like either bleeding or the wound that extended down behind the top of the wing a bit. I didn’t look too hard, because I wanted to put her out of her misery. The other hens looked fine in the pen, and it’s all hens and one male. I haven’t noticed any missing feathers before this either.

My first instinct is that the male in there did it while trying to breed. Does that sound right? The only thing that has me questioning is that no other females are missing any feathers behind the head. I’m just trying to figure out what to do with that male now, because I don’t want this to happen again if it is him.

 

[Nabiki]

That definitely sounds like quail on quail violence. It is usually a male, but not always. Are you certain that you only have one male?

Don't cull her! Rinse her scalp with saline and put her in a quiet tote or pen for a few days. She'll heal.

 

[NjQuailer]

Thanks for the guidance Nabiki. I vent sexed all these birds when they were 8 weeks. They’re now 11 weeks old, so I’m going to double check.

If I was right and there was one male, what do you think I should do? Observe for a while, or take caution and remove the male?

 

[Nabiki]

I would observe just in case you have a bully hen.

 

[Huntmaster]

I vent sexed all these birds when they were 8 weeks.

If you mean checking for foam as vent sexing. I have found not all males will have foam at 8 weeks especially if they are in same pen with another dominate/aggressive male. So would be a good idea to double check, but as @Nabiki stated it doesn't always have to be a male usually is but not always. Good luck sometimes these little birds can be very aggressive. One good thing is they are very hardy and heal well/fast with just a little time to heal in separate pen/cage.

 

[007Sean]

I agree with everything said above but I believe this is female aggression!