Quail hurting their faces on wire

[GinaTheDuck]

I just transferred my jumbo coturnix that hatched 4/16 to an outside wire cage the other day and started noticing some blood and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until I noticed they all seem to be shoving their faces in between the wires and scraping them up! Do you guys have any clue how to stop this? I was wondering if they’d stop on their own or if I have to add some sort of shade cloth or mosquito netting so they can’t do that anymore. Thank you for any help!

 

[mixedUPturk]

View attachment 1764841 I just transferred my jumbo coturnix that hatched 4/16 to an outside wire cage the other day and started noticing some blood and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until I noticed they all seem to be shoving their faces in between the wires and scraping them up! Do you guys have any clue how to stop this? I was wondering if they’d stop on their own or if I have to add some sort of shade cloth or mosquito netting so they can’t do that anymore. Thank you for any help!

Awe poor gal! Maybe cardboard temporarily could stop it. Is there any enrichment in their cage? Wire bottomed? or it looks like its on the grass in that pic is that right? Maybe its just the stress for the change in environment.

 

[GinaTheDuck]

I wanted to be sure everything was working well before adding some enrichment like branches but it seems like maybe that caused more trouble than waiting lol. And it is wire bottomed. They all seem to have stopped now so that’s good and I’m going to add branches and such to give them something to climb on and hide in. Do you have any other suggestions for enrichment for them?

 

[mixedUPturk]

I wanted to be sure everything was working well before adding some enrichment like branches but it seems like maybe that caused more trouble than waiting lol. And it is wire bottomed. They all seem to have stopped now so that’s good and I’m going to add branches and such to give them something to climb on and hide in. Do you have any other suggestions for enrichment for them?

Well i see how you could think that but actually rhe enrichment will make the trasition easier and i would go ahead and give them something. A dust bath is a necessity. Aside from that just please keep in mind that they are ground dwellers, they wont get up too high on anything unless accidently when they flush and boink the top of the cage.

 

[GinaTheDuck]

Thank you so much! They have a bowl with sand for bathing now!

 

[mixedUPturk]

Thank you so much! They have a bowl with sand for bathing now!

Your very welcome, have they calmed down?