Bird behavior is quite different from human behavior. What may seem normal for birds to do may seem quite odd if a human were to do it and vice versa.
If your quail is starting to show some strange behavior you’d be right to be worried. This article looks into why this happens
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Quail acting strange:
The more you live with and raise your quail the more you will learn and understand the animal and understand its different behaviors.
If the bird’s behavior is starting to change, if the bird is acting strange, then you as the raiser would understandably want to know why, here is why your bird may be acting strange:
The bird is about to poop:
All birds poop but some birds will exhibit strange behavior before they are about to poop.
Your quail for example will walk backwards or even run backwards just before it is about to poop. This is normal but is indeed strange.
What to do:
A quail walking backward before it is about to poop is quite normal behavior for these animals and is nothing to worry about.
You can simply leave the bird to poop, continue with your day, and leave it to continue its day.
The bird is sick:
While quails are quite robust birds who don’t usually suffer from health issues, these birds sometimes will, and do, get sick on occasion.
Your bird will start acting strange once it starts getting sick, signs of a sick quail include lethargy, a change in droppings, a change in eating habits, fluffed-up feathers, isolating itself, drooped wings, changes to the bird’s coloration, shortness of breath, discharge from the eyes or nares, diarrhea, slow egg production and overall feeling under the weather.
What to do:
There are a variety of illnesses that your quail may be suffering from. Trying to diagnose the bird yourself can be time-consuming and the bird may not have this time to spare.
For this reason, it is recommended that you take your bird to the vet for an examination and treatment.
The bird is mating:
If you have a male and a female quail and the birds seem to be acting strangely with each other then this may simply mean that the two are mating.
Mating between two quails looks like the male grabbing the feathers on the back of the female’s head, or neck, for support, and then mounting her before starting to mate with her.
Mating can also happen between two male birds. If you have two males one male will grab the other male’s feathers and try to mount and mate with him just as he would with a female.
In this case, each bird tries to dominate the other and mount the other. This interaction can look like fighting as it is quite aggressive.
What to do:
This may look a bit scary and aggressive to humans but it is quite normal for quails, in fact, a variety of other birds mate in a similar way.
You don’t have to intervene, in fact, you shouldn’t intervene, simply let the birds mate and continue with your day.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Quail Laying On Back, Quail Acting Drunk, Do Quail Spit?, Why Is My Quail Shaking, Turkey Chick Vs Chicken Chick, Baby Quail Can’t Walk, Baby Chick Won’t Put Weight On Leg, Quail Vs Chicken Raising, Newly Hatched Chick Not Moving