Over-grooming Quail Chick Loses Feathers (?)

[Caille]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 3 weeks old Italian quail chick which I house in a 12 liters indoors tank with plenty of toys.

In the last couple of days I notice the chick keeps grooming itself and picking at its feathers, to the point where it plucks some of its plumage (I keep finding small plumage feathers in its tank everyday).

Overall, the chick is in good health, eating and drinking and does not show any signs of distress and the rest of its feathers are intact (it's quite feathery! :)). I also checked for any signs of lice and mites under its feathers but couldn't find any.

I feed the chick chick-fowl mixture and give it fresh water everyday.

I would like to know if this grooming\plucking plumage phenomenon is a well known one? Is it dangerous to the chick and what can be done to prevent it? Will it harm the chick in the long run? it only seems to target small plumage feathers and does not have any signs of getting "bald" anywhere... Might it just be molting?

I will appreciate your help with this question!


Caille

[TENNESSERED]

Hi Calle,
    There could be a number of reasons why the young bird is picking at its feathers.  I've noticed during hot weather birds will sometimes play with their feathers more.  Also, your chick is better than half-grown now at 3 weeks and will be just about done with the soft down that it was hatched with and it may just be getting rid of the rest of that.  There still remains the possibility of some kind of pest causing the bird to be itchy.  If you are going to keep the bird off the ground, you will need to provide it with some kind of "dirt box" with clean fine dust so that it can keep its skin and feathers in good condition or you will get skin and feather problems down the road.


have fun with your quail

[kingwolf]

id say its just molting into its adult plumage but if its not that 

[Caille]

Hi tennessered  and kingwolf,

Thanks for replying :)

It seems that the chick does indeed go through a moulting phase, and it lost some more of its feathers and plumage since yesterday, and it keeps preening itself. How long does moulting at 3 weeks of age last? Will the new feathers that turn up be of final pattern\coloration for the quail?