Murphy_the_Hooligan
Songster
Hello everyone,
I have a female basic color (brown) Cortunix and a silver male. They are about three months old, I just got them about a month and a half ago from a client who has a quail farm. I build them a cage about 2’ tall x 2’ wide x 4’ long. I have straw in the cage for them, along with water and play sand for baths. I feed them a crushed up mixture of Dumor poultry cracked corn with purple corn and 16% layer feed crumbles. I put glass inside the cage about halfway up the walls to prevent them from throwing out the straw and making a mess. The adults are doing wonderful.
The female laid 6 eggs and sat on them. After 17 days all 6 eggs hatched with nary an issue. 5 brown ones and one yellow one. The yellow one was the runt, the first egg which was very small. On day 5 after the eggs hatched, I found a chick that had passed. On day 6, another. On day 7, I found the yellow one which has passed some time before. I don’t know when. I think he was the first to go. Now this morning, day 13, I found yet another. He was in the far corner of the cage, laying in his side with his legs extended. He hadn’t been gone long.
Four have died out of 6. I’m watching them and one of the two that is left is acting funny. He sits and blinks slowly a lot, and cranes his neck almost to “cough”. I noticed the most recent chick to die did the same thing yesterday.
What am I doing wrong? My hen hatched them, no incubator was used. The male has been in the cage with them the whole time. They all had been eating and drinking fine. They are growing in their feathers. I have a heater and a heat lamp in the cage, I can’t get it any higher than 86 degrees. Is it too cold for them? What can I do different? I’m so ashamed to have these poor animals die.
I have a female basic color (brown) Cortunix and a silver male. They are about three months old, I just got them about a month and a half ago from a client who has a quail farm. I build them a cage about 2’ tall x 2’ wide x 4’ long. I have straw in the cage for them, along with water and play sand for baths. I feed them a crushed up mixture of Dumor poultry cracked corn with purple corn and 16% layer feed crumbles. I put glass inside the cage about halfway up the walls to prevent them from throwing out the straw and making a mess. The adults are doing wonderful.
The female laid 6 eggs and sat on them. After 17 days all 6 eggs hatched with nary an issue. 5 brown ones and one yellow one. The yellow one was the runt, the first egg which was very small. On day 5 after the eggs hatched, I found a chick that had passed. On day 6, another. On day 7, I found the yellow one which has passed some time before. I don’t know when. I think he was the first to go. Now this morning, day 13, I found yet another. He was in the far corner of the cage, laying in his side with his legs extended. He hadn’t been gone long.
Four have died out of 6. I’m watching them and one of the two that is left is acting funny. He sits and blinks slowly a lot, and cranes his neck almost to “cough”. I noticed the most recent chick to die did the same thing yesterday.
What am I doing wrong? My hen hatched them, no incubator was used. The male has been in the cage with them the whole time. They all had been eating and drinking fine. They are growing in their feathers. I have a heater and a heat lamp in the cage, I can’t get it any higher than 86 degrees. Is it too cold for them? What can I do different? I’m so ashamed to have these poor animals die.
Quail babies are very susceptible to drafts and dying. More so than chicken chicks, quail babies die in drafts coming in the sides of the enclosure. I take it the hen is not brooding them hence the heat lamp?
