Gambel Quail Rescue

[Jannbo]

So I came home from college the other week for the summer to spend some time with my mom. She's a teacher and her classes are still in session. Today they found a baby gambel quail in the girls bathroom. Both her and I are no strangers to baby birds so she knew what to do. She got it away from all the girls so it wouldn't be as stressed, put it in a cardboard box to let it calm down then held the box outside, letting it call for its parents. Unfortunately, earlier that day they had found a couple adults dead on campus, so it wasn't a big shock when no mama or papa came to its calls. They tried to find its siblings, but they were no where to be found. So she brought it home so I could help try and get it to a rescue or take care of it. I tried calling the local rescues, but they either said they'd get back to me or just said they couldn't since it's chances weren't looking great. I don't want to give up on the little thing so I'm hoping one of the rescues I'm waiting on will say they can take it, but I'm not holding my breath and preparing things to raise it if I need to.

I've had it in an opaque storage bin with a bath towel on the ground with a hand mirror, stuffed squirrel, a bottle cap of water, and some mashed up hard boiled egg yolk with a bit of egg white in a bowl. I have a heading pad under half of it for warmth. It's been running around the enclosure all evening, jumping and chirping. I know its stressed out and worried where its mom is. I tried switching it to a cardboard box so it wouldn't be able to see it but it just freaked out more and began breathing much heavier so I switched it back to the storage bin and its been a bit better. Occasionally it'll fall asleep after burying itself in the towel while running, but usually that'll last about a minute. The longest its slept was about half an hour which happened about 20 minutes ago as of writing this. The biggest thing I'm worried about is getting it to eat as it hasn't taken one bite of food since its been here. I've been tapping the edge of the bowl, the food itself, and the floor around it but it hasn't paid any attention to it. I have gotten it to drink with a little syringe that I beaded water up at the end of tapped to its beak when it was sitting still. When I swapped it back to the storage bin, I tapped his beak into the bottle cap of water a few times but haven't seen him drink from it yet.

If I haven't heard back by noon tomorrow I'll be going to get some proper Purina game bird food for it, but until then I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to help the little thing. Anything to help calm him down or get him to start eating. Just looking at him I'd say he's only a few days old at the very most. He's still just the size of a cotton ball so very obviously a super young quail. If there's any other info you need to help give me some advice then I definitely can, I just want to see him make it

 

[Jannbo]

Bit of an update. He seems to not be nearly as stressed as he was earlier because he's actually able to sleep now that its night. Unfortunately because I don't have a heat lamp anymore and I'm having to use a heating pad for the time being, I'm having to stay up all night to stop it from shutting off every 90 minutes so he can stay warm. He's been waking up around every 30 minutes and starts chirping but not jumping or running around, just sort of shuffling in the spot he's nestled in. If I don't do anything he keeps chirping, but if I lift the towel that's covering most of the top to keep it dark and keep the warm air in, then rub my finger against the spot of the container he's pressed up against, he'll stop chirping and fall back asleep after a minute or so. I've had his enclosure in my room all day with the A/C off so he wouldn't be as lonely without his siblings or parents and it seems like its had a positive impact already. Since he hasn't been drinking on his own I had been trying to get him to drink a bit from a syringe every little while during the day and most of the time he would whenever he sat still. Hopefully with all of that and trying to do the tapping to shows him where his food is, he's starting to trust me a bit, but we'll see tomorrow just how true that is. Now I'm off to make some coffee so I can stay up and keep this little guy from freezing to death!

 

[Jannbo]

Here are some photos of him I took earlier. I would have taken so!me better shots of him but with how distressed he was, last thing he needed was a giant slab of glass and metal moving around his container just to get a better picture or the added stress of being grabbed for a photo. He was mostly running along and pecking at the wall he's pressed up against the photos and has been sleeping mostly like he is in the first photo except he's curled up more now. I took the egg meal in there out as well since he hasn't eaten any and I didn't want go chance it being spoiled if he did eat hours later. Besides that the enclosure is all the same, just the towel having shifted a bit during the day. He is in the enclosure in the last photo, he's just under the towel and pressed against the side like usual

 

[Jannbo]

He's been fully up since about 5:40 am and initially was pretty calm, just walking around and chirping a bit then stopping when I'd come over and look at eye level. Pretty soon though, he began to run around chirping and pecking at the walls. He still had not eaten anything so tried tapping on some freshly mushed up hard boiled egg yolk, but he wouldn't pay any attention to it. I put my hand in there flat and almost immediately he climbed into my palm and sat there. So I picked him up and held him to my chest to keep warm. Its been half an hour now and he's been much calmer. He'll start chirping if I lower him from my chest, but besides that he seems much calmer overall. I'd seen people saying that holding gambel chicks stresses them but this little guy clearly needed it. Hoping this means I'm close to getting him to eat. Definitely gonna pick up some Purina for him when tractor supply co opens then figure out a better heating source that won't auto shut off

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

He's been fully up since about 5:40 am and initially was pretty calm, just walking around and chirping a bit then stopping when I'd come over and look at eye level. Pretty soon though, he began to run around chirping and pecking at the walls. He still had not eaten anything so tried tapping on some freshly mushed up hard boiled egg yolk, but he wouldn't pay any attention to it. I put my hand in there flat and almost immediately he climbed into my palm and sat there. So I picked him up and held him to my chest to keep warm. Its been half an hour now and he's been much calmer. He'll start chirping if I lower him from my chest, but besides that he seems much calmer overall. I'd seen people saying that holding gambel chicks stresses them but this little guy clearly needed it. Hoping this means I'm close to getting him to eat. Definitely gonna pick up some Purina for him when tractor supply co opens then figure out a better heating source that won't auto shut off
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Glad the little guy made it through the night. Maybe try sprinkling some food on the ground in front of him and flicking it around with your finger? He might be more instinctually inclined to peck at crumbly things on the ground than moist/clumpy things in containers. I know mama birds will do something similar to show their chicks what they can and can't eat. Definitely get some gamebird starter and crush it up really fine for him.

 

[Jannbo]

Glad the little guy made it through the night. Maybe try sprinkling some food on the ground in front of him and flicking it around with your finger? He might be more instinctually inclined to peck at crumbly things on the ground than moist/clumpy things in containers. I know mama birds will do something similar to show their chicks what they can and can't eat. Definitely get some gamebird starter and crush it up really fine for him.

Forgot to mention it earlier but he did actually eat some this morning. I ground up some bird feed that's for the bird feeders around the yard and he took a bit of that. Definitely not thee perfect food for him, but its better than nothing. I'll be picking up gamebird chow here in just a bit. He's been sleeping almost all day now so I'm guessing he could really use the right food after burning so much energy running around yesterday. Its a bit worrying every time I look back because sometimes he's so still when he sleeps that he almost looks dead, then I look closer and he's breathing normally.

Great name btw

 

[Jannbo]

Unfortunately he passed away. He had been pooping quite a bit today so I took him out to swap his towel with a clean one. He began having a seizure in my hand so I set him down in his container on the side with the heating pad but he just stopped breathing. I tried to warm him up just in case he some how got cold, but he was completely gone.

Its sad because he had actually been perking up a bit earlier, eating and drinking water. I was concerned still for sure, but I was cautiously optimistic. I knew something like this was most likely going to happen since he was wild and had lost both his parents all his siblings, but it still hurts to see him pass, especially when there wasn't much I could have done beyond somehow having another baby gambel with him. I've certainly fallen in love with quail though, I'm going to start figuring out a breeder I can either get some eggs or chicks from so they won't have the odds stacked against them like this poor guy.

Here are the last pictures I took of him. He wasn't enjoying the squirrel I had for him so I got this little cocker spaniel beanie baby and he absolutely adored it. He was snuggled up to it pretty much to the very end.