My Chicks all Died

[theostofski]

I have a very strange and interesting problem that may be hard for y'all country folk to understand. I live in Manhattan new york in a small apartment and I decided to raise quails as pets!?!? I have provided them with a reasonable 6ft by 2ft Brooder. their water supply is always accessible though they don't seem to drink it, To solve this I drop fed them water every hour. Their food supplies are made up of A few live Crickets, Dried mealworms, and Wagner's wild bird feed (The mealworms and seed are ground together) they seemed to be happy until one by one they all died over a 2 week period. their water supplies had a few vitamins to keep them in shape and they never showed signs of being too cold or too hot I can't seem to find a reason for there death...

(Forgive misspells and grammar issue I'm Scottish English is my second language)

(I will respond to as many responses as possible)
(I speak Scottish Gaelic and recently learned English I know English is spoken in Scotland)

 

[Kiki]

Poor things.

Please do not get any more birds until you can find proper feed and a chick waterer.

You are either killing them by dropping water in their mouth or by malnutrition from your made up feed.

 

[theostofski]

I will not have another thread where some others are talking about how I need to change my food!! I also need to learn how to get them to drink out of the waterer thank you!

 

[swampfox440]

Did you have a heat source in the brooder ? How many? 6ft is a lot of space for them to get cold .

 

[theostofski]

Very large heat source and very large area of cool shade

 

[swampfox440]

I think they may have got cold even in an apartment you have to confine the space I would say 2ft. x 2ft. with a bulb to keep them warm . If they didn't drink it's could be because they were not using water in their metabolic system because of chill also if they get wet they are history .

 

[theostofski]

I know that if they get wet they will die but why wouldn't they need water just because its cool does not means its humid

 

[theostofski]

one fell in water I was able to keep it alive for 9 hours then Gb that was how one died...

 

[swampfox440]

I think they may have got cold even in an apartment you have to confine the space I would say 2ft. x 2ft. with a bulb to keep them warm . If they didn't drink it's could be because they were not using water in their metabolic system because of chill also if they get wet they are history .

I use a 40 watt bulb works fine in my opinion not to hot not to cold TSC has the fixture I use

 

[theostofski]

Also when I feed them water they act like its the end of the world if they don't drink it but when given they chick waterer they refrain from getting 3cm from it