Quail are starting to get feathers

[wingzrooke]

So some of my quail are starting to get feathers, and it made me wonder...where is the fluffy fuzz going? It's not in their house anywhere...maybe they are eating it? Also, should I start giving them dust baths before or after all the feathers come in for the first time? (Just got quail for the first time).

 

[le_bwah]

I've got no clue where all their fluff goes. I've found it floating around the brooder and in their sand box, and sometimes in little tufts sticking out between their pinfeathers. Mine started trying to bathe in their wood chips at about a week and a half, so that's when I made dust baths available. Growing feathers in must itch like crazy.

 

[Erkenstein]

It seems like that fluff becomes the dusty dander that is all over everything near the brooder. My current chicks are a week and a half old and I gave them a sandbox yesterday. A couple of them got brave and pecked around in it, and now a bunch are squeezed in there. They haven't started really taking proper dust baths yet, but when I added the sandbox to my last batch at two weeks old they knew what to do right away. It's amazing how they know these things without being shown; it always cracks me up to see a day-old chick scratching in the feed on the floor of the brooder.

 

[albinosilver]

I always thought the fluff stayed underneath the adult feathers to keep them insulated. If you lift up the feathers on the adults they still have fluff underneath.

 

[RosieR]

Most of it ends up as dandery dust I think. The adult fluff under the feathers is actually small fluffy feathers. A bit different than chick down.

 

[wingzrooke]

So I ended up having to give my quails bath today (for an unrelated issue), and a lot of the fuzz that's been hanging on to the edge of their feathers came off when bathing. Still not seeing much in the cage, though. We'll see if that changes when they get to the bigger cage and get a sandbox.