Sick Quail??

[Tanira2]

Hello,

my quails are about 6 months old (Italian) and one of them seems to be laying down a lot. She seems to be relativity bright other than that (I've seen her eat not seen her drink but that's probably more of a timing thing). I checked her legs and her vent and all seem fine. Any idea's what this could be?

As it' been cold they have a heat lamp on and she's been laid under that all night. None of the others seem to be picking on her (although the boy will probably still pester her as he does with the rest of them). Any advice on what could be wrong/what I should do?

 

[DK newbie]

If she lays down 'a lot', that must mean she still walks. Does she look normal when she does? No limping or balancing issues, not slower than the others? What do you feed them? Do they have a calcium supplement? Does any of the others seem a little off?

 

[Tanira2]

She doesn't seem right when she walks, she seems to stay low to the ground but doesn't hobble on one leg just looks like it's a hobble on both.

The others all seem 100% fine. I feed the on layer crumb, they also get meal worm every morning, vegetables (courgette, carrots etc.) and they have oyster shells in with them constantly. I don't feed them a calcium supplement on top of that. Do you think they need one? If so, what would you recommend?

 

[DK newbie]

Oyster shell is fine as a calcium supplement. Layer feed is typically a little on the low side in protein content for quail - 24-30% is recommended. But I doubt that's the problem. Have you checked her feet too? I don't really have any ideas other than that.. She could have boinked, but I would expect her to have more general symptoms from that, not just symptoms from the legs..

 

[GPBII]

Do you have her with an overly aggressive male? If a a larger aggressive male is breeding with her, it can be causing some type of issue that doesn't always visually present itself. I've had a male break a female's wing trying to mate with her.

There is also a possibility of a neck/spinal issue if she's trying to fly and hitting the cage.

 

[Tanira2]

What do you feed your birds. I was looking at quail feed and that seems to be only 15% protein which seems low. The chick crumb we bought was around the 24% as I knew that's what they needed ???

 

[DK newbie]

Game bird or turkey starter feed seems to be the most suitable. A chick layer feed with 24% protein seems quite high for chick feed in my experience - is it intended as a complete feed or as a supplement for grain or other feed? If it is a supplement, it might have too high levels of certain things, to be good as main feed. But otherwise, I'd think it's okay - even though it might have too much calcium for your roo.