spraddle leg in quail chicks

[dc73nova]

I put paper towels down in the bottom of the brooder for my 17 just hatched bobwhite. 6 of them seem to have spraddle leg. I've always used paper towels for the first few days with all my different chicks and never had any problems. What do you guys use in the bottom of your brooders for the first few days?

 

[Valley quail breeder]

I use Grip-rite you can get it at the dollar store it helps prevent spraddle leg and helps in traction first weeks of chick development.

 

[underground chickenman]

I had a spraddle in my last hatch. Taped him up with a band-aid for a couple of days and he was just fine. I think I have seen a post with a picture of how you do it. Search here or google to find it.

Some will say it is hereditary and that they should be culled so you don't pass on the defect, but I don't know if that's true or not. If it is true and you didn't want to cull, you could separate your spraddles from your breeders and process them when big enough.

UGCM

 

[DLS]

I always thought it was from to hard or a slippery floor.

 

[Friar_Tuck]

I always use the shelf liner from the hardware store. I have yet to see a spraddle leg. I leave them on that for a week or two, then go to shavings, then to wire.

 

[dc73nova]

Thanks for the replies. I may try some of that shelf liner. I've always used paper towels the first few days and not had problems, maybe I've got a smoother paper towel and they are sliding more. I still have over two hundred in the bator, so I would like to remedy the problem now.

 

[JJMR794]

Another Alternative Is Regular Old Towels. I Use Them For The 1st Week In My Brooders And Then Clean Them And Reuse. Most Folks Have An Old// Cleaning Towel Pile Somewhere Around The House....

 

[chickenwhisperer]

I use a piece of old screen, layed over newspaper.
For cleaning, just rinse the screen and reuse over fresh paper.
The screen I use I had lying around, and is, from HD and marketed for keeping birds out of open rafter ends, the holes are about 1/8" x 1/8" and perfect to provide traction, it is fiberglass not metal.
I think any window screen would work . . .

I am hoping that with this method, my valley quail chicks will be accustomed to living on wire.
In a week or so, I plan to put a section of hardware cloth down instead of the screen to further this trial.

 

[Valley quail breeder]

Here's a pic of the grip-rite or (shelf liner) works great. I agree with JJMR you can just use a towel basically the same difference. Also, I believe from my experience spraddle leg comes from lose flooring and they develop this not hereditary.

 

[puyuhsegar]

When my cotunix chick have spraddle leg, I put every one of them in small glass or cup with paper towel or cloth flooring inside it. Leave it for few hours, it will strengten their leg because naturally they will try to push themself out of the glass, the glass prevent the leg from spreading out.

I did it to my chicks, usually it works. Sometimes when they got stronger they will jump out of the glass