Weird Tasting Quail Eggs

[Heather Christensen]

Our quail started laying a little over a week ago. The first 4 eggs we ate tasted fine. Well, my son ate the first one, the next 3 we made into scrambled eggs with and shared, it tasted exactly like chicken eggs. We just hard boiled 5 of them (the next oldest ones, so they are about 1 week old). I tried one and it tasted off, like kind of fishy? Those suckers are so small though, by the time I registered that it tasted wrong, I'd already finished eating it! Am I going to live? : P
Then my son tried one, made a face, and spit it out. After that my partner declined to try them! What I want to know is why.

These eggs are about 1 week old, and we've been collecting them daily and storing in the fridge. Now, these particular eggs were probably collected when we were out of town for a few days and either a pet sitter or my parents were lookng after them. It's possible they were in the cage for 24 hrs or maybe more if someone failed to spot it one day and then saw it the next. And its been hot - like high 70's. Maybe some eggs were in the cage too long and went off? Can that happen that quickly? What else could be the cause?

 

[Heather Christensen]

Just googled it, and possibly the eggs were just high in Omega-3s so the good news is I'm not going to die

https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/do-your-eggs-taste-fishy-its-the-curse-of-the-omegas/

I'd still like to get to the bottom of it as I don't fancy fishy tasting eggs!

Maybe the feed I have them on is too high in Omega-3s? They weren't being fed any greens or other extras other than the occasional meal worm while we were out of town.

 

[Pjacct]

Wow, have never encountered this problem with my girls and they get free range over dark leafy greens, leftover kitchen scraps including seafood and meat!

 

[Heather Christensen]

Wow, have never encountered this problem with my girls and they get free range over dark leafy greens, leftover kitchen scraps including seafood and meat!

Which varieties of quail to you have? I've got one pharoah and one Tibetan female. Certain breeds of chicken are more prone to laying fishy eggs, so I'm wondering if the same is true of quail. I may start keeping eggs from my two layers seprate to see if it's just one of them laying the fishy ones.

I've realised though that I just switched them from the "grower" mash to the "layer" mash about the time we went out of town, so maybe the "layer" mash is higher in Omega-3s. I may switch them to a different feed and see if that helps.

 

[geniash]

It depends on what you supplement them with. If you give them a lot of seeds with omega-3 (flax for example), the eggs will taste a bit fishy. Try to figure out where your quails take all those omega-3s from

 

[Boonie Stomper]

You're going to die so am I.
But not from the egg. If worst case scenario the egg had a crack somewhere and egg got contaminated which progresses more quickly in warmer temperatures, you may get food poisoning which if doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If the egg didn't gag you or make you wretch its probably not so bad as to cause more than a brief spell of Montezuma's Revenge. And after you will be likely immune forever to that infection.
Don't take this as medical advice though. If you get really ill see a doc.

 

[Pjacct]

Don’t have quails, but a lady at my work brings the eggs in and we usually swap chicken eggs when mine lay. Not too sure of her breed.
My chickens though get lots of free range, layer scratch a couple of times a week and a regular crushed/pellet food. I supplement with animal proteins (what ever left overs from dinner which is salmon, chicken or beef) and they get things like kale, bok choy, mizuna and some lettuce to peck at at the edges of my vegetable patch. All high omega 3 treats.

 

[kumquat]

I think you have found your culprit with the change of feed- sounds like the timing is right on. Perhaps a different brand would make for a more palatable egg. I also think tracking who lays which eggs is a great idea for narrowing down the source of the off tasting eggs.

Btw, all coturnix quail, regardless of their color variety (wild/pharaoh, tuxedo, Tibetan, etc...) are actually one breed. This can be confusing because many online reference materials erroneously refer to the colorations as "breeds."

 

[Mhays]

I am also running into this, but feeding my quail pretty consistently...so I can't imagine it's food. Is it possible it has something to do with my randy rooster?