What's Wrong with this Quail Egg?

[dan281]

Its from a texas A &M quail. Its way larger than any egg collected so far. It feels hard inside like its an egg put inside a latex glove. I cant figure out whats going on and couldnt find any image of shell-less eggs on google that looked like this and there is a shell inside this bag. I will open it up later and then check under the girl's skirts to see of them have any issues because this thing is huge and had to have wrecked whoever laid it. Thanks for any help guys.

 

[Finnisher]

I don't know what's wrong with the egg, but whenever there are egg issues that means they need more calcium. You can give calcium in multiple ways, granulated oyster shells or egg shells are the two that I know of. What I usually did, was take some yogurt and take some hard boiled eggs just crush the egg with shell intact into the yogurt and feed it to the quail, they absolutely loved it.

 

[dan281]

Thanks i will try that. I just switched from grower to regular gamebird and it has a higher amount of calcium. I did about a month ago. I pulled off the rubbery bag around it and there was a thin shelled egg inside it.

 

[Finnisher]

Np, maybe they are getting used to the new feed? As long as the hen who layed the egg doesn't seem to be under stress or suffering a lot then it should be good. Just make sure to monitor for the next few weeks.

 

[DK newbie]

How much protein does that 'regular gamebird' feed have? In general, protein and egg shells don't seem to have much to do with each other, but my buttons started laying shell less eggs when I ran out of game bird starter and had to let them eat budgie seeds for a few days - despite them being used to the budgie seeds for a long time before that, as I was aware I was going to run out of the good stuff and had been easing them onto the budgie seeds. And they had crushed oyster shell available all the time. It could also be lack of vitamin D in the budgie seeds that caused it, not sure about that. But around here, even the grower feeds have less than the recommended (24+ %) protein for coturnix, so switching to a regular that is probably even lower, might not be a good idea. In stead, people feed game bird starters and supply extra calcium.

 

[bush]

I .have had a couple of eggs that look similar to your picture both last year at the beginning of the laying season mine looked like small deflated balloons . After that couple of eggs last year and this year I had no more. I have always fed mine gamebird starter 28% protein and have ground oyster shell always available. I don't know why it happens but it has self corrected both years.

 

[macmom6]

Occasionally I will get a soft-shell egg and adding some crushed oyster shell which I have run through a spice/coffee grinder to their food does the trick. I typically see the soft-shells when a hen is just starting to lay.

I have also had ones like the one pictured - with the little tail. I have seen elsewhere that those are an indicator of a problem with the hen's system egg production system. Not sure what treatment would be though. I haven't had one of those in a while and didn't really do much of anything other than adding some oyster shell.

 

[Quailforever1]

Its from a texas A &M quail. Its way larger than any egg collected so far. It feels hard inside like its an egg put inside a latex glove. I cant figure out whats going on and couldnt find any image of shell-less eggs on google that looked like this and there is a shell inside this bag. I will open it up later and then check under the girl's skirts to see of them have any issues because this thing is huge and had to have wrecked whoever laid it. Thanks for any help guys.

Egg drop 76 virus. Verify with veterinarian first. Culling every bird is only treatment. Deep disinfect all equipment then let sit empty 30 days.

 

[Soulsinabottle]

Egg drop 76 virus. Verify with veterinarian first. Culling every bird is only treatment. Deep disinfect all equipment then let sit empty 30 days.

Not every odd egg is a virus issue. I had a few soft eggs like this when my jumbos just started laying, if it continues consult a vet but don't jump to "EVERY BIRD HAS TO DIE" please.

 

[CliftonQuail]

Not every odd egg is a virus issue. I had a few soft eggs like this when my jumbos just started laying, if it continues consult a vet but don't jump to "EVERY BIRD HAS TO DIE" please.

Fortunately, this post is from 2016 and the OP hasn't been on since June of that year so it's not likely that they're out in the barn killing off all their birds.
I often get soft eggs with new layers.