I have two pairs of buttons, and both hens have been laying an egg almost every day without fail for a year now. We have their lights on a timer matching local sunrise and sunset, so their "days" get shorter towards winter. However, last year they only stopped laying for about 2 weeks during the...
Perhaps it would be easier to cover her feet? I had to make one of my button chicks a tiny shoe out of a plaster (band-aid) once, I bet she could still walk but not scratch with something like that for a few days.
No, they manage to eat the pellets just fine, they're only 2mm (and I've seen them swallow bits of egg about 5 times that size before!).
I'm in the UK so can't get that food, but use a quail layers pellet that's been recommended to me by another UK button owner.
I'm really looking for anyone...
Okay, so bit of an update… we switched them all onto a quail pellet feed gradually over 2 weeks. The one that had diarrhea before now has very light foamy poops. They currently have probiotics in their water as they've been eating each other's poop too.
Does anyone know what on earth is going...
I have a bonded male-female pair of buttons living together—they get along very well with one problem… the female is gradually getting a bald head. The male is quite clumsy with breeding, and pulls out the feathers on the back of her head to the point where she now has a good 1cm bald patch...
Buttons do like climbing, so I’m certain they would use a second level. They can be totally clumsy too though, I’ve seen mine roll backwards off of a platform before, so best not to have too much of a drop!
I’d also agree that it looks more like fighting or feather pulling than breeding...
Oh no, I'm so confused because it's from a pretty well respected shop that only makes food for quails. Half the food is actually pellets when looking at it? I've had a nightmare trying to find suitable game-bird food in the UK. I don't understand why only one bird would be having an issue when...
Thank you! This one hen seems to be the only one with a problem out of 4. She has actually stopped laying for a week a couple of times lately.
Here's the feed info (it's a mix marketed as specifically for button/ornamental quail), it's translated from German so sorry if anything is worded...
Bumping this thread because she still has this problem, on and off. She drinks a lot of water and does large wet poops. Sometimes they're normal, but some weeks they'll all be like this. I'm stumped, because their food is always the same.
I’m not sure the birds themselves have mites, I’ve cleaned up the vivarium and room it’s in so hopefully no more grain mites in the environment. Still a mystery as to what is causing the scruffy feathers.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'm pretty sure the mites came from an old bag of egg food so that's been thrown away, and I'll be on a big cleaning mission tomorrow.
I was thinking of grabbing some food grade DE and maybe using it in their sand bath or around their home. The only thing is they're...