4 dead quail this morning

[hen rietta]

so. I have (had) 4 lovely friendly bobwhite quail in a very large walk in coop. They are not too flighty as we walk in the cage all the time and many times will even "sing" while I am in there filling food and water and are right near my feet. Last night around 7 I saw them huddled and sleeping, (so I know they were alive then) and I turned on their brooder light which is sitting on top of a small wire cage they can go into, that also has a small plastic tub in there and they can go in and out to keep warm if they want- they got up and went to it like normal, chirping etc. This morning, 4 are dead. No puncture marks, I lifted them to feel weight and all are solid. Plenty of feathers, they looked completely healthy. I have had them several months. I am baffled (and very sad). any ideas? also, the cats don't really bother them and the cage is very large they could fly if they want , and if they were bothered by something on the outside they could just walk to the inner part of the cage and have plenty of room still. The cage is about 6 feet tall. The bottom half is hardware cloth and the upper half is chicken wire. I looked for fang marks in case a snake got in there but that is just me grasping for straws. Two were in the small cage where the light was and two were outside the cage, separated from one another. Yes, I do have chickens in there with them, (which were all fine this morning) but again, the cage is large and they basically leave the quail alone (remember NO marks anywhere on the quail) if it had been ONE quail, I might have suspected a chicken, but they have all lived together for the past several months and all FOUR were dead. Ok that is all the info I can think of.

 

[TwoCrows]

Sorry about your quail. I would suspect either a chicken did this, and remember quail are very delicate. Large fowl can break their necks very easily. Or possibly something came prowling in the night and terrified everybody and the quail flew up and broke their necks. (chickens are less likely to panic from predators than quail) I keep my quail in aviaries and I do know that when one flushes, they all flush at the same time. That is the purpose of a flush...to confuse predators.

And while I am against keeping quail with chickens for many reasons, I do not feel it had anything to do with disease.

 

[Sill]

So sorry this happened. I'm suspecting something made them panic, flush and break their necks since it happened to all four.

 

[hen rietta]

I also wondered about pumpkin and seeds.... daughter is worried that she poisoned them last night when she gave the chickens and the quail some leftover pumpkin... (I feed them all kinds of goodies from the fridge generally) I told her I didn't think so, but maybe someone knows something else. I just find it odd that all 4 were dead and they just were so calm and sweet. (never had them flush before) even when the cat would stop and stare. and when I picked up their little bodies, their necks seemed "not loose" like broken necks would be. But quail are new to me so... I read the above link about not combining chickens with the quail. Didn't know any of that. They have been together for quite a while now with no issues (only like 9 chickens) in a VERY large coop/cage, plus the chickens go out a lot of time during the day and come back in at might. (just a side comment). Had husband test the wire cage tonight with his multi meter to make sure there was no short in the heat lamp and that maybe they got electrocuted (grasping at straws again) but it was fine. Miss them already. Loved how they sang to me! the even had gotten out of the cage now and then (by accident) when I was letting the chickens out and would walk back in with no panicking. I originally bought them to eat, but they were too cute.

 

[TwoCrows]

I also wondered about pumpkin and seeds.... daughter is worried that she poisoned them last night when she gave the chickens and the quail some leftover pumpkin... (I feed them all kinds of goodies from the fridge generally) I told her I didn't think so, but maybe someone knows something else. I just find it odd that all 4 were dead and they just were so calm and sweet. (never had them flush before) even when the cat would stop and stare. and when I picked up their little bodies, their necks seemed "not loose" like broken necks would be. But quail are new to me so... I read the above link about not combining chickens with the quail. Didn't know any of that. They have been together for quite a while now with no issues (only like 9 chickens) in a VERY large coop/cage, plus the chickens go out a lot of time during the day and come back in at might. (just a side comment). Had husband test the wire cage tonight with his multi meter to make sure there was no short in the heat lamp and that maybe they got electrocuted (grasping at straws again) but it was fine. Miss them already. Loved how they sang to me! the even had gotten out of the cage now and then (by accident) when I was letting the chickens out and would walk back in with no panicking. I originally bought them to eat, but they were too cute.

Pumpkin seeds are not harmful to quail and they are actually good for them. I am at a loss too on what happened. I am so sorry about your babies.

I know how hard it is to loose your birds. I hope your heavy heart can heal soon.