After my button quail chicks hatch then what do i do??

[jbobs]

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk (especially since I worked at the pet store as a kid myself! LOL) but most of the people at the pet stores have never raised poultry let alone quail and really have no idea what they are talking about. I have had half a dozen lamps going in my house over brooders and never had an issue. 95 F is a little less than human body temperature - so it won't cause a fire any more than you would cause a fire by sleeping in your bed at night. The only time you make a fire hazard is if the lamp gets knocked down (so make sure you tie it really securely so it doesn't slip down) of if you use a bulb that is too much wattage for the lamp socket. if you are really paranoid about fire, for peace of mind i would buy the heavy wattage fixtures from the feed store that can take the 250 watt bulbs, plus they are 3 prong. You don't have to put a 250 watt bulb in it - just a 100 will be perfect, that's all I ever used. Plus they have a cage over the bulb so that in the event that it DOES fall, the bulb won't fall against anything. As long as you use common sense it won't be any more dangerous than having a normal lamp in your house.

 

[Pumpkan]

I have a paper bedding it's like shredded toilet paper very soft and absorbent that is ok right

 

[jbobs]

No paper is not great. It might work in a pinch but I wouldn't want to use it long term. I tried it once and wasn't happy with it - got dirty too fast and the birds didn't like walking on it. Adults should have shavings as bedding - hardwood shavings is best because it has the least allergens in it, but pine will do and cedar is really bad for them. I have always used pine. For the babies, they need to have no bedding till they are a bit older - about a week or two - but they must have a grippy surface for their feet so they don't get splayed legs. "earthquake cloth" shelf liner works the best - it's cheap and it's machine washable. Just cut a few peices to fit your brooder box and change it once or twice a day, throwing the dirty ones in the wash and the replace with a clean one. Terry cloth towels work good too as long as they have no strings hanging off them - the babies will either try to eat it or get tangled up in it which can hurt them bad. The trick is that it must be kept really clean. I usually changed mine in the morning and at night when i had buttons in the brooder.

 

[jbobs]

Oh I forgot to mention, pine pellets for pellet stoves also work (I don't like them much for bedding personally because they are so hard and the birds can't scratch and have fun in it - but there's nothing wrong with it per se - it makes great cat litter too!) and you can buy it really cheap by the 50lb bag - our price is about 4 bucks a bag. Some people try to use cat litter as bedding and that's not a good idea - the non-clumping stuff is so dusty that it causes respiratory problems (for birds and people) and the clumping stuff is dangerous if they eat it as it impacts them when they eat it.

 

[Pumpkan]

I think I'll just keep the puppy pads for bedding it's absorbant and they wont slide on it and easy to change out!

I tried candleing my eggs (in the nest) today and I didn't see anything in there! I accidently dropped one and it cracked so I took a peak inside there was nothing in there !! Are my males shooting blanks or could they just be too young to be fertile??? I didn't check the ones in the incubator for obvious reasons but do you think i should pull one out and see if theres anything going on??? I don't want an incubator full of unfertile eggs! .....???????....... At what stage would you be able to see if anyhting is going on?

 

[Stellar]

Are the birds incubating the eggs? The eggs won't develop if they are not.

 

[Stellar]

Also for buttons I recommend pine pellets as a bedding source.

 

[Pumpkan]

I haven't taken any out of the bator .. And they are not sitting on them !!! Well my one button made a nest in the bedding today and put hay over her and her and the male would take turns but they would take turns sitting on the one egg she laid in there today but they didn't stay in there the whole time so not sure what they are going to do!!

 

[jbobs]

It's not uncommon for them to get excited about brooding at first but then get bored of it after a couple of hours. Lots of my coturnix did that, mostly my buttons just laid eggs wherever but then i did collect them as soon as they were laid. I know it's so hard to resist during your first time incubating but just let nature do its thing - you will find out in 16-20 days if you're getting chicks or not. It's really hard to candle button eggs without having a proper candler rigged up out of something - the egg has to sit on a hole so that no light leaks around it. Even then sometimes it's hard for a first timer to know what they are looking for. Early on in incubation you might see veins, but after about 10 days the eggs just looks generally dark. There are so many other factors at work that might be affecting why eggs are not developing, so don't be too quick to blame your males How far along is the incubation? You are using a hovabator, right?

 

[Pumpkan]

They have been in the incubator for 3-4 days now and yes I am using a hovabator with the automati egg turner and they quail racks.