Baby quail and heat

[ViciousAlice]

How old do the buttons have to be to have the heat taken off of them completely? ours turned a week old on Thursday.

 

[Stellar]

They should have heat on them, starting at 100 degrees F, and each week decrease by 5 degrees.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I've taken heat away from mine at about 4 weeks, but they are inside and the room they are in has the A/C blocked.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I take him off the heat at 3 - 4 weeks.
Haven't lost one yet!

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
I never followed this "5 degree less per week" commonly accepted theory. It may cause more harm than good if one blindly follows it.

Exemple: My 40+ coturnix quail are 5 days old today. I brood them on my covered patio inside screen pool cage. West coast central Florida late September 90+ afternoon, gradually dropping to 72-70 through the nigh until morning.

About 10 AM ambient air temperature reaches 80, they go away from heat lamp and spread all around large brooding cage, so I turn the heat off. After sunset I turn on my infrared lamp gradually (I run it through a dim switch) before going to sleep turn it up perhaps 1/3 of total power (250W).



That's all they need. If I followed 5 degree a week mantra, they would be seriously overheated. I believe lots of problems when brooding come from overheating.

I use 2 thermomethers in my bators and hatcher, but I never use a thermomether in my brooder, just watching the birds, they tell by behavior if they need more or less heat. Also making sure they have plenty of room to move away from heat if they want to.

 

[Stellar]

Quote:
I never followed this "5 degree less per week" commonly accepted theory. It may cause more harm than good if one blindly follows it.

Exemple: My 40+ coturnix quail are 5 days old today. I brood them on my covered patio inside screen pool cage. West coast central Florida late September 90+ afternoon, gradually dropping to 72-70 through the nigh until morning.

About 10 AM ambient air temperature reaches 80, they go away from heat lamp and spread all around large brooding cage, so I turn the heat off. After sunset I turn on my infrared lamp gradually (I run it through a dim switch) before going to sleep turn it up perhaps 1/3 of total power (250W).



That's all they need. If I followed 5 degree a week mantra, they would be seriously overheated. I believe lots of problems when brooding come from overheating.

I use 2 thermomethers in my bators and hatcher, but I never use a thermomether in my brooder, just watching the birds, they tell by behavior if they need more or less heat. Also making sure they have plenty of room to move away from heat if they want to.

I have my brooders set up in a controlled environment so the 5 degree rule works for me. Of course if I had them outside, I wouldn't follow it. I am in Florida as well and it does get hot. If for any reason, the air temp gets warm, I turn the lights off, it's simple as that. But for now, since it's a controlled environment, that's not the case.

 

[ViciousAlice]

I have lots of reptiles as well as these little quail, I have a switch that you plug the lamp into one end and out the other there is a thermometer probe that you put into the cage, you set the temp at what you want and it pretty much stays that temp by turning the lamp on and off... very effective.

Thanks a lot for the replies!