Bobwhite quail with dirty feet!

[chicmom]

Hello. I have a problem. I've never had quail before, and I ordered an incy, and it came with some quail eggs, so I hatched them. Anyhow, I really do take good care of my birds. I have chickens and chicks and I've never had this problem, but I noticed today when I was cleaning their brooder as I took them out one by one that they have dirty feet bottoms. I am worried about this. I even got a bucket of warm water and some bounty paper towels and I tried to clean their feet, but this is stuck on. And I thought I was stressing them, so I just put them into the clean brooder.

I don't understand this because the brooder wasn't really very dirty at all. I change it up completely about every 5 days or so.......can someone give me some advice about this? I feel like a bad quail mom......

Thank you,
Sharon

 

[JJMR794]

Quail poo is a little more "gooey" than chicken poo.... Wash them under warm running water and allow it time to soften then rub it off by hand while under the warm running water. WET ONLY THEIR FEET. Do not get the peeps wet as they are way more susceptible to cold than chicken peeps. And yes they will not be happy about this. If left uncorrected it will continue to accumulate and form poo balls around the tips of their toes, this will lead to toe or nail loss and possibly cause the chicks serious problems and health threats. Also check them for pasty butt! What are you feeding them?

 

[chicmom]

Quote:
I am feeding them chick starter and the label on the bag says it's good for starting and raising chicks, quails.....I think the protein is like 24%.....They don't have pasty butt at all. They're very active and I'm just about to separate them into two brooders so that they have more room. I've got a heat lamp on them, and I use pine shavings for their bedding. I also supply them with some hay because they seem to love to pick at that. I also change their water twice a day and they're in brooders in the basement with heat lamps right now--same room I keep my chicks in, but they are totally separated.

I'll tell you, chicks are so much easier to take care of than quails! Wow! So am I feeding them OK? How do you keep their feet clean? Maybe they should be on wire? I don't want to spend a ton of money buying new cages for them because I am not going to keep them for long. I am really a chicken person.

 

[JJMR794]

Feed only gamebird starter 30% protien. They need way higher protien than other chicks for the explosive growth they will undergo. Also standard chick starter or chicken layer crumbles can do 1 of 2 things depending on the specific brand of starter and the individual birds--- 1.CONSTIPATE 2. DIARRHEA both can lead to death in baby quails quite easily.

 

[chicmom]

Wow, I wonder why they advertise that it's quail starter on the bag......GRRRR!

 

[CARS]

I started my A&M's from the incubator till out of the brooder on chick starter and didn't loose any. But then again, I also finished raising most of them on 16% layer (one group was 28% broiler feed). I couldn't tell the difference but my system wasn't too scientific. I just fed what I had I guess