Brooder questions

[Xouie]

Plenty of ideas to steal from this thread — awesome!

I love quail, but mine are dumb. My newborn quailings usually try to eat pine shavings, so they spend their first week on alfalfa leaf (just the stuff that shakes loose from hay). After a week they get fine pine shavings. The large flakes seem to be more difficult for them to walk on.

Our current brooder is the bottom part of a plastic doghouse. I use a plastic ikea serving fork as a mini pitchfork to fluff and scoop bedding. Now I’m going back through pictures above to take notes for improvements!

 

[Captain Quark]

Question about colour. Not sure of the etiquette here (stay in my own thread or start another?).

I don't know the lineage of either my male (who is a golden orange colour) or my females (regular Pharoah colouring). They came from separate places. I expected a mix of babies that were those colours, and indeed that's what I've seen until...ta da! A bright yellow fluff ball with two small golden brown stripes on its head. Eyes are red tinted. It can see but it took awhile to figure that out. It's not as stable or able as the other chicks. Blinks like the light bothers it. What is this bird going to turn out to be colour wise?

 

[FloorCandy]

Question about colour. Not sure of the etiquette here (stay in my own thread or start another?).

I don't know the lineage of either my male (who is a golden orange colour) or my females (regular Pharoah colouring). They came from separate places. I expected a mix of babies that were those colours, and indeed that's what I've seen until...ta da! A bright yellow fluff ball with two small golden brown stripes on its head. Eyes are red tinted. It can see but it took awhile to figure that out. It's not as stable or able as the other chicks. Blinks like the light bothers it. What is this bird going to turn out to be colour wise?

Normally a white bird with a couple head spots is a Texas A&M. I believe the white gene for that is recessive, so two of the adults would have at least one copy each, even without showing it. I have 3 albinos, and they have no colored spots at all, and their eyes look almost purple as little ones because you can mostly only see pupil at that size. If I were to guess, I think it’s eyes might not be actually red, but a light color like blue. Blue can look like red in a lot of lighting because the limited pigment doesn’t disguise the blood flow behind the pigment. People will often tell you that in order to tell if a dog has the lilac or Isabella gene (blue fawn) their eyes will look red in photos, this isn’t accurate really, but is often the case because their eyes are a lighter color. Time will tell, it would be interesting if it ends up with red eyes. You should make him a thread and keep us updated.
My albinos are maturing much more slowly than their normal siblings, so I give them nutridrench in their water as a supplement, and it seemed to help speed up the feathering a bit, but I can’t be certain.