Button Quail hatched with deformed foot.

[Denninmi]

My last 2 viable eggs pipped last night, and both hatched out today.

One of them has a small, clubbed right foot. The foot is about half of the normal size, and the toes are tightly clenched straight forward.

The bird is hobbling around on its good foot and seems as fast as the rest. It just bounces unevenly, like a car with one flat tire, and tilts towards the right.

Eating and drinking just fine, and seems perky.

Anyone care to venture a prognosis for this baby?

It is my opinion that, if nothing else is wrong with it, it could probably lead a perfectly comfortable life, especially considering it will live its entire life in either my spare bedroom or family room, depending upon where I ultimate put the quail cages.

Not having to cope with survival in the wild, where it would face pressures to get food, escape predators and so forth, shouldn't it be able to do just fine?

 

[secretquail]

I would think it would be fine. He will develope more muscle on the left side to compensate. There is a flock of mallards near here. One of the girls has a foot that looks like it was chomped by a turtle. She limps, but is otherwise normal.

 

[Ibicella]

Yeah, it will be fine. So long as it can get around and reach food and water, it should have no trouble compensating.

 

[Stellar]

I wouldn't breed her in the future as she may have a genetic problem that could pass on to her offspring.

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Yes, I agree. I have a "runt" from the first batch. At 4 weeks old, it has caught up with the rest in size, and is a pretty white pied with black random patches on its back and head. I already decided this should be a non-breeder as well because it was so weak to start and had a rough go. I will probably just segregate these birds so that, should they produce eggs, I won't incubate them.

I can always have a "special needs" quail cage or two.

I used to be a florist before I changed careers, and I would like to have some craft eggs anyway, since I still dabble -- always fun to use real eggs in Easter/springtime arrangements, and they are so small they should dry well in my food dehydrator in a few days.

 

[robocluck]

Why would a runt that catches up in size be a non-breeder? I'd call them a fighter and want to pass the genes on . I had several preemie chicks (likely due to my lower temperature) who I placed on my neck the first night to keep warm (and feed a drop or two of water and a kibble crumble to every 2 hrs when they woke me up), and they not only caught up, I seriously can't tell them from the others today. Okay, I still know Two-two -- she was peeping high frequency from the time she pipped her shell (marked 2/2), through her hatching, until today. She has slowed down a lot lately, and actually shuts up once in a while , but as a chick, she never shut up! Two-two, two-two, two-two-two-two! If she was awake, you heard her. Feisty girl. But today she's the same size as the others, and looks no different.

Every chick that was too weak to lift their head at hatching, I kept on my neck the first night (one night I had 2). All were strong enough by morning to face the horde of siblings .