Buttonquail chicks keep dying?!

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

Hello all,

My hens have naturally hatched dozens of chicks over the passed few years, and I lose about 75% of them. I had 4 hatch 2 days ago. I was able to catch one yesterday before he passed. I held him until he died.

Then today, another. I though he was already gone but when I picked him up, he squirmed. I took a video of him and will include a link in hopes someone can tell me why they all die like this.

This takes hours. They are suffering. The babies are limp when I pick them up, I thought their necks had been broken from being stepped on by the adults, but they move their heads a little bit.

Why are these babies dying? What is happening?

 

[Quailobsessed]

Hi, so sorry they keep dying

It could be bad genetics in the parent birds. Is this in all the chicks you hatch? Are they all from the same parents?

What's the temp of your brooder? Could you post a pic of the set up?

Really hope this can be figured out. Those poor little chicks.

 

[Mylied]

Maybe vitamin deficiency in the adults that is passing to the chicks. Selenium and vitamin e. What do you feed them?

 

[Nabiki]

What temperature are they being kept at? If it's too hot or too cold they could die like that.

 

[blackoaktammy]

I'm guessing the same as above, it's either bad genes or the chicks are cold. Buttons are notoriously bad parents. Some people have success, most don't. Have you tried incubating the eggs instead of letting the parents try to raise them? If the issue is genetics, the chicks would die the same way. If it's bad parenting, your chicks should be ok with the correct brooder set up.

 

[702Quails]

If you just have them out in room temperature, they'll die for sure. That why they're lethargic. You can't trust a button quails to correctly incubate eggs or brood chicks either. Get an incubator w/ egg turner and set up a small brooder that will stay at a constant 100 on one side.

I've hatched about 40 button quail chicks from an incubator so far and none of them have died in my brooder.

 

[Quailobsessed]

If you just have them out in room temperature, they'll die for sure. That why they're lethargic. You can't trust a button quails to correctly incubate eggs or brood chicks either. Get an incubator w/ egg turner and set up a small brooder that will stay at a constant 100 on one side.

I've hatched about 40 button quail chicks from an incubator so far and none of them have died in my brooder.

I do agree with you, however, some quails can successfully raise chicks; that's how I raise mine. I actually find mine to do a better job than me. But yes, it is hard. Some quails just don't brood.

 

[ChickNanny13]

 

[Ravenlover]

Im a complete noob on this but after days of research and that vid it looks like its too cold but what do i know o.o

 

[Quailobsessed]

Im a complete noob on this but after days of research and that vid it looks like its too cold but what do i know o.o

Do you have dying chicks?