Chukar life span

[jjchick]

Can anyone tell me from experience how long a chukar normally lives? I have aome that are 1 1/2 years old and they seem to be dying for no apparent reason. Oe day they are doing good the next they are dead.

 

[pascopol]

They do not live much more than 2 seasons in nature, but in captivity they should live a few years. Hopefully somebody who breeds them will give you more detailed answer.

To me in your case they might be sick, I never saw healthy birds dropping dead at one and a half year of age.

 

[Tony K T]

Could be a number of things.You need to give more details.Are they on wire?ground?What do you have for soil if on ground?Do you medicate for prevention?Or at all?What are you feeding them?Is the top of their pen covered?With what?If a hawk flies over,can they see him above them?
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Cason]

http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1412

15 years in captivity????

 

[wpalmisano]

I'm a game bird breeder. Thinkin' they should have another season or two left in them. I would suspect weather or disease.

 

[Quail's Hollar Farm]

The life span for most chuckars is five years, however they are really sensitive to their surroundings such as diseases.

 

[cva34]

They do not live much more than 2 seasons in nature, but in captivity they should live a few years. Hopefully somebody who breeds them will give you more detailed answer.

To me in your case they might be sick, I never saw healthy birds dropping dead at one and a half year of age.

I figgger life span in wild is short due to Lead Poison /predators ...cva34

 

[dc3085]

To sort of close this thread up, 4-5 years is going to be average life span under natural light. I would imagine birds induced to lay with the lights have a shorter lifespan I have no experience there.

The thing i clicked here to point out is for people new to the hobby and open forums. The questions Tony asked are all basic yet critical things, but in order to quickly and efficiently help you out try to include as much info as possible, sometimes your question doesnt get answered until the next day but if you didnt include something critical then it may take another day. Heck maybe you didn't even realize you had another question until one of the quail guru answer it before its asked. Sometimes when some of us ask questions that may seem aggressive or rude it is only to quickly and concisely do our best to diagnose your problems. In this instance the original poster never returned which is also etiquette that isnt of the most helpful variety on a forum. Please when you ask a question provide or be able to quickly provide more information than you would think is needed to solve the problem. Also try to remember when you ask a question in a new thread come back and let us know the outcome, it's more important than you think.

Now to the other type of aggressive and seemingly critical question that get asked. The thing is most of the time these birds can be saved with very little effort or cost but the owners are not educated in their pets. Many (Very Many) people will not do anywhere close to sufficient research before purchasing an animal. In this case I do not know how much Chukar experience he had but all too often people get their start in animal husbandry the day they purchased their quail or chukars or whatever. Since I began raising coturnix a couple years ago I can count the number of adult birds I have lost on one hand and I know the reason for each. I also have not lost a single bird to disease, not one (I keep around 60 coturnix and I hatch to sell about 30 new chicks every week). I see questions every week where people are losing a lot of birds or chicks and it is usually do to a piece of info they didn't have and not disease or anything major. It's not anger it's just frustration over so many people who do not do their due dillegence, and birds dying prematurely because of it. So at times questions from more experienced breeders may seem hostile and with every reason to be since there is little excuse for dead birds among any of the popular varieties. In fact I learned most of what I know about gamebird husbandry specifically, reading here and in the UC Davis archives for old research papers of which there are some great ones. So basically please do your homework before purchasing your pets and don't get peeved (didn't happen here but happens often enough) at us if someone seems hostile while trying to solve a problem that never should have been. Literally the answers to about half of the questions that get asked are as follows: the birds are crowded and killing each other for space or because of too many cock birds in a flock and the owner can't sex them or a half a dozen other really basic foundation level things that should be learned before your first avian is in your care. So please be as professional as possible and leave your feelings at the door if you are easily offended.


DEEP BReath and I'm off my soapbox.