Coturnix quail - disease resistance

[CC5131]

I've only raised chickens but starting on plans for my quail coop. I'm told the quail are hardier birds than chickens. I'd love your expert feedback on this. I will be raising quail as pets and it was devastating to loose chickens in the past as they seemed so fragile to sickness. I kept a very clean coop but over many years still faced all kinds of problems and heartbreak.
Will raising quail be easier? What problems should I expect?

 

[Ebony Rose]

Quail absolutely need to be in a predator proof enclosure. If you're incubating eggs to get your chicks, you can expect the hatchlings to be incredibly creative in ways to die. They don't automatically know what's food or water, and you'll need to tap your finger at the food and watering dishes until you're certain that they understand. Their very shallow watering dish should have marbles or stones in it, as they can very easily drown their first couple weeks. Use non-shredded paper towel or terry towel as bedding in their brooder for the first week (changed daily) to avoid slipped tendons (that look a lot like splayed legs, and is hard to deal with in a bird as tiny as a quail chick). Definitely add chick booster (vitamins for baby chicks) to their water as quail can pass along dietary deficiencies to their offspring through their eggs and if supplemented from the moment they hatch, can greatly reduce problems. A quail chick that constantly cries is usually in distress; will be up to your powers of observation of that crying chick to determine if they've not figured out about food and water yet (crying because they're hungry or thirsty), too hot, too cold, or outright sick and in need of antibiotics... Quail are very resistant to coccidia, even when freshly hatched, unlike chicken who often die soon after they've been exposed to the soil for the first time (usually somewhere between 3 to 6 weeks old) unless they've been fed medicated feed or corid in their water). Touching on the subject of too hot / too cold... make certain that your brooder's heat source is not teflon coated as the fumes from the hot coating are toxic to your quail. If it says shatter-resistant, it's probably teflon coated. Make sure that their brooder has plenty of space to allow the chicks to get away from the heat, and place their feed and water somewhere in that middle-ground to avoid chicks sleeping on the food under the heat source and refusing to move... and consequently overheating.
With all of that said, I've found quail to be very hearty and a pleasure to raise.

 

[Chip76]

Baby quail are so adorable! I bet you will enjoy them!

I've only had quail since June, so I don't have a lot of expertise, but I have learned a lot. I did lose a chick at 2 weeks old, and it was very heartbreaking for me. It was my nephew, not sickness tho.

Fortunately, only one of my quail has had problems. She hatched with an umbilical hernia. Of course, I didn't know what it was at the time. The other chicks pulled on it and made it a lot worse before I separated her. I didn't think she would survive, I thought they had pulled out her intestines. But after 10 days the lump fell off. Then at 4 weeks old she got bumblefoot from biting at her foot trying to clean off some poop she stepped in. That took weeks of treatment to fix. She later got a hair wrapped around her leg that was cutting off her circulation. Luckily I caught that pretty fast so there was no damage. Since the bumblefoot, I check her feet often to make sure they are clean and healthy. So far that's all the health problems I've experienced. Hope that helps!

 

[CC5131]

What diseases did you deal with with your chickens?

We were given a bird with leg mites and it spread to the rest of our flock before we realized we had a problem. We also lost several and never knew what happened. They'd be fine one day then the next couldn't lift their head. Most of our birds were healthy and we kept a really clean coop I think we just had disease introduced to the flock and things never got better.

 

[Maiahr]

I don't have much experience either as I am only hatching from June too, but I would agree that quails are more disease resistant. For instance some of my chicks have died at 5-10 days after hatch without any symptom, while with quail - whosoever survives the first 2 days after hatch is still alive... well, except for when the dogs opens the cage and kills them.

 

[Kiki]

I've only raised chickens but starting on plans for my quail coop. I'm told the quail are hardier birds than chickens. I'd love your expert feedback on this. I will be raising quail as pets and it was devastating to loose chickens in the past as they seemed so fragile to sickness. I kept a very clean coop but over many years still faced all kinds of problems and heartbreak.
Will raising quail be easier? What problems should I expect?

What diseases did you deal with with your chickens?

 

[CC5131]

thank you so much for these tips!