Cute Button Quail Chick

[MageofMist]

The 5 babies so far, unsure if the other eggs will hatch, time will tell. ^^

So far I have a Slate, Regular Tuxedo, Red Breasted and two Double Factored Wing-Tipped Blue-Faced chicks.

 

[JaeG]

They really are the most adorable things! Do you find they are any friendlier when you handle them as chicks? I was going to give some of the chicks from the eggs I'm incubating to the hen in the aviary who is sitting, but there are currently 15 developing eggs in there (I added some of that hens eggs as she was sitting on too many - I suspect her mother added a few) and I think that's a few too many for one hen to look after! I don't think many will hatch under her as the weather is still chilly, and quite a few didn't look fertile, but it's hard to candle them in the aviary.

I got a cute photo of my odd cinnamon and her Daddy out in the aviary yesterday. She's feathering up slowly, despite the cold weather here.

 

[MageofMist]

They really are the most adorable things! Do you find they are any friendlier when you handle them as chicks? I was going to give some of the chicks from the eggs I'm incubating to the hen in the aviary who is sitting, but there are currently 15 developing eggs in there (I added some of that hens eggs as she was sitting on too many - I suspect her mother added a few) and I think that's a few too many for one hen to look after! I don't think many will hatch under her as the weather is still chilly, and quite a few didn't look fertile, but it's hard to candle them in the aviary.

I got a cute photo of my odd cinnamon and her Daddy out in the aviary yesterday. She's feathering up slowly, despite the cold weather here.

View attachment 1121060

Even when I handle them when young, they still grow up skittish and usually want nothing to do with me once the feathers start coming in and go wild. Though there's one mature hen who sits on me as long as I keep providing her treats and the hand raised ones tend to be more accepting of taking treats much earlier on than my now tamed adults did, who now run up to me and chirp for treats and greedily gobble up what I put through the bars, but shoot away if I make any sudden movements.

Mine are kept indoors but I am planning on making an aviary at some point, I fear I may get mobbed by my quail when I walk in one with treats. Rex and his wife and daughters already zoom up to me when I walk by their cage, eyeing me for treats and Rex food-peeping at me as he knows that leads to me giving him treats.

Also, the odd cinnamon is looking pretty so far. ^^

 

[MageofMist]

7th chick hatched with assistance, and this poor guy had it rough. Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong for the poor thing.

The egg membrane was thicker than usual, which I noticed when trying to help it out, the chick got itself in an awkward position where it's leg was above it's head, and it ended up getting shrinkwrapped. It had pipped either last night or this morning, and it is late evening now. Despite this, the chick found the strength to push itself out once I cleared the way for it and is now happily snuggling with it's siblings.

It was terrifying, there were still some active veins in the egg, but the chick was extremely weak and tired and I feared if I waited longer, I'd lose it. So I took the risk and thankfully it all went well. The baby is a beautiful little double factored, wing tipped blue-faced chick.

 

[JaeG]

I'm glad he arrived safe and sound. I tried to help one a little while ago that had pipped at the wrong end of the egg, but he didn't make it. That's the first time I've had an egg pip at the wrong end, not that I've hatched that many eggs. It's so hard to know when to help, and how much to help, and they are so tiny.

 

[JaeG]

How cute is this? Spicey decided to help out her sister, Whistler, who had left her nest for a break. She's not even 4 weeks old yet. She has a future as a great Mummy though as she is definitely looking like a she.

 

[MageofMist]

View attachment 1123394
How cute is this? Spicey decided to help out her sister, Whistler, who had left her nest for a break. She's not even 4 weeks old yet. She has a future as a great Mummy though as she is definitely looking like a she.

That is adorable! I can see her becoming a great mother in the future. I wonder, do broody females fight or get along with siblings and daughters? I worry when Speckles goes broody that she may attack her daughters as they do get quite grumpy.

Also... I have some bad news, the slate coloured chick got very weak and despite me giving it honey water as well as regular water, it sadly didn't make a recovery. I noticed it was smaller than the tuxedo one and the rest of it's siblings after a day had passed and not nearly as active and bouncy as the others. They are such frail little things at this age and while I do expect some losses, it is still guttering when it happens.

 

[JaeG]

That is adorable! I can see her becoming a great mother in the future. I wonder, do broody females fight or get along with siblings and daughters? I worry when Speckles goes broody that she may attack her daughters as they do get quite grumpy.

Also... I have some bad news, the slate coloured chick got very weak and despite me giving it honey water as well as regular water, it sadly didn't make a recovery. I noticed it was smaller than the tuxedo one and the rest of it's siblings after a day had passed and not nearly as active and bouncy as the others. They are such frail little things at this age and while I do expect some losses, it is still guttering when it happens.

Oh, I'm sorry. It's always hard to lose birds, even if you've hardly got to know them! I just lost a little Java finch I was hand rearing. He was two weeks old and, after a lot of research I now know he had an air sac rupture which was letting air into his crop, turning it into a balloon. Then fluid started to gather in his crop and he was barely eating. Poor little guy.

I think as long as there's enough space the girls get along ok when one is broody. I have two sisters who were together in a small indoor cage - a corner guinea pig one. I had to take one sister out when the other went broody as she kept trying to chase her away from her nest and there was no length to the cage to allow the other one to get away to. But out in the aviary the one that's broody, Whistler, will do what I first thought was an angry sort of grunting/chittering to her mother, Matilda, but now I realise that's her signal to Matilda to take over sitting on the nest while Whistler has a bit of a break.

 

[MageofMist]

My babies are already starting to go a little wild with scattering when I put my hand in, despite me handling them every day, but if I leave my hand in the brooder long enough, they all climb on to snuggle. XP

Edit:Also, been treating my quail with leftover tropical fish flakes from when I bred guppies in the past... Found it had a growing population of drugstore beetles living in it. Well, they are just the perfect size to be nommed by the little baby chicks who love hunting them down.

 

[JaeG]

I bet they love hunting bugs! I'm eagerly awaiting my eggs hatching. They've gone into lock down today. I can't wait! There's one that looks like it has died but fingers crossed for the rest. I'd say the ones in the aviary will hatch a little later as the nights are still pretty cool here, and when I candled them they weren't as far along as the incubator ones. Hopefully she'll have a good hatch. Her mother usually just ends up with one chick hatching - would be nice to have a few running around.