Discoloured Quail Egg!!

[Mr Coppertop]

I need advice about discoloured eggs.

I have had my 2 female Button Quails (Florence & Matilda) for a little over 17 months
now and they have been as good as gold, or as good as 2 noisey, messy, feathery,
poop machines can be, for all that time. l found an egg this morning with strange
colouration and coarse texture. I've never seen one like this from my girls before,
I've had slightly different shaped ones and ones with more dots but this one's got
me concerned. They also spent a good portion of the morning asleep, they usually
wake up around 7am but they were dozing till gone 11am.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Below Left is the offending egg, and Right is one laid by the same quail yesterday.



This egg should be mottled brown all over like the patch on the right but has a ring of
coarse white stuff and then a greeny blue tinge that goes right the way round the egg.


Close up of the textured part. With a little dry rubbing the stuff comes off but it's a
pretty thick layer and it couldn't have been pleasant to lay.
at the bottom of the picture you can see the blue discolouration.

 

[Dustystrail]

I'm definitely not a quail expert and I've never had buttons.
I can tell you about my experience with chickens. I have 2 older hens (6 years) and they go through spells where their eggs are misshapen or just fragile(looks very similar to yours). It has happened a lot more this year. I make sure they always have access to extra calcium incase they want it and I worry a little about the possibility of an egg breaking inside of them. They don't seem to be worried at all. They continue to perch on the top perch and put the younger hens in their place. One of them is even turning gray.
You did mention they may not be as energetic as normal. That would make me concerned unless, perhaps your weather is unusually hot.
Hopefully someone with more experience will reply.

 

[Mr Coppertop]

Thank you for relplying, you've put my mind at rest a little bit more. It has been hot recently but I keep the quails inside to protect them from the extremes of hot and cold. They were up and lively this morning at their usual time and they seem perfectly happy.
What would you recommend for extra calcium?

 

[Dustystrail]

I get oyster shell from the feed store. I offer it in a separate dish. I have Coturnix and I just fish around in the bag and find the dust that settles along the edges. I know buttons are smaller, maybe you could crush some a little finer if you needed to.
I have a simple method for crushing horse pills that should work for crushing oyster shell. Fold some up in a sturdy piece of paper (think junk mail) and tap it generally with a hammer. I've used a cereal box too. Just make sure all the edges are folded over or you will have a mess.

 

[dc3085]

What you are seeing is not calcium related. When a hen is nervous she can choose to hold the egg inside her. When this happens the ovaduct will begin to repaint the egg at this point, causing the abnormal color you see there. The texture is likely just an over production of calcium on this eggs.