An honest question. I hatched a dozen quails and they don't have any sense of survival! Getting them selves stuck, not eating and drinking unless I'm next to the cage. Walking outside of the ecoglow heater and sleeping in the cold in the middle of the night! I've never had quails before but I've never seen such a lack of survival instinct, it's like taking care of a newborn. LOL I've had to set my alarm a few times in the night to make sure they are all under the heater, 9 times out of 10 at least one is asleep outside of the heat usually stuck somewhere silly. lol
Mine did when I had a week-long foray into Quail.... one somehow escaped and never came back the first day, I moved the remaining one into a new, higher security cage (I had 2 quail) and exactly one week later the other died of presumed heatstroke in 80-degree weather. The chickens weren't even panting. they were fine. The quail had water right next to it and it had a hidey spot and the whole cage was covered as shade!!!
I've had chickens all my life, 2 seconds from hatch they are smart and can take care of themselves. I was not ready for this!!! Lol
They arent chickens. They dont need to be taught how to eat or drink. They wont eat or drink at all for the first 24 hours or so while they absorb the rest of their yolk. After that theyll figure it out. Ive long lost count of how many ive hatched and i dont do anything beyond move them to the brooder, keep them warm, and make sure they have food and water. If theyre sleeping outside the heat ring from your heat source the floor temp underneath it is probably too high. I use ecoglow bulbs for my snake they can easily heat the floor to 120-130* if not placed far enough away.
The good news is that they grow quickly so don't need a heat source for a long time like chickens, the bad news is that their brains probably won't develop much more... My quail will walk up a ramp and if there is nothing in front of them they will just keep walking over the edge, then once they go over the edge they usually don't even open their wings and just fall to the ground looking kinda dazed. Mine also tend to get stuck in weird places, most of them i'm not even sure how they got into lol.
Yes they have no sense of self preservation, and let when they are chicks. Where are they getting stuck? A brooder for quail should be as simple as possible to prevent this sort of thing. Don't put anything other than a food and water source for them and a substrate. Make sure your brooder isn't too warm. If they are not sleeping close to the heater it's probably too hot.
