Do speckles always indicate hens?

[CovidtimeQuail]

I can't get proper game bird feed here so I get organic turkey starter. Has great protein ratio and no medication in it. Have to get my feed store to order it in but they do and cost is reasonable.

No turkeys here in Hawaii! I wish I could get Purina Startena or other game bird feed here regularly. The feed store says they carry it, but it hasn't been in since I started raising quail a year ago. I'm not sure what other food I can supplement the feed with. I presume my birds are filling up on the cockroaches that invade Hawaii, but clearly the babies aren't getting their fill.

 

[muans]

These are maturing much more slowly than the first few sets I had. I thought maybe it was the weather or season -- I suppose I should have been giving them more supplemental light but they weren't cold like the other birds I had. The birds get plain old chicken feed with mealworm and peanut supplemented for protein. It's hard to get high protein feed where I am. Sometimes the feed store has it, mostly they don't.

feed them the highest nutrition poultry feed mostly chicken starter is the most nutritious nad feed that for the rest of their life..maybe yes because of the season as days are shorter but give them some extra light and btw way i think some of your chicks are having ruffled feather

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

feed them the highest nutrition poultry feed mostly chicken starter is the most nutritious nad feed that for the rest of their life..maybe yes because of the season as days are shorter but give them some extra light and btw way i think some of your chicks are having ruffled feather

Your post had me curious -- I googled ruffled feathers and saw that it is often a sign of illness. However, the birds are crazy energetic and peppy. It's just the white feathers that are curly. None of my other chicks had this happen. Do you think I should be worried?

 

[Nabiki]

No turkeys here in Hawaii! I wish I could get Purina Startena or other game bird feed here regularly. The feed store says they carry it, but it hasn't been in since I started raising quail a year ago. I'm not sure what other food I can supplement the feed with. I presume my birds are filling up on the cockroaches that invade Hawaii, but clearly the babies aren't getting their fill.

Ugh. I remember the cockroaches. I swear, you give just a bit of breeding for size and you could grab the antennae and have organic skateboards.

One of my most vivid memories of living there was stepping backwards in the shower to rinse my hair and feeling/hearing *crunch* under my foot. I think people heard my scream all the way on the mainland.

 

[Trisseh]

I’ve also had major trouble getting an appropriate feed for my quail. The highest protein I could get was the 21% duck and goose starter, and of course these boogers don’t like it. So I now feed the 16% grower that my local store mixes, and I grind up cat kibble and mix that in, and also give mealworms periodically. It’s cold here too, so the extra fat doesn’t seem to be causing any problems. Not a lot of options for feed around here.

I also have a quail that I thought was an Italian male, but no crowing, no foam, even at the peak of puberty. But also no eggs. The facial markings look female, but it lacks chest spots. I’m wondering if it’s not some weird Manchurian or something. It did hatch out of a group of assorted eggs from a community group that has a lot of different colors all running together.

Unless the genetics back it up, for sure they can’t all be feather sexed... and with mixed colors who knows what they’re going to wind up with.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

So I looked up coturnix with curly feathers again and apparently adults exist. Neither the roo nor the hen have curly feathers. I raised them both from chicks and they didn't have them then either. Also, neither were pink while young.

Genetics are strange. I'll just have to see if this is environmental or whether they'll keep the frizzle.

 

[muans]

Your post had me curious -- I googled ruffled feathers and saw that it is often a sign of illness. However, the birds are crazy energetic and peppy. It's just the white feathers that are curly. None of my other chicks had this happen. Do you think I should be worried?

check signs if they are drowsy loosing too much feathers sometimes they can be energetic but ill