Fragile baby button quail

[Kimberly333]

I had several button quail eggs in my incubator that all died except three of them. So After three days, the first one died the first morning, the second one died the second morning, and the third one, fortunately did not die the third morning which is awesome. This was my first experience watching and helping baby quails hatch, so it was cute and depressing, but my last baby left is sadly alone and it hurts me to hear her always tweeting away. I'm not sure if this is a little song or if she just wants to play? She is only 4 days old as of this night, and was born the past Wednesday night. Does she need a mate? I don't know because she's only a baby quail and Id on't think she'll be breeding anytime soon. Also is it ok if her brooder consists of a desk lamp with a 60 watt light bulb. I could not get a heat lamp and so this was what I used for her siblings that died too, so maybe this was the reason of their deaths??? Thanks in advance!

 

[GrandmaBird]

you should have done more research before hatching these chicks. That said: the little one will not be happy alone but it can survive. You need to be feeding it high protein gamebird crumbles that have been ground down to tiny bits, not fine powder. And it needs fresh water that it can not fall into or it will get a chill and could die rather quickly from the cold. You should give him grit at 1-2 weeks of age when you gradually leave the crumbles in larger pieces.This chick should be in a brooder, do not use a red lamp bulb, with the heat at 90-95 for week one then down by 5 degrees every week after to room temp of 70 degrees this takes about 6 weeks and the chick will have all it feathers then and be almost of age to mate. Note: heat at one end of brooder food and water at the other. You could place a feather duster in the brooder or even a clean small stuffed toy and a mirror for "company". Hope this helps a bit and good luck.

 

[Kimberly333]

Thanks! this does help, I have placed the food and water across the desk lamp, and hopefully she won't feel very lonely after a toy. I feed her starter crumble, but I think it might be too big for her to eat, so I crush it by hand to little pebbles, but not powder. When is the end of breeding season for button quails? I looked it up but could not find an accurate season because my quails have been non-stop laying eggs, at least once a day.

 

[GrandmaBird]

they will lay year round if they have the right amount of light. 12-14 hours. so if you want to give them a break just reduce the amount of light. I cover mine and uncover about 7 am and the sun goes down about 5:30 pm so they only get about 10 hours a day. No laying here. I will increase the light in the spring if they don't start on their won but they should with the increase of natural light.