HELP! Baby Button

[laughingull]

I failed on the "remove eggs daily" button quail DO and now I am paying the price. I heard a commotion in the cage and found mom chasing dad with a vengence 2 halves of an eggshell and 1 sad baby trying to follow mom across the cold sand. Baby is now in a box on a heating pad under a heat lamp. Doing my best to moderate the temp but it keeps swinging between 95-105 depending on how I position the heat lamp. Baby's feathers are getting fluffy and it drank some warm water and pecked at some mushy ground up game bird mix. What else should I do? Any recommendations about how to keep a constant temp with the heat lamp? Maybe I should move it into a bigger container so it can find its own favorite temp? Currently it is in a large dog bisquit box (about the size of a beer box which was my other option). I could move it into a full sized rubbermaid bin? Poor lonely little one. I gave it a stuffed animal to hide under. I thought I heard peeping from another egg- but think they are already too cold

 

[Stellar]

The heat lamp will provide a nice warmth for the baby but it won't be constant really. It will ok. The stuffed animal will keep the baby company. If the baby is too cold it will stay under the lamp. If too hot, it will go away where there is no lamp. Make sure the bottom of the box is not slippery. A towel works or shavings. Pelleted pine works (yesterday's news too).

 

[laughingull]

Quote:
Thank you! Yes I have the baby on a towel. Maybe I should move to a bigger box so the baby can move away from the heatlamp if it gets too hot. current box is about 8x12" and the heat lamp covers most of it which is good because it is staying very warm but bad because I have to check it every 5 or ten minutes.

 

[laughingull]

Quote:
Thank you! Yes I have the baby on a towel. Maybe I should move to a bigger box so the baby can move away from the heatlamp if it gets too hot. current box is about 8x12" and the heat lamp covers most of it which is good because it is staying very warm but bad because I have to check it every 5 or ten minutes.

Really wish mama quail were covering this... I suspect that it was the dad that started the problems because she seems so mad at him- but she is super high strung and will probably pace all night after the excitement. Think I will definitely stick to cotournix quail in the future! So mellow and so friendly

 

[laughingull]

Now I am up to five. 3 little yellow puffballs and 2 brown puffballs with orange racing stripes. Awfully cute.

 

[Stellar]

THey are awfully cute when little

 

[laughingull]

Day 3 and all 5 are doing well. Hope I made the right decision taking them from their folks. They still occasionally call back and forth to the mom and it breaks my heart. Seemed like dad was likely to kill them though. Thought about separating mom and dad so mom could raise them but I suspect dad would have killed himself trying to find a way to get back to her. They seem to be settling down- she has started letting him snuggle with her at night again so the little brat got what he wanted. She only seems to get upset when the babies get scared and make alarm calls otherwise she has mostly gone back to her daily dustbaths and being a typically frantic button. Wonder if anyone in the LA area wants a few button quail? I dont really want to keep them but it must also be very hard to find good homes for them so I might be stuck. My cousin wants a couple but she has 2 small children- a bad mix I am pretty sure.