HELP Baby king quail being pecked and isolated from flock

lilly89008

Chirping
6 Years
May 5, 2017
2
0
60
Recently our king quails's eggs hatched. Over the past week, out of the five chicks three have died. We have noticed that the other quails are pecking on one of the chicks and the mother is isolating the same chick, it also has a splayed leg. We have removed all the other quails from the aviary and just left the mother and babies. How ever the same chick is still being isolated.... it is feeding and drinking itself but we dont have a permant cage to keep the other quails in. What should we do...
Our only solution right now is to put a particition in the avairy so when the older birds are returned they are away from the mother and babies. PLEASE HELP
 
I'd probably attempt isolating the mother and babies in a chick proof cage - it could be inside the aviary but don't make the mistake of assuming that the usual ½-inch wire can keep a button chick in (though if they are a week old it probably can, but they really are little escape artists). The one with splay leg should probably be treated for it - on here people suggest keeping the legs together with a band aid cut in half so it's not too wide to fit. You can search for it on the forum to get a picture of how it's done.
If you have a few materials laying around you could build a cage for mom and babies. I actually have a drawing of a cage I intended to build for use in my aviary, using what was laying around on my parents' farm. I never actually built it, the birds (1 male and 3 females) ended up getting along and just helping each other raise all chicks, but it might give you an idea of what you could do. The cage is around 15 inches high to make sure it can fit through my aviary door.
 
Thanks for your advice. We ended up putting a partition in the aviary and the baby quails and their mothers relationship has largely improved, they look much healthier and the baby quail which seemed to have a splayed leg has healed by itself. It is even more active then its sibling. Thank you for your advice though :), we will use the band aid cut in half method if the leg worsens.
 

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