HELP!!!!!!! BABY QUAIL STILL DYING!!!

[becky1677]

PLEASE I NEED HELP!!!! We are at week 3 and about half the hatch has died. ( This is my 5th batch of bob white quail and I have never had such a hard time keeping them alive. They have bloody beaks and they are very aggressive towards each other. They are skinning each other’s legs?? I can see the bone on the leg I have them spilt up now the smaller ones and bigger ones which helped a little but still finding 2-3 dead a day and at this rate they will all be dead in another 3weeks ( They look sick. They are pecking the crap out of each other and piling really bad. I have raised them the same way I raised my other batches. I’m lost don’t know what else to do for them??? I change their bedding every day and water and food. I’m grinding their food up and I have the temp around 84 right now. Is there a medication I should try? Their food does have meds in it. Any advise anyone??????

 

[anniep]

Hey! That sounds like quite the crisis. If it were me I would go big and separate them all. You never know one may just cut its leg and the others started pecking at it. But no matter the age group that you separate them into they will still peck. Those cuts sound pretty bad so maybe put some ointment on them. That's the best I can come up with! But good luck!!

 

[anniep]

By the way what are the symptoms? Sometimes they may have just been worn out from blood lose.

 

[TwoCrows]

They either feel cramped, hot, cold, hungry or thirsty. So my advise to you is this...separate all of them so that they have 1 square foot per bird, even if you have to set up 4 different brooders. Lower the temp to 80 degrees. Set up two stations for eating and drinking. Keep the heat off to one side and the food and water off to the other so they have to chill out to get the goods.

If you have a red bulb, install it. Bobs do terrible with white light...turns on their aggression.

They are obviously stressed in their environment and you need to "chill" them out. If you want to keep them alive, you need to follow these steps closely.

 

[TwoCrows]

On top of all these suggestions, it wouldn't hurt to give them something to do in the brooder. Put in some small branches to climb on, a box of hay to scratch in and a small mirror to take their aggressions out on. Good luck!

 

[anniep]

On top of all these suggestions, it wouldn't hurt to give them something to do in the brooder. Put in some small branches to climb on, a box of hay to scratch in and a small mirror to take their aggressions out on. Good luck!

x2

 

[becky1677]

Thanks for the advise!! When I get home, I'm going to start 2 or 3 more brooder boxes and see if that helps.. Could they have a illness or something? What causes them to bleed from the top of beaks? It looks like an aggression issues?? If its not aggession what else would cause bloody beaks?? trying to rule out everything..

 

[becky1677]

I will put some hay and sticks in their brooder and see Thanks!!!.. Any suggestion are appreciated!!!

 

[TwoCrows]

Bleeding from the top of the beaks is aggression. A sick bird can become aggressive also, however bobs are notorious for attacking and killing each other at the beaks and legs in the brooder. And almost every time it stems from being over crowded and being too hot. So I think this is the problem, not an illness.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[becky1677]

No dead babies today!! We added hay, sticks and changed light to red one. They seemed to calm down within mins Thank you all for the advise!! I'm hoping we are on road to recovery.