Help!!!! My Quail Stopped everything

[Kshoulders30]

Someone please help me! I bought some farrow quail two weeks ago and they were laying eggs but I tried to put my female quail in a small cage with her eggs like I do my hen chickens to make hem broody. But when I came home I took her out and can't walk for real. The mail doesn't even act the same! She stopped laying. What do I do? I want baby quail!

 

[Stellar]

Coturnix, what your pharaohs are, rarely go broody. They are not like chicken and need ample space. If you want quail chicks, get an incubator, collect the eggs, and incubate them yourselves.

Also by changing the environment, your quail will protest for a while before you get eggs again; in such a small cage setting, your hen may even be eating her eggs. I recommend putting them in a larger cage and collect the eggs to incubate yourself.

 

[Kshoulders30]

So I just need to be patient? Because shebhopes around on one leg and the male is not pruducingbfoam like he used to! What do I do? Just be patient and stick with them or what?

 

[Stellar]

Patience is key. You may want to add more hens for the boy too.

 

[Kshoulders30]

Today she's getting around better! does that mean she will start back laying or should I get a new hen?

 

[Stellar]

That's great she is doing better. If the male isn't balding her or mating her too profusely you are fine with having the pair. Some Coturnix are fine being paired up. IF he is breeding here a lot, you then need to add some more hens to the group.

 

[Kshoulders30]

Yes! But will they start laying soon. They just sit around now. I took a q tip and rubbed it in some of the foam sperm stuff and stuck it in her. He doesn't Mae a lot of sperm as when I bought him

 

[Kshoulders30]

Yes! But will they start laying soon. They just sit around now. I took a q tip and rubbed it in some of the foam sperm stuff and stuck it in her. He doesn't Mae a lot of sperm as when I bought him

 

[jbobs]

For starters, give your quail 2-4 weeks to settle into their new environment before expecting them to lay fertile eggs. After two weeks they need a cycle of 14 hours of daylight/10 of darkness to get the females to lay consistently. Do not expect your hen to incubate her own eggs - it is very, very rare for a female coturnix to incubate eggs. Maybe one hen out of every thpusand or so will give it a try and even if she hatches them she often doesn't know how to take care of them. If you want to breed your birds you WILL need an incubator and will have to brood them artificially.

I have tried artificial insemination with quail before as an experiment and it didn't work. During our semen collection lab a couple weeks ago, I brought in some quail so we could look at the foam under a microscope, and in four slides from four male quail we found one lonely sperm. It appears that the foam we see when we squeeze the cloaca is seminal fluid of some kind but contains little to no sperm per se. I am assuming that sperm is produced in the actual ejaculate that occurs during mating but not in this foam that we use to sex them. I would not reccomend trying artificial insemination - it is stressful to the new birds, not effective (from my experience anyway) and if not done in an aseptic manner can introduce bacteria into the hen's reproductive tract.

I am thinking that your hen injured herself slightly when you separated her and that it is just a coincidence - perhaps she was trying to get back to the company of the other quail. It really isn't fair to keep a male coturnix by itself as he will get really frustrated. Make sure these two quail have lots of room in their cage (should be at least two square feet) and that the cage contains cover, a box to nest/sleep in, and a sand bath. Make sure the roof of the cage is not too high and that it is soft or a bit bouncy so that they don't break their necks against it when they jump.

Watch these birds very closely - if the male harasses the female too much and starts to pull out her head and back feathers then he needs more females to keep him satisfied. Over the next few weeks I would just leave them alone as much as possible - don't handle them or change things around in the cage too much. Give them a chance to settle in.

I highly reccomend doing a lot of reading about coturnix to make sure you are keeping them in the right conditions and to make sure you are off to the right start with them. they are not like chickens and although they are easy to raise, have some very specific requirements as far as housing, diet, breeding, raising, etc. goes. Better to do your research first than make an easily preventable mistake!