Help needed. My Quail are dying.

[Stellar]

I think some feeds are lacking the vitamins. I stick with Manna Pro and haven't had problems.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Yes, but unfortunately not everyone can get Manna Pro

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Ok, I give my Ducks Nutritional Yeast instead of Brewers Yeast (both high in the Vitamin B's). It works great for their legs. When the Roosters started breeding season and showed signs of weak legs I gave them some. For Ducks and chickens every other day or so, a pie pan full of scratch and extra goody seeds all sprinkled with yeast. I actually sprinkle it heavily. Chickens love it too and no leg problems there either anymore, for like 2 years.

So seeing the feed companies are skimping on the vitamins and raising the prices anyway. I guess I'll figure a way to get some Nutritional Yeast into the quail to.

For the young, a bit dissolved in the water bowl. Or better yet, just a Light sprinkling on some toweling. For the older, I just bought some treat bowls to hang on the cages, so some seed mix sprinkled with the yeast. Quail pop seed, cause there isn't gong to be much corn in it. I'm going to do it. To many people starting to have troubles. I get mine from bulkfoods.com mailorder 5# at a time. Lasts about 9 months around here, maybe 6 now.

 

[joe125]

If memory serves...the OP is trying to raise "Rain Quail" a species that I'm totally unfamiliar with. It's possible that the species requires totally different nutrition and brooder setups than we are used to here.

I'm just putting that out there for review. Also, as Buttercup pointed out, the OP is in South Africa, so I really doubt they will be able to find our favorite brand of game bird starter.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Are the crumbles small enough that they can actually eat it? Do you grind it for them?

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Ya, he's grinding it for them. That much I know. We just don't know if its medicated or if its fresh enough or has enough protein. We seem to have a problem with that here and they may have even more of a problem with it there.

Well, we've given him a lot of food for thought. I hope he can sift through it and resolve the problem.
At least we have given him ideas to try out.

 

[Mrs MIA]

 

[neb]

Wow, you guys are great, thanks for all the suggestions

Sorry for not getting back to you, there is a big time difference.

The quail I am raising are Rain Quail (Coturnix coromandelica). The guy I bought the eggs from has a large array of different quail including the usual coturnix coturnix, and button quail. He says that the treatment of both the common quail and rain quail is the same. I will try get hold of the guy I bought them from, but so far you guys have provided more info.

The feed I am using was bought from our local "Pick 'n Pay" and was labeled as coarse chick mix. It is made up of grains, corn, seeds etc. It had no info on it, like whether it was medicated or not, but at the time I could not find anything else. I saw one of the comments mentioned I should not use seeds at this stage, I do grind the food up, but I am not sure at all what the protein content is

I know I live in South Africa, but contrary to popular belief, we don't live in mud huts and have pet lions

and I should be able to get some game bird starter if I look around.

Jokes aside, the chicks are looking good at the moment, but after the others died unexpectedly I will be checking in on them often.
I will keep you guys up to date and try to implement all the ideas you gave.

Thanks

Neb

 

[Stellar]

Neb, if protein is the problem, you can hard boil eggs, crumble it up and give it to them

It can help them regain strength and nutrition.

 

[neb]

Do I crumble up the whole egg or just the shell? I will still try and get game bird starter.