help please! dying baby quail

[kbennett87]

well it is dinner time and I still have 5 alive. I have been going in every 30 minutes and making sure they are not smothering each other and checking their food and water for cleanliness. the final 5 seem to be doing better. I would really love for them to survive so fingers crossed!

 

[TwoCrows]

What exactly is the temp in the brooder? Smothering each other sounds like they are cold. It is called "piling".

 

[kbennett87]

I thought that they might be cold, it was at 80 but it took a while to get it back up to that after the drop. I have it up at 85 now and I am hoping they will continue doing better.

 

[crazyfarmer]

get it up to 95 they are still to young for that tempature

 

[GAQuail]

I thought that they might be cold, it was at 80 but it took a while to get it back up to that after the drop. I have it up at 85 now and I am hoping they will continue doing better.

That's your problem. Temperature for the first week should 95-98. Lower 5 degrees per week after that.

What are you feeding them? Hopefully a high protein game bird or turkey starter.

 

[MotownMenace]

I thought that they might be cold, it was at 80 but it took a while to get it back up to that after the drop. I have it up at 85 now and I am hoping they will continue doing better.

80-85 is MUCH too low. I set mine at 100 the first week then drop 5 degrees every week. Also make sure you measure the tempature at the surface they're on, not air temp. I have a cheap 99 cent window thermometor from walmart that I lay in the center of the heat lamp beam.

Idealy you want the birds to be in a slight ring around the heat, that means they can move in a little and get warmer if nessicary. They should be semi spread out and just laying around, huddled together means they're too cold.

 

[kbennett87]

That is really good to know! thanks, I had read something that said to start at 90 and drop it by 5 degrees per day so I thought they would be good. The temp has maintained high now and my last five little guys seem to be thriving, no more piling or wobbly legs or trouble breathing. I think they are going to make it through!

hard lesson learned though. :-/

 

[crazyfarmer]

Its 5 degrees per week. after 4 weeks they shouldnt need or when they are fully feathered. hope this helps

 

[Navid]

i know its an old thread
but i want you to know that piling baby quails is not problem at all!
i had 42 baby quails that they slept on each other like 3 layers of baby quails!and they turned out fine.

 

[dc3085]

i know its an old thread
but i want you to know that piling baby quails is not problem at all!
i had 42 baby quails that they slept on each other like 3 layers of baby quails!and they turned out fine.

This is going to sound very rude, but I have no patience for advice that can cause injury or death to people's birds. Don't give advice like this, someone might listen to it and the result could be terrible.

Piling is commonly known by experienced breeders to be a dangerous issue, that your birds survived you keeping them that way, was luck. First off if your birds are piling, THERE IS A REASON. They can't really thermo regulate so they need you to provide heat, if you were providing proper heat your chicks wouldn't have been piling, period. When it comes to piling itself, it's suffocation you're worried about, it takes very little at all for the whole brooder of chicks to squish the bottom ones to death in a pile.

The thing is, it's not only not ok for chicks to pile, it's not ok that they're piling in the first place.