I am the worst quail mommy ever

[20736]

Really, we all make mistakes in our pursuit of the hobby.
Grow and learn from it. I've been doing this 30 years and made some bad mistakes, but you "live and learn."
God Bless y'all real good.

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

Whatever you do, don't ever forget to close the door to the brooder room(also my bedroom) when you have cats....I did that on my Christmas morning hatch, left for a family christmas, came back at 9 that night to a house filled with smoke, cat got in the brooder, killed a few chicks, and knocked the lamp down and burned the brooder down along with the carpet.....it was not very fun

 

[BackYardQuail]

Whatever you do, don't ever forget to close the door to the brooder room(also my bedroom) when you have cats....I did that on my Christmas morning hatch, left for a family christmas, came back at 9 that night to a house filled with smoke, cat got in the brooder, killed a few chicks, and knocked the lamp down and burned the brooder down along with the carpet.....it was not very fun

Oh my, poor little chicks. How many did he get? At least your house didn't burn down.

Today one of my Tibetan quail got out of the aviary and flew into the woods, 10 minutes later my cat brings him back with a lot of missing feathers/skin. Poor little thing. At least my cat brought him to me and didn't "play" with him in the woods.

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

Oh my, poor little chicks. How many did he get? At least your house didn't burn down.

Today one of my Tibetan quail got out of the aviary and flew into the woods, 10 minutes later my cat brings him back with a lot of missing feathers/skin. Poor little thing. At least my cat brought him to me and didn't "play" with him in the woods.

5 from the cat, 10 from the fire/smoke

 

[BunnyBuns]

Oh my I'm so sorry!

I've also killed a chick by mistake in fact it was the first chick I ever hatched! Needless to say I was very attached to it. I put a water dish in the incubator to raise humidity, I read buttons could drown in water dishes but I did not think he could get in it, anyway he drowned in it before I could even take him out of the incubator!! It was awful it took me a while to get over it.. But time heals everything.

 

[COsteveo]

Accidents happen. My very first quail to hatch was making a lot of noise in the incubator, so when I wasn't looking my cat broke into it and grabbed the chick. I don't think she hurt it but it died less than an hour later, probably from the shock of being in a predator's mouth

I learned to put some textbooks on top of the incubator to weigh down the lid.

 

[hyprincess]

Well, I don't raise my own, but I try to help who have built nests in my backyard. Last year Robins had 3 babies under my pergola on my patio. Absolutely loved it until they start to learn to fly. In my back yard they would be safe as long as they didn't fly into the dog kennel, but once they started going over the fence to where there are outdoor cats I was going nuts. I don't know how many of them made it.

This year I found a mother quail nesting on about 18 eggs. I live in a busy neighborhood with lots of cats, kids and cars; the pastures are pretty much all gone.
As I said, my backyard would be a haven for them if they stayed in it. So I made sure there were no holes around the bottom of the fence and blocked off pretty much everywhere they could get out.
I also bought game bird starter feed for the chicks and put out baby-sized water containers and food for the adults.
Two days ago 18 approximately hatched out and were the cutest things I have ever seen.
The first day I came home to see the father sitting above my driveway on the fence. I thought "There is no way they got out." Well, I looked closer and saw 2 babies outside the fence!
I had bought a butterfly night just in case this happened and after two hours of trying I caught them both and reunited them with the family.
Yesterday when I got home I counted only 12! I had double-checked every inch of that fence! I heard the father next door squawking, went to my neighbor's back yard (with the outdoor cats) and saw 4 of them in the corner of the yard. I ran over and immediately got three, and the 4th one took off 100 mph. I looked for hours and could never find it. The father never came back there-I don't know if he thought they were all safely back with Mother or not.
I was absolutely miserable all night and still am today. I could just imagine the tiny thing huddles somewhere abandoned by everyone.
Thank God for this support group-I feel so horrible and feel I should maybe just leave well enough alone, but there is no way they would make it if they get out into the neighborhood.
I swear I am going to move into a high rise and put on blinders when I drive to and from work.
All this suffering really gets to me because I love all animals so much.
thanks for listening.
Judy

 

[abbadackerygirl]

Sometimes they just run underneath the plate. Or they think they're ducks, then they drown themselves, or try to say "hi!" to a predator. It's like quail have a self destruct button constantly being pushed from the inside.

 

[vtspilotcar]

Yeah I felt bad the other day, there was one stuck in the shell, i picked it up and dropped it on the floor. He didnt make it

 

[BunnyBuns]

These birds find every possible way to get them selves killed. v.v