Is something wrong with my quail chicks?

[maxk]

So, Im a bit concerned (probably overly so) because I only had 8/100 chicks make it (my own fault, i moved them out of the turner to late and botched the humidity ) and 2 of them almost died. Anyways, i've never done this before, and I just want to be sure that this is normal. All of the chicks have what looks to be the core of the feather sticking out all over their wings, but not the stuff that makes the width of the feather, and their wings look bare




Is that normal growth or is something going on? I cant see any signs of anything else, like one of them pecking or anything, and theyre all acting totally normal, but it looks weird to me like something is wrong.

 

[Mwilliams32931]

That's how my texas a&m chicks look and they will be 1 week old tomorrow. All are perfectly healthy and happy.

 

[maxk]

Ha, mine will be a week old tomorrow as well.

Glad theyre ok, and I thought it might just be growth, but after a bad first hatch I just wanted to be sure. Thanks!

 

[TwoCrows]

X2

That is normal feather growth.

 

[SilkieMomPoof]

yeah, my bobwhites turned one week today, and they have the same thing! Isn't it cute?!

 

[Mtn Margie]

It's called the sheath and it protects the feathers during growth. The birds usually start preening themselves and remove it for fluffing up the feather.

 

[James the Bald]

See, that's not how I would have answered that question. And please forgive me as I'm joking from this point forward:
My answer would have been along the lines of: "if you've seen the movie "Gremlins", where they fed the Mogwai after midnight, they changed from a cute cuddly pet into hell on wheels? Same thing, only they turn into miniature T-Rex's... it's a genetic abnormality that happens once every thousand years; and this one in the photo is Spike, the leader of the T-Rex covey.
You don't know how hard it was for me to wait until there were several answers before I added my 2 cents. My profile pic is "Muttley" for a reason

 

[Mtn Margie]

Hey James, why oh why did the chicken cross the road? LOL! One for the jar.......

 

[James the Bald]

Sorry Mtn Margie, that's not the question that adds a nickel to my jar. The title thread to this link will add some coins to my jar. Ahhhh Jeez, I just realized that I added 2 cents in the post above. $1.47.