lost another quail :(

[lindy]

so my fun project is not fun anymore.

I ordered alot of eggs and only had a dozen and a half hatch( iwas hoping for a 50% hatch rate due to be shipped). then the chicks kept dieing. Im not sure from what. I bought turkey starter with the proper protein, but i didnt grind it. As it seems to be a bad idea, but after loosing a handful i did grind it.

I was losing a bird every other day to every two days. i kept the water lukewarm and put b vit in it sometimes.

I had a 2 brinsea heat plate then added a heat lamp just in case. moved to a room that wasnt used. the temp under the heat lamp was 97 ish and the rest of the brooder(costco bin) air temp was 80s. when they stopped wanting to go under the heat lamp, i turned it off and they had the plates. inside house is 68-73ish.i separated when the 6 older ones were getting too big.

They are fully feathered now. I put the first set(6) outside in the pump house where the temp stays more stable then outside and they are still all alive.

They have a nipple water(rentacoop) with a dish for food that i fill up twice a day.
I just changed bedding into wood pellets a few days back as paper towels were getting too messy even cleaning 2x a day.only one is feather sexable and is a male. the setup is a costco blk bin with a mesh lid. i still have the brinsea heat plate but its not on, i set the water on it and they like standing on it.

I still have the other 6(5 now) inside the house, they were a few days younger. I just had one die this morning. I didnt check on them last night after work because i was so tired and it was 11pm.

So, im not sure if it died because the water didnt work well. its a quail waterer but it didnt come out of the bottom(not sure why). the bottle was half empty so they were out of water half the 12 hour period probably( i gave them fresh water at 6am and its usually 3/4 empty by the evening). They also were out of food, but i didnt think no food can kill them that fast(6am in the morning is when i fed them last).
I just gave them a chick water with rocks in it ,as i know that will work and hopefully they are old enough not to drown themselves this morning.
so frustrated.
They werent crazy thirsty, more hungry but most just scratched it all over like normal. no marks on the dead one and it was my only feather sex able girl in that batch .the other four are males an one brown i dont know. I also changed to wood pellets as the paper was getting to gross and stinking up the house.

\they are 3-4 weeks old now.
what did i do wrong?

i know now to start with cheaper eggs and not spend a zillion the first go around.
Im going to get a sweeter heater and i dont like using heat lamps-it looks like it can handle lower temp even though my house isnt super cold.

I am still debating on to even buy cages for them the way they are dieing and how many boys i have.

I finally decided on 2x3x1 cages from bass 1 inch GAW. i was going to go with 5-6 cages. i havent figured the water system out yet ,but the rentacoop nipple with cup works well for the first batch of quail so thinking of getting more and putting in pvc and somehow hooking to a 5 gal bucket.
i just dont know if i should try again?

They shouldnt have coccidia as they havent been on the ground and i havent fed them anything outside.
payback turkey starter looks like a good feed for protein and the lysin/meth %. i gave up trying to find a soy free one.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Sorry about your troubles. In young birds overheating or dehydration are major issues, while everything on backyard chickens dies of coccidia or merricks something infectious isn’t likely your issue. Also is your feed medicated? Unless you are feeding crumbles you must grind the pelleted feed for the first two weeks or it is too big for the chicks. Medicated feed could be an issue in quail, especially young birds (our local feed guy assured me my birds would all die without it!). Nipple waterers also don’t work well for birds under two weeks, I like them for older birds but the babies can’t seem to figure them out, though they can use a hamster water bottle within hours of hatch. You might have too much heat going on, make sure there is a cool and warm end of the brooder so they can get away from hot or cold spots. Heat plates can be harder for the birds to avoid overheating than a bulb, regular heat lamps can also be too much for little quail, I actually use a reptile heat lamp and it is much gentler and less of a fire hazard. You can start using actual bedding within a couple days of hatch, leave your paper towels in the bottom and toss in a handful of your favorite bedding (not cedar) into the messier areas, keep adding more as needed and don’t clean until you’re done with the brooder. They should be fine missing 6 hours of water or feed at 2 weeks of age. I’d evaluate temp, water, and feed first while troubleshooting this issue then start looking for zebras. Hope you can figure it out!

 

[lindy]

Sorry about your troubles. In young birds overheating or dehydration are major issues, while everything on backyard chickens dies of coccidia or merricks something infectious isn’t likely your issue. Also is your feed medicated? Unless you are feeding crumbles you must grind the pelleted feed for the first two weeks or it is too big for the chicks. Medicated feed could be an issue in quail, especially young birds (our local feed guy assured me my birds would all die without it!). Nipple waterers also don’t work well for birds under two weeks, I like them for older birds but the babies can’t seem to figure them out, though they can use a hamster water bottle within hours of hatch. You might have too much heat going on, make sure there is a cool and warm end of the brooder so they can get away from hot or cold spots. Heat plates can be harder for the birds to avoid overheating than a bulb, regular heat lamps can also be too much for little quail, I actually use a reptile heat lamp and it is much gentler and less of a fire hazard. You can start using actual bedding within a couple days of hatch, leave your paper towels in the bottom and toss in a handful of your favorite bedding (not cedar) into the messier areas, keep adding more as needed and don’t clean until you’re done with the brooder. They should be fine missing 6 hours of water or feed at 2 weeks of age. I’d evaluate temp, water, and feed first while troubleshooting this issue then start looking for zebras. Hope you can figure it out!

the lady i bought the eggs from suggested adding the heat lamp, it is for reptiles not those huge bulbs at the feed store. this was when they were young, they dont have heat anymore after they started not hanging under it.and when they stopped going under the heat plate i turned that off too.
i also had each bin with quail waters and changed over to the nipple recently and they all peck it fine(they kept getting the pellets in the waterer so i bought the nipple water with the cup and left both in the bin until they just started drinking off the nipple). that wasnt the bin that the one died in.
no not medicated, never ever used medicated most say it doesnt work. and i figured they arent on the ground.
- i dont grind the food anymore as they eat the crumbles fine now that they are larger.

2 days before the one died, my barn cat got in the room (someone complained about the smell and opened the window too far), luckily i just got done putting wire on the quail bins so the cat didnt get them, but ate all the chicks in the other bin(they wre less then a week old ). i dont think the quail seen the cat, but thats the only change that happened and i put the bin on the floor (carpet) to get them used to cooling temp so they can go outside soon instead of on the bed. i figured since they are fully feathered they can handle the slight change.

 

[Nabiki]

If they were out of water for half a day, that could have been the cause. With the heat, water is critical, and from your description of how thirsty the rest were, that is quite possible.

It is also possible that the chick simply failed to thrive. This does happen sometimes where there's something wrong internally that isn't visible, and the chick just dies. This probably isn't the case since they're old enough to be mostly feathered, though.

How long has it been since you lost a chick before this one?

 

[lindy]

If they were out of water for half a day, that could have been the cause. With the heat, water is critical, and from your description of how thirsty the rest were, that is quite possible.

It is also possible that the chick simply failed to thrive. This does happen sometimes where there's something wrong internally that isn't visible, and the chick just dies. This probably isn't the case since they're old enough to be mostly feathered, though.

How long has it been since you lost a chick before this one?

its about 70-73 in the room so not super hot. i cant remember, but it was a week or so. its so weird how fast they grow. I found a person who also has the line of birds that may sell me some started chicks to ship this fall. what age would you consider ideal for shipping? thought it was alot better then shipping eggs again. from texas to oregon i believe.

 

[Nabiki]

I'm pretty wary of shipping chicks. I've never done it, personally, but there are people who do. What is the post office like where you live? I wouldn't trust the post office here with a box of bricks.