My first time ever incubating Quail eggs.

[Athaid]

We're gonna anchor it to the ground so it doesn't take off into the sea during a storm lol it's gonna be bomb proof by the time we've finished with it. Our current neighbour used to have two cats, and they were okay with wildlife, I remember when I was seven I was sitting in the front garden with one of them and a tiny bird flew down and literally sat half a foot from her, and she just looked at it and yawned lol. But the cats on our land are feral, so I don't think they're quite as laid back.
And wow you have a lot of animals! I had two roborovski dwarf hamsters up until January when the smallest had to be put down because of some kind of chest problem, and then his brother suddenly died two months later, the vet said it could have been a tumor, but she didn't know. They're prone to so many things :/

Anyway, yeah you just leave them in the incubator until they fluff up a little more and then you move them to a brooder until they start growing feathers. Good luck

 

[Breezy Optimist]

Haha! Bomb proof, love it. And yeah if a storm hits on the coast you will need it to be!

True, there's a big difference between most domesticated cats and feral ones. But really kind of you to take care of those on your land. Well done you!

Aww shame about your hamsters

Mine is a Russian Dwarf, just a little bigger than the roborovski hamster. She was so evil when i got her lol, but i tamed her, and now shes a friendly fuzz ball. I call her Pom Pom haha! She actually talks a hell of a lot too. I didn't realise how vocal they were, until i researched it a bit, as i thought she was sick or something. But yeah, she squeaks at me, and doesn't stop until i make a squeak noise back haha! So cute

I do have a few pets here i know. The gecko and the cat were mine by choice, and the guinea pig i rescued, and the hamster was a xmas gift from my brother lol!
We were shopping for basking bulbs for my gecko in pets at home, and he saw me watching this one particular hamster as she was sleeping upside down and looked so funny. So when i got to the tills, my brother came up behind me with the hamster!
He said he couldn't think of what to get me for xmas, and he knows i would never turn an animal away, so there she was He took another one home for his children too, so it was a happy xmas for these two little hamsters

I don't normally like to get any live animals from Pets At Home. I actually rescued my guinea pig from their shop! He was in such a bad state. He was underweight and had green gunk coming from his eyes and nose, and he was alone in the cage too.

I just remember thinking, i can't leave him like this. So i went off and bought a nice big cage, lots of accessories and the vitamin C he was so obviously in need of (they can't produce thier own vitamin C). And i took him home, nursed him back to health, and he is now a huge fat piggy, super healthy and still going strong 5 years later

I have to admit though, Pets At Home has improved dramatically since i rescued him from there 5 years ago. So credit where credit is due. And they have an on site vet in the actual shop now too. But i'm still not a huge fan after seeing the mess he was left in.

But yeah, i'm a huge fan of animals, nature and all that. I prefer the company of animals to humans lol. Plus they keep me active, and busy

And with any luck i'll have pet number 5 very soon haha!

But yeah, fingers crossed, and i'm going to get a pic of the egg later this evening when i put it in lockdown, so hopefully there will be something to see for you and anyone else that may be following this thread.

I'm a little worried about the hatching, as i've read different opinions online. If a chick "pips" and then theres nothing after that, is it ok to help it out a little? I mean, i know a lot of people say if it's not strong enough to hatch out itself then it's not going to make it anyway. But i would just feel so cruel knowing it's trying but not getting anywhere, and there i am standing there fully able and capable to help it hatch out?

I don't know, but i don't think i could just leave it?

 

[Jesusfreak101]

From what little i know of hatching if ita an Emergancy (say going on 32 hours) you can help. And there a thread on the incubating form of hands on hatchers. From what i understand the reason most prefer a hands off policy is simply because of the veins in the egg if you help the chick and its to early then you can hurt him because the veins are still attached however if you wait the right amount of time then no harm will be done. I decide both times a chick piped and didnt make it much further to help but it was already to late neither were alive.

 

[Breezy Optimist]

@Jesusfreak101 Aww, sorry the chicks didn't make it

But thank you so much for the info. I'll have to look up the hatching times then to make sure if i need to help it, i don't actually do more damage.

I candled the egg today, and i'm happy to report a very active chick in there!! There is one large vein in my photo here, and the chick is moving around lke crazy, which i take as a good sign?

Lockdown tonight, so wish me luck guys!! I'm so nervous and excited.

My family are amazed, and we've come up with a name for him/her if it hatches and survives, i'm going to call it Miri (short for miracle) lol if it's a girl, and Morrison (haha!) If it's a boy

So here is the final picture of the incubating egg...not much to see as it's taking up most of the egg now, apart from a vein at the bottom, and the air sac. But like i said, he's very active moving around and twitching away in there, it was awesome to watch

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Happy to help

 

[Athaid]

No one lives in the house, so we've been over a few times to look, and the last time we were there we saw three cats, but there could be more, we don't really know what condition they're in so they might not even make it. Anyway we have to catch them first before we can get them to the vets lol that should be fun. We can't just leave them though, so even though none of us are huge fans of cats we'll just make do.. gotta admit though they are kinda cute I love nature and animals too, I've owned many Syrians and roborovskis. Well we've owned many hamsters lol, I kinda joined this forum on behalf of the rest of my family, to get info on quails and chickens, but I've gotten kinda carried away responding to so many threads Your hamster sounds cute, all your pets do, they're lucky to have such a kind owner

If the chick is struggling to get out people usually just say to leave it, because if it's too weak to get out then it's too weak to survive, but honestly if it was me I would probably just help anyway. I couldn't just stand by and watch.

You're so close now, fingers crossed everything goes to plan

 

[Breezy Optimist]

@Jesusfreak101 Thank you

@Lsky Oh dear, i'm guesing if there are 3 cats, there's likely more? You certainly will have your work cut out for you chasing them around haha! I don't envy you on that one But still really kind that you are helping them out, not a lot of people would.

It's good that your doing so much research though. It's just me here, and i have never owned Quails before. So i just got online myself too, and joined up on this site when i noticed everytime i did a bit of searching, it was popping up a link form here with my questions answered

You must be quite knowledgable about dwarf hamsters by now then, hehe. They are so cute though aren't they? They literally are just like PomPoms with legs lol. I may have to pick your brain if i ever get a problem with my little one

And thank you for the nice comment, very kind.

Well, i have just turned my Quail egg for the last time. Humidity is up to 70%, and rising a little bit. I'm trying to keep it around 75-80, i heard that's best?

One thing i was wondering about though, from my photograph of the little egg today, it's clear the chick isn't near the air sac yet. I mean, it's meant to be when they pop their heads into the air sac that's pretty much ready to hatch? So, that got me thinking, if he's a late hatcher, how long do you wait before you just have to accept he didn't make it? I've seen some people say about waiting til day 20?

Is there a cut off day?

I also read up and watched some video's on water candling if you have no pipping around day 20 and want to see if theres any life in the egg. But i'm just wanting to hold off doing that until i know the deadline for hatching so to speak?

 

[Athaid]

We went over to see it back in 2014, and there were five cats, the cats that are there now plus two kittens. Then when we went over in July 2015 there were only three. We're visiting again this month to check it out more, then again a couple more times before we move in June to rip up the old carpets and such. Maybe they'll be dead, or maybe there'll be three more cats Dx Getting the cats neutered is free because they're wild, but we're gonna have to get them vaccinated and wormed, and possibly other things too. It's fine, we'll get fishing nets and make a day of it lol

I used to belong to a hamster forum a couple of years ago called 'hamsterhideout', It's a great place to get info on hamsters.. I know so much about rodents now it's ridiculous xD My two robo's lived in an Ikea detolf, and I filled it with branches, logs, rocks sand etc.. you can get really cool stuff at http://www.zooplus.co.uk/ if you're interested.

Anyway, back to the actual topic lol. 75% is about right for humidity, don't move the egg, it has to position itself for hatching. What day are you on? Quail take about 17/18 days to hatch, and you should stop turning them on the 15th/16th day. I would wait about 20 days, and then if it doesn't hatch it's probably never going to. I've never heard of water candling, but if you do anything like that wait until day 20.

 

[Breezy Optimist]

Haha, good luck with those fishing nets! But it's for their own good, shame we can't make animals see that sometimes. My cat literally shakes and sweats and pants when he has to visit the vet. I just wish i could make him understand theres no way in hell he isn't coming home with me and he will be 100% safe with me there lol. Poor little things.

Oh wow, what an awesome home for your hamsters!

I'm actually a regular on zooplus already, i love some of their accessories, and prices aren't too bad either But thank you for the link

It's day 14/15. I put the eggs in the incubator in the morning of the 19th of April. So i've just set it into lockdown literally in the last couple of hours, just so i can make sure the humidity and temp stays accurate before i settle in for the night.

I read so many lockdown posts, and everyone seems to have day 14/15 as lockdown, so i figured i would do it right in the middle lol.

I've just been reading some more threads, and some people have had late hatches in dry incubators (which mine is), heating with a heat lamp. And one has had hatches at day 24?

So i think your right, i'll do the water candling at day 20 just to make sure there's still life in there then i'll put back in and wat til about 24 days and then, well, another water test i suppose to see if anything is still alive i there.

Fingers crossed it doesn't get that far, but it pays to plan ahead

 

[Athaid]

Yeah, I know what you mean, I hate to scare them/stress them out whilst trying to help, if you could just make them understand why you have to do it.

That plan looks good Now you just gotta wait, it's so exciting lol I'm really curious about what's gonna happen.