Last night i left the day-old Button Quail chicks in the brooder, left them plenty of food and water, watched to make sure they were cozy and went to bed. i have the brooder in a small cardboard box inside an empty 20-gallon aquarium. one of the more energetic adventurous chicks somehow got out in the middle of the night! dehydrated, hungry and cold it crawled into a cold corner of the aquarium and sat down ready to die. my mom gets up very early - around 6 AM - and she peeked into the brooder to count the chicks (i don't know why, but it's a good thing she did!) I was asleep through all of this of course, i get up around 9-10 AM.
she noticed one was missing and looked around the outside of the brooder to see a tiny motionless fluff in the corner. she reached over to pick it up and it was limp. once she had it in her hand saw that it wasn't dead! it had moved it's head a little!
she immediately mixed up some quick-chick with some sugar and warm water, holding the poor dying baby in a clean dish towel. she used a little dropper that came with my microscope and it seemed to slowly become more aware and active. when i got up she showed me the poor half-dead chick and told me what happened. I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT MY POOR BABY!
she already had an egg boiling on the stove and when it was done i took the yolk out and mushed it up with some of the quick-chick sugar water and some gamebird starter. we feed this to the poor little chick and after about a half our it started to chirp again, and becoming more alert. now it's with it's clutch-mates in the brooder (with MUCH taller walls!) and he is doing so well! you'd never have guessed he was so near to death this morning!
I am so thankful my mom took control of the situation, and refrained from waking me up because i would have FREAKED OUT! If it wasn't for my mom the chick would surely be dead! He is such a lucky little bird to have a grandma like her!
here he is taking a nap on my belly, all nice and cozy. he was still recovering in these pictures, but doing much better than he was this morning! I am happy to say he had a full recovery and is now a happy, chippy little quail!
That's what my mom named him, Chippy!
camera shy!
she noticed one was missing and looked around the outside of the brooder to see a tiny motionless fluff in the corner. she reached over to pick it up and it was limp. once she had it in her hand saw that it wasn't dead! it had moved it's head a little!
she immediately mixed up some quick-chick with some sugar and warm water, holding the poor dying baby in a clean dish towel. she used a little dropper that came with my microscope and it seemed to slowly become more aware and active. when i got up she showed me the poor half-dead chick and told me what happened. I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT MY POOR BABY!
she already had an egg boiling on the stove and when it was done i took the yolk out and mushed it up with some of the quick-chick sugar water and some gamebird starter. we feed this to the poor little chick and after about a half our it started to chirp again, and becoming more alert. now it's with it's clutch-mates in the brooder (with MUCH taller walls!) and he is doing so well! you'd never have guessed he was so near to death this morning!
I am so thankful my mom took control of the situation, and refrained from waking me up because i would have FREAKED OUT! If it wasn't for my mom the chick would surely be dead! He is such a lucky little bird to have a grandma like her!
here he is taking a nap on my belly, all nice and cozy. he was still recovering in these pictures, but doing much better than he was this morning! I am happy to say he had a full recovery and is now a happy, chippy little quail!
That's what my mom named him, Chippy!
camera shy!
