new to quail and having some hatch and chick issues

[Ted_Harrell]

don't implicitly trust the temperature and humidity readings on the front of your incubator. I have seen temp readings, especially, be off by a couple of degrees. If yours is reading cooler than it actually is, then that may be part of your issue. The other folks here can shed more light on this. In my previous hatches, every time I had a low hatch rate or deformed chicks, I could always trace it back to something I did not check or the surrounding area going over temperature. Good luck and I hope your future hatches are better....

 

[Missinasworld]

Well this is the quail this afternoon. Its staying up more than down and eating and drinking. I kept its toes in the "boot" over night and off and on today and yesterday but honestly, they still look the same. The toes on the left foot were not really curly but 1 was just really close to the rest..so I made sure it was held in a normal position in the boot. Unfortunately I work tomorrow and so the baby will be on it's own for 12 hours..so no therapy tomorrow. But I did see it walk up on its feet like normal for a few steps this evening...after I took this video! But we shall see. I'm truly surprised it's still alive..it has now obviously smaller than the rest of the babies.

 

[FloorCandy]

Well this is the quail this afternoon. Its staying up more than down and eating and drinking. I kept its toes in the "boot" over night and off and on today and yesterday but honestly, they still look the same. The toes on the left foot were not really curly but 1 was just really close to the rest..so I made sure it was held in a normal position in the boot. Unfortunately I work tomorrow and so the baby will be on it's own for 12 hours..so no therapy tomorrow. But I did see it walk up on its feet like normal for a few steps this evening...after I took this video! But we shall see. I'm truly surprised it's still alive..it has now obviously smaller than the rest of the babies.

It looks better today. Hopefully by tomorrow it’ll be more ambulatory.

 

[Missinasworld]

Sadly the little gimpy baby lost the fight last night. After I got home from working a 12.5hr shift I found that it had flipped over and could not get up..it must have been struggling for several hour because it had food encrusted into its eyes and was so dehydrated. I spent about an hour trying to re-hydrate it and get it stable..once I felt it was OK for me to leave it for a little while I went and took a shower..only to come back to find it soaking wet from the bottle cap water dish I had left with it and it was so cold despite the heater..the shock was to great. I got it dried off but it was just to much and it passed within the hour. one moment it was just gone. Well I tried. it lived for 5 days when it probably never should have lived 1 day. It still sucked though. The remaining 8 babies are doing amazing and already growing little pin feathers. My older 8 babies are outside today in my "squirrel release" enclosure which is a 10x10 dog kennel with hardware cloth on it that we used to train a baby squirrel to survive in the wild, and they are totally loving it.
Next time I try to hatch quail I will make sure to keep the humidity lower. I am not to concerned about the temperature as it was very stable with this incubator. And I am going to get shelf liners to keep the eggs from getting the crap knocked out of them by the first chicks to hatch!
Thank you everyone for your suggestions and comments. they did help.

 

[FloorCandy]

I’m sorry, you did the best you could.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

Sadly the little gimpy baby lost the fight last night. After I got home from working a 12.5hr shift I found that it had flipped over and could not get up..it must have been struggling for several hour because it had food encrusted into its eyes and was so dehydrated. I spent about an hour trying to re-hydrate it and get it stable..once I felt it was OK for me to leave it for a little while I went and took a shower..only to come back to find it soaking wet from the bottle cap water dish I had left with it and it was so cold despite the heater..the shock was to great. I got it dried off but it was just to much and it passed within the hour. one moment it was just gone. Well I tried. it lived for 5 days when it probably never should have lived 1 day. It still sucked though. The remaining 8 babies are doing amazing and already growing little pin feathers. My older 8 babies are outside today in my "squirrel release" enclosure which is a 10x10 dog kennel with hardware cloth on it that we used to train a baby squirrel to survive in the wild, and they are totally loving it.
Next time I try to hatch quail I will make sure to keep the humidity lower. I am not to concerned about the temperature as it was very stable with this incubator. And I am going to get shelf liners to keep the eggs from getting the crap knocked out of them by the first chicks to hatch!
Thank you everyone for your suggestions and comments. they did help.

I'm sorry, with me even the smallest still hurt me when they don't make it. Sounds like you did all you could do.