Only one quail chick. What to do?

[RaiseQuail777]

Well out of my 24 eggs only one hatched. I think I know what happened, as at one point I thought my eggs had gotten too cold in storage and that is why there is such a low hatch rate, but now I am wondering what else to do. I have the 1 quail in the brooder box now with mashed up food and a quail waterer and I will be keeping it inside for the time being. This is my first quail that I hatched and I am so happy with it. At the same time I feel bad because it has literally no one except me and my boyfriend and we can't be around it 100% of the time.

So what do I need to do? I don't have any tiny stuffed animals for it to cuddle up with, if that would be psychologically necessary for it I'll go find one, but is it? After being in the incubator for 24 hours, I've talked to it a little and when I finally got it out of there I talked to it on the way to the brooder box. Is this how you get them to imprint on you? I don't want to over-handle it so how much should I mess with it, minimum and maximum? I keep my house at 74 degrees, so unless that's an okay temperature for it to be in I don't want it to spend too much time out of the brooder box and away from the heat lamp. Will it follow me around when it gets older and can handle the temperature? Literally any and all information is valuable to me. I've never had quail before now.

 

[DK newbie]

What kind of quail is it?
Usually people experience that lone chicks keep calling when they try to leave them alone. A stuffed animal or feather duster apparently helps with that - gives them something to snuggle into to feel safe.
I think the brooder temp is supposed to 95 degrees for the first week (at the warm end) and then lowered 5 degrees a week.
Make sure it's eating and drinking - if you haven't seen it do so, pretend that your finger is a beak and show it how to 'peck' at the food and water. If it still doesn't catch on, you can dip its beak in water.
Chicks are not meant to be alone at all, so there really is no maximum for how much you can handle it. But the more you do, the more likely it is to get imprinted on you. There are those who keep tame quail as house pets though, so you might end up being very happy about an imprinted bird.
The best thing for the bird would probably be if you could purchase some chicks of the same species and age to keep it company.

 

[RaiseQuail777]

What kind of quail is it?
Usually people experience that lone chicks keep calling when they try to leave them alone. A stuffed animal or feather duster apparently helps with that - gives them something to snuggle into to feel safe.
I think the brooder temp is supposed to 95 degrees for the first week (at the warm end) and then lowered 5 degrees a week.
Make sure it's eating and drinking - if you haven't seen it do so, pretend that your finger is a beak and show it how to 'peck' at the food and water. If it still doesn't catch on, you can dip its beak in water.
Chicks are not meant to be alone at all, so there really is no maximum for how much you can handle it. But the more you do, the more likely it is to get imprinted on you. There are those who keep tame quail as house pets though, so you might end up being very happy about an imprinted bird.
The best thing for the bird would probably be if you could purchase some chicks of the same species and age to keep it company.

I have coturnix quail. That sounds like a good idea. I'll try to teach it how to eat and drink. Thank you so much! If I find someone who is willing to sell me just a few chicks I'll do that. I already have another 39 eggs going in the incubator today and probably will add another 4 tomorrow. I can comfortably house 10 - 15 quails in my coop, but almost all the cockerels will be culled and eaten either by myself and my boyfriend or my hawk. I'll probably end up having to cull a few hens as well, so I plan to keep only the easiest to work with and the tamest.