Overweight Coturnix Hen

[Robo]

I have a coturnix hen that is huge. She lays double or tripple yolk eggs almost all of the time. Her belly drags the ground when she runs, and my roosters have a hard time mating with her.

Any ideas on how to slim her down a bit?

 

[Wifezilla]

Will she eat greens? How much room does she have to run around in?

If she keeps laying such big eggs and she is so big, I am thinking people here might want some of her offspring!!

 

[Robo]

She will eat anything. I put collard greens in there and she eats a lot of them. She is in and 8x3 cage with about 20 others, so they have about 1.5 square feet each.

 

[JJMR794]

She May Have A Defect --- Metabolic Problem? Causes Her To Be Overweight And Lay Mult Yolkers? Kind Of Like Hypothyroidism In Humans---causes Slow Metabolism... Just Grasping At Straws Really, But It Is Plausible.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Quote:
Actually, I was thinking the same thing. That is why Coturnix are studied so much, they have diseases (mutations) along the lines of us. Us, being humans in general.

No, this is one I would not want in my Breeder pen, no matter how big she was.
More than likely going to be a short lived specimen. Definately will stop laying sooner than her siblings. She's wasting all her egg yolks.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

I'd pull her from the breeder cage and keep her with a friend. Her eggs would be great for selling/eating eggs for as long as she produces.

 

[Robo]

I finally figured out what was wrong with her. She was eating cat food that my neighbod had been throwing to them. I caught her today hording all of it in her little corner.

 

[JJMR794]

Contrary To What Some Folks Think Cat Food Is Actually Quite Bad For Quail

 

[Robo]

I know that now. I have to put up another fence so my neighbors will quit giving them cat food and bread. They even throw seed into their cage. They said that I was not feeding them right so they had to step in or they would die. I really wish I could move somewhere else. You would think a fence would send the message, but I have to build one with no big gaps. I hate neighbors.

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

Quote:
Is it bad for pheasants?