"Poop Toe"

[timmyhay]

Hello,

I have four wonderful little button quail, who my daughters and I adore. I have tried many kinds of bedding for them, but I can't seem to stop them from getting what we call "poop toe." In one case, one of our little ones lost part of his toe to this. I am very diligent about keeping their homes clean, but they just poop so much, it is impossible to keep them from walking through their own poop. Currently, I have coarse sand with aspen shavings on top, which I skim off and replace frequently. But nothing seems to really prevent poop toe when they walk through their poop and then it acts like glue picking up whatever is lying around and forming a terrible blob of cement on their poor feet! I have a few questions:

Could their food be the issue? Maybe it is making their poop more sticky? They eat some kitchen veggie/fruit scraps, egg and live mealworms, but also always have a dish of Mannapro Gamebird Starter.

Is there a gentle way to remove these blobs of poo cement from their feet once they have hardened? I've tried soaking the foot in warm water and then gradually working the blob off, but this doesn't work that well and often stresses them and I hate doing it. Two of my four are quite hand tame, and I don't want to ruin that.

Would changing their bedding to something like pebbles help? I feel like if the bedding were something that is too heavy to get embedded in the poop, it would be more likely that just running around would keep their feet cleaner.

Please help!

 

[AuntieD]

I wish I knew how to help you. My husband used to raise quail and he kept them on sand. with some leafy branches piled up at one end of the cage. They were older than your babies.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Soaking in warm water is what I did for my Coturnix chicks when they got toe balls. Maybe get them into a space they can’t fly out of and have them walk around on very wet paper towels until the poop can be worked off.

I don’t think diet has anything to do with it. Unfortunately I don’t have any long term advice since my quail live outdoors and on soil their feet don’t get messy.

 

[AuntieD]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/removing-poop-off-quail-feet.759923/
I was thinking about suggesting keeping a small tray of wet sand but I do not know that would work, then I read this thread and something similar was suggested.

 

[Nabiki]

I haven't had that problem with any of my buttons. I keep mine on pine shavings that get changed regularly.

Soaking is the only way I know of to get those things off.

 

[Quailferbrains]

Hello,

I have four wonderful little button quail, who my daughters and I adore. I have tried many kinds of bedding for them, but I can't seem to stop them from getting what we call "poop toe." In one case, one of our little ones lost part of his toe to this. I am very diligent about keeping their homes clean, but they just poop so much, it is impossible to keep them from walking through their own poop. Currently, I have coarse sand with aspen shavings on top, which I skim off and replace frequently. But nothing seems to really prevent poop toe when they walk through their poop and then it acts like glue picking up whatever is lying around and forming a terrible blob of cement on their poor feet! I have a few questions:

Could their food be the issue? Maybe it is making their poop more sticky? They eat some kitchen veggie/fruit scraps, egg and live mealworms, but also always have a dish of Mannapro Gamebird Starter.

Is there a gentle way to remove these blobs of poo cement from their feet once they have hardened? I've tried soaking the foot in warm water and then gradually working the blob off, but this doesn't work that well and often stresses them and I hate doing it. Two of my four are quite hand tame, and I don't want to ruin that.

Would changing their bedding to something like pebbles help? I feel like if the bedding were something that is too heavy to get embedded in the poop, it would be more likely that just running around would keep their feet cleaner.

Please help!

How old are your quail? Mine are about 3 weeks and I was having the same issue. My mom suggested putting a pringles can lid of water for them to walk through on their own and it seems to be helping. Mine are too big to drown in it at this point so I can leave the lid in, but if yours are younger maybe you could just leave it in for a bit and watch them closely so they can't drown themselves.

 

[FloorCandy]

I had bad poop toe issues with homestead harvest brand food, so I know from experience food can be a factor. My advice would be to put them on just gamebird feed and see how it goes. If the poop toe stops, add one of your add ons and give it a week or 2 to see if anything changes, and do that until you find the problem. If you get poop toe with just the feed, try a different feed.

Also, what type of feeder do you use, if the birds knock out powdery feed, the feed can combine with the poop and make the poop balls very strong. Since the birds are often pooping around the food bowl, and many birds (mine included) flail out the powdery parts to get to the bigger pieces, this area can be a recipe for disaster. If you don’t have a no waste setup, try googling no waste chick feeder, and making a diy to see if it helps.

 

[timmyhay]

I have two who are a year old, one who is about 6 months old and one who is only about 3 months old.

One of my one-year-old males never seems to have poop toe. It is the worst with my two silver males, who are actually father/son, so perhaps it's genetic? Something about their feet? The mate/mother of these two died about a month ago due to being egg bound/prolapsed which was devastating. We have hand raised all of them from hatching!

My youngest quail is a little female who just started laying, and she does seem to get poop toe, but not nearly as bad as my silver males.

I will try the glass jug with water and a bit of sand, and see if that helps. I'm sure they will hate it. I'll keep them under a heat lamp afterwards to help them dry.

I don't know what kind of dish soap, if any, to use. I'm in the USA.

 

[FloorCandy]

I have two who are a year old, one who is about 6 months old and one who is only about 3 months old.

One of my one-year-old males never seems to have poop toe. It is the worst with my two silver males, who are actually father/son, so perhaps it's genetic? Something about their feet? The mate/mother of these two died about a month ago due to being egg bound/prolapsed which was devastating. We have hand raised all of them from hatching!

My youngest quail is a little female who just started laying, and she does seem to get poop toe, but not nearly as bad as my silver males.

I will try the glass jug with water and a bit of sand, and see if that helps. I'm sure they will hate it. I'll keep them under a heat lamp afterwards to help them dry.

I don't know what kind of dish soap, if any, to use. I'm in the USA.

I use the 8x10 plastic inbox type paper trays from the school section in target. I put like half to a full inch of water and let them splash around, after a few mins you can usually break off the balls.

 

[timmyhay]

I had bad poop toe issues with homestead harvest brand food, so I know from experience food can be a factor. My advice would be to put them on just gamebird feed and see how it goes. If the poop toe stops, add one of your add ons and give it a week or 2 to see if anything changes, and do that until you find the problem. If you get poop toe with just the feed, try a different feed.

Also, what type of feeder do you use, if the birds knock out powdery feed, the feed can combine with the poop and make the poop balls very strong. Since the birds are often pooping around the food bowl, and many birds (mine included) flail out the powdery parts to get to the bigger pieces, this area can be a recipe for disaster. If you don’t have a no waste setup, try googling no waste chick feeder, and making a diy to see if it helps.

Oh wow, this is a great suggestion. They just eat out of open dishes and are ALWAYS tossing the food everywhere. That makes total sense that that could be the problem. The Manna Pro starter is half powder lately, which has been very frustrating. I don't know why I haven't switched to the Manna Pro adult gamebird food. I didn't even know it existed until recently.

Sadly I ordered a bag of the Homestead Harvest the other day thinking it might be better quality food, and just now saw one of your threads about how much it sucks! Ack.

I will look at a no waste feeder! I have a feeling you've nailed the problem.