Quail--7 weeks old. Today can't stand up...

[CapricornFarm]

I add goat minerals to all my buckets of feed daily. Birds need minerals, especially selenium . Why goat minerals? Because I feed it to the goats and have it on hand.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Ah men!
My 1501st best guess would be boinking. If it was just 1 bird out of many, then it would be culled, just like that. If it was 3-4+% of my flock, then I would start ruling out the other usual suspects. If it was 50%+/-, then I would change my feed as long as other causes were ruled out.

Contrary to popular belief, Vitamin E can be overdosed! Also, adding seeds of any kind depletes protein, and adds way to much fat to any game birds diet. Do so with caution.

I'm sorry I don't have a better prognoses, but changing your feed regiment, and overdosing supplements are a waste of time and money. IMHO! If you wish to add this that and the other thing to your feed regiment, then please explore. It's just best to do it in a small test group, with totally healthy birds.

 

[millebantam]

It's quite simple actually. If it was a feed issue, there would be more than one bird affected. If it is in fact a feed issue that is only affecting the one single bird, yet the others are thriving, then the affected bird is probably genetically weak, and something that you don't want in your breeding flock anyway. Funny how nature sorts this stuff out.

I agree with Joe that in all likelyhood, it was a physical injury that caused the problem to start with.

 

[Stellar]

Possible but there are many factors feed related as well. What about salt toxicity? Mold? One bird could be more affected than another by how much that bird consumed. For example, awhile back I lost a lot of birds to salt toxicity in manna pro feed. The birds and feed were tested to confirm this. First sign: foaming from mouth, second sign: paralysis of legs, obviously no weak genetic lines there. But feed can be a cause at times. Not always, but its nice to give possibilities so others are informed. What did I do? I changed brand of feed and mixtures.

Boinking is a possibility too. How high is your cage? (asking other person). Is your boy skittish at all?

 

[BrownChickenBrownCow]

I have a few cages that I made...17" high, 45" long and 24" wide. (I scored a bunch of wood that was 41" and 45" long, so that is why the measurements are odd). Also a community cage that is not working out too well...I need to sort out some of the males...seems to be a little fighting going on in there, just in the last two days though. Been in there a month. It is 10' long, with 2' of that an enclosed nesting area. 18" high, and 24" wide. Have about 30 pharaohs in there...just built another cage today, so tomorrow I will try to get everybody sorted out to something like 2 males to 8-9 females per cage....and double ratio for the big community cage. Also have two of the GQF breeder batteries. Don't like em that much...those birds looking rough, but quite healthy. Going to take out the dividers to make two larger pens instead of six on each level. I started with the eggs I got from QuailLady and hatched out 22 pharaohs and 5 A&M's...though they are really small...think they might be just English whites, I dunno. Then this ole man that I bought the breeder pen from gave me about 150 eggs...got about 120 to hatch from those. I sold about 30 of those. But from that hatch I got some standard color pharaohs, some golden (or Italian, haven't quite figure out how to differentiate that yet). Some tuxedos, and some Rosetta or Tibetans...again, not clear on how to determine actual color. Then I have two that have sort of Rosetta/Tibetan coloring on the chest area...but their backs are almost a blueish grey color on one; the other looks more like a dove than a quail! So maybe some mix match hatch on a few of em. So project for this week is to re-organize everyone's living quarters to better ratio of male to female in primarily the community pen and the breeder battery. Currently, have the ones in the breeder either coupled or 2 female one male...this is not ideal from what I have read...and the birds show it. Once I get all that sorted out...I will see which ones will be on my plate this weekend!

Right now I have 4 birds out of about 120 that are in bad shape...well, the one we are talking about...he is still just sitting there. Seems to be fine other than his inability to walk or stand. Then one that was obviously in a fight...half his neck under his beak is torn to pieces...looks real bad, but doesn't seem to bother him much. Another that I watched for awhile today as one side of his head was all beat up and around his eye is torqued...he was scratching at it with his claws not helping at all. And the last one has a fresh wound behind the eye around the ear area that is a result of a fight. So yeah, I got some flock issues! I don't mind culling them and eating them...just haven't figured out or read enough on it to know if it is ok to eat any of the birds that have problems such as listed above.

I also hatched out (last saturday) 18 browns and 2 whites (that I am almost certain came from the browns if that is possible) from the original birds that I hatched from the eggs I got from QuailLady...so that is pretty cool!

And my broody chicken hatched 4 baby RIR's Saturday too. Big weekend on "The Farm"!

Anyway, any comments on the above much appreciated. I think I read so much on these things that I confuse myself! To simplify my current tasks are: Get quail reorganized in cages to cut down on fighting....ratio of males to females per cage. Which includes re-working the breeder pen to have bigger individual pens and maybe do 1 male to 4 females per. Nurse these fighters back...(or eat them if safe). Figure out what is going on with Mr. Gimpy Legs...or eat him, if safe. And lastly, try to decide if I am going to continue with all these different colors I have going or trim back to maybe just two...but knowing me...I will expand the flock for each color, not cut back! lol

Thanks again all
WISE

 

[Stellar]

Quote:
Well, monitor the ones with issues, culling may be an option. You seem like you know what you are doing. With the "Texas A and Ms" they may have been the runts or something. You can always breed back to a Jumbo Brown hen to up the size in the next generation.

 

[BrownChickenBrownCow]

"With the "Texas A and Ms" they may have been the runts or something. You can always breed back to a Jumbo Brown hen to up the size in the next generation."

I did not know this. THANKS!