Quail - 8 day old jumping at me from the brooder

[als77]

So one of my 8-9 day old quails jumped at me three times just now, the last time very obviously as it hurled itself towards the corner of the brooder box (and one of its mates joined in shortly after). Is this a male trying to protect its siblings from this monster from above? (I started weighing them 5 days ago - this one doesn't seem to mind TOO much, but most of them try to hide)

On a side-note; whenever I remove the lid from the brooder the most active ones are the two smallest. The one that has grown the least is always in one of the feeders kicking food around, while the other one (that just recently outgrew him) scratches away all the bedding to get to the bottom of the brooder to eat the food that they have spilled... [the third smallest is one out of four Italians, so I need to put them temporarily in a different box so I know I don't mix them up - that one is perfectly content with that since I put some food in the bottom, but the other ones aren't very happy with it]

The largest one, which is double the size, is always hiding away in the corner furthest away (with several others).

Strange fellows; the brooder is 30-40C/86-104F, but most of them stay in the coldest corner (whenever I see them that is, but it is the corner that is furthest away from where I remove the lid to refill food, refill water and GRAB them to weigh them).

Unrelated question; When can I move them outdoors in the shed? And do I need to adjust them gradually? I've seen conflicting answers in old posts...
My thought was to wait another week (and a few days) till they are 2.5 weeks old (thought they were supposed to be fully feathered by then, but some posts say that doesn't happen until 5-6 weeks). I don't have power in the shed so no additional heating (just straw for bedding + their old brooder-box with shavings). Nighttime temperatures currently stay above 10C/50C, while daytime currently stays at 15C/59F.

 

[FloorCandy]

Both genders jump like that. If it seems like it’s aggressive, I grab them when they do it so they learn the monster picks them up when they try to attack lol.

You can probably move them to your shed at 3 weeks. By that age, on good feed, they should be feathered except for possibly some yellow around the eyes. Sometimes I’ll take them out in the brooder for a few hours during the day to get them adjusted, but since we had so much snow, I moved them from the classroom/family room, to the cold basement, to the yard, but I didn’t put them out until 5 weeks. With a shed and your more mild temps, I’m pretty sure they will be good at 3 weeks as long as they’re mostly feathered.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

In my experience, it is the females that are the most assertive when they are young. That changes when they hit around 6-8 weeks of age.

(I almost culled one of 2 females in a seven chick batch because she was obnoxiously picking at the faces of all her siblings from the time she was 1 week old. The fix was to find lots of distractions for her to play with, from changing the type of bedding to adding boxes, tubes and a mirror for her to see herself.)

 

[FloorCandy]

In my experience, it is the females that are the most assertive when they are young. That changes when they hit around 6-8 weeks of age.

(I almost culled one of 2 females in a seven chick batch because she was obnoxiously picking at the faces of all her siblings from the time she was 1 week old. The fix was to find lots of distractions for her to play with, from changing the type of bedding to adding boxes, tubes and a mirror for her to see herself.)

I’ve found hens to definitely be more aggressive in general. Males will peck the face and neck, and you’ll see puncture wounds, or they’re too rough mating and give some pecks and cuts to the back of the head and neck. Hens will leap onto a female (even males sometimes) they don’t like and just relentlessly peck until they’re scalped, even if the victim surrendered and was trying to run. Males will chase young birds and males away from their ladies while they eat, but some hens will stop eating to punish another hen for being too close or trying to eat while they do, even if there’s plenty of room. Hens are sometimes crazy mean.

 

[vall]

Strange fellows; the brooder is 30-40C/86-104F, but most of them stay in the coldest corner

At 8-9 days they might be too warm. Try turning the temp down a bit. I can remove the heat lamp at 10 days if the ambient temp is 70-75F.

 

[als77]

At 8-9 days they might be too warm. Try turning the temp down a bit. I can remove the heat lamp at 10 days if the ambient temp is 70-75F.

Do you have pictures of how feathered yours are by then? And/or how much weight they have gained by then?

The brooder is in the living room, so we have a stable 70-75F 24/7. Maybe I'll let the temperature drop a bit in the box, but I haven't seen any panting (except for the biggest one, but she might be scared of me - at least she screams bloody murder if I take her out of the brooder and into a different box)

 

[als77]

They have started to feather out, so I guess there will be a lot more feathers in another week

Big difference in size though (15-36 grams), and the difference only seems to increase (both in grams and percentage).

 

[vall]

Do you have pictures of how feathered yours are by then? And/or how much weight they have gained by then?

The brooder is in the living room, so we have a stable 70-75F 24/7. Maybe I'll let the temperature drop a bit in the box, but I haven't seen any panting (except for the biggest one, but she might be scared of me - at least she screams bloody murder if I take her out of the brooder and into a different box)

I don't have any photos at 10 days, but at 7-8 days they are still all fluff. I don't start weighing till 2 weeks.

 

[als77]

So today they've been 14 days in the brooder. Do they look ok featherwise to go outside in the shed? (nighttime >10C/50C, daytime >15C/59F)

The A&M and the Tuxido (?) are my runts (27 and 21 grams), while the golden is one of the "bigger" birds (46 or 54 grams)

I tried turning of the heat in the brooder today, and it went down to 25C/77F. They were active for hours at that temperature, but finally many of them gathered (not in a pile, but snuggling) in a corner (the smaller ones were still active). I turned on the heater for an hour and they became active again.

They did not make any distress sounds - aren't they supposed to vocally make me know if it is too cold? Or is it by visual only? I'll have the heater on for tonight, and will turn it of tomorrow.

Another question; so far I have ground up their feed since it came in seed form (plus added 5-10% of my dogs food, i.e they should have gained some fat as well for the coming "cold"). Should I still grind it up, or can they eat these large seeds/grains? (well, if they are too big they will just avoid them, but not sure if that is a good thing nutrition-wise)

 

[Nabiki]

At two weeks, they're going to be fine at room temperatures, but will not be okay outdoors yet. I would wait two more weeks.

Their diet doesn't look great for them. Can you find game bird or turkey starter for them? Dog food can be high in grains as well, so if you can't find appropriate food, you might try grinding up cat food, which is higher in protein. You're looking to get about 28% protein for them to get the best growth. You can also give them some boiled and crushed egg.