Quail brooder questions

[Ladybirdmama]

Oh my gosh, we get our quail chicks tomorrow! I would have had the brooder set up but we were hoping to win a terrarium with a heating pad in an auction tonight. We did, so I'll pick it up tomorrow and clean it and set it up before heading out to pick up the week old chicks (4). It's a glass terrarium with a mesh lid. The heating pad will go under one side of it. Do we still need a light or will daylight/our house lights until bedtime be ok with the heat pad going? Hubby has some gadget that will help regulate the temperature. I don't know anything about it. My other question was if there are any dos/don'ts on where to put the brooder. I would like it inside for now. Thanks, I'm a newb!

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Having them on a heating pad hooked up to some kind of gadget sounds like a recipe for baked baby quail.
What I do is hang my brooder lamp about 6" off the floor of the tote I brood them in, with a regular 60w house bulb. That way if they get cool they gather under the light and warm up, or if they get too warm they move away from the light to cool off. The feed & water is at the far end of the brooder. They will self regulate their own temperature and find their own comfort level. I have never ever put a thermometer in a brooder.
But to answer your question, they have light 24 hours a day and they spend all day & night running back & forth from the light to the feeder and are in pretty good shape & size by the time I put them in the outside brooder cage a week later.
If you do it your way and turn the lights off at night that will be ok but they will sleep all night instead of eating & running around all night and not grow as fast.

 

[Del1977]

I'm no expert but have always used an overhead lamp. They first go into a smallish fish tank with 60w household lamp up one end and food and water towards the other end like previous reply. Make sure you put marbles or small stones in water dish otherwise they are inclined to accidently drown, although at a week old this is unlikely. If we have a small hatch they will stay in fish tank for a week or so, if larger hatch they dry off and gain strength in tank then outside into main brooder with 75w infrared heat lamp over head.

 

[Pineapple]

Don't use a heating pad. It roasts the babies.

Whereas animals like lizards and snakes are used to sunning on flat, rocky, surfaces and will move onto or off of a heating pad pretty easily, baby birds don't have it in their makeup to do that. They will sit there and burn to death.

They need heat from overhead, like they would get in the wild (from the son or from their mother's breast).

 

[eHuman]

Chicks do not need 24 hours of light if you can provide lightless heat. I can't comment on your reptile heater but I use basically the same thing only it's an over-head heating pad by Brinsea.

 

[Ladybirdmama]

I thought they could move from end to end the same as with a heat lamp. I'm sure it can be put on top of the tank instead of underneath though (over only one end). We have a lamp like I see in brooder pictures but no red bulb.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

You don't need a red bulb. You're warming a few quail in a fish tank inside your house, not heating a hog parlor on a freezing winter night. I regular 60 w house bulb is all you need.

 

[Ladybirdmama]

Ok thanks
The articles I read were all really big on red light vs white, even if it wasn't infrared. I love having this forum to ask people with real life experience

 

[ChickenLegs13]

When you study up on an unfamiliar subject it's easy to get overwhelmed with information overload but raising poultry is easy, especially quail.
The more complicated you make it, the easier it is for some superflubous detail to become a catastrophe and lose your birds.

 

[Afterfeather]

This is my first batch of chicks so take what I say with a pinch of salt...

I'm currently using a glass vivarium and have a small heat mat attached to the exterior wall. The chicks take turns between sleeping next to that and under the Titan brooder. I'd be wary of using a desert mat rather than tropical, but if you leave it on for several hours and you can comfortably keep your hand where it's heated then it's safe. While they don't need that extra heat source they are using it and it's not doing them any harm.