Quail chick foot is swollen

[Quail1241]

Thank you! So for the adult quail I’m having to use a light bulb and heater since it’s still too cold to open the garage even during the day. My sleep schedule got a little messed up which messed up theirs but I just shut off the lights after being on for six hours and will turn them back on at 7am. (Update, turned them on at 7am)

As far as my brooders, I’m currently using a cardboard box with a towel on the floor and paper towel on top for my main brooder. It’s holding 23 chicks which I plan to make a larger brooder for since they’re entering week 2. Unless you think it’s fine.

Then I have a secondary one I set up for isolation which is a desert reptile starter kit from pet smart that I had laying around. It’s small but I modified it to achieve 90+ degrees with cooler areas and some shade. Im keeping three that are healthy but two hatched late and 1 has a very strong bond with me. I use paper towel for that as well.

And the third brooder I set up a few days ago to further isolate two that were originally with the other three, one has a strong bond with me but developed wry neck, the other doesn’t bond with me but has the swollen foot.

My quail cage is bad, it is the old cage of the guy who gave me the quail, and it has plywood floor base with nowhere for poop to go besides their toes. A while back I built a nice four layer cage for them but made the same mistake of putting plywood as the flooring so that turned out to be an excellent brooder, but I have to wait for the weather to warm up. Now I have to build a new cage for them which will have wire mesh as the floor and a poop tray to catch all that poop. Easier said than done but I do have experience building cages, I’ve just been procrastinating a lot on that.

 

[Quail1241]

Update- The food processor arrived! Not the best at grinding that starter feed but it works great when mixing in the boiled egg and vitamins (some vitamin b tablets didn’t grind all the way so I chopped them).

I mixed a whole egg, 1/2cup of starter feed, 4 vitamin E pills, and 4 vitamin B complex. I then split the batch in half to feed all five chicks in isolation. With the colloidal water, they all love it! Especially the one with wry neck, I am seeing him eat a lot.

I also decided to move the main chicks in a plastic bucket about twice the size and used premium fine pine shavings from TSC. Temperature at its coldest spot (upper corner) is 80 degrees. I plan to keep them in here for the next few weeks so any advice is appreciated! Should I raise the water feeder so it doesn’t get dirty? Some pine shavings get in it but thankfully no poop for now since the shavings seem to trap them. I also added colloidal water to it!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The ground up feed looks good!

The more space you can give them, the better, they are feathering in nicely and will be zipping around like crazy.

Placing food and water stations up a little higher can help them stay cleaner, so if you have a way to do that, I think it would be a good idea.
Quail are messy or at least mine are. Shavings can be a good base for the older ones, you can stir it up a little daily to help keep it fresher and then add a bit as needed.