Quail chick head jerk

[Kwartel]

I have a three week old quail chick that will turn his head to the side and just kind of jerk it back and forth. It looks a little like a person fighting to stay awake. It eats, drinks and interacts just fine with the other chicks, but when they are just standing around it is the only one that starts twitching. Has anyone seen or heard of this?

 

[Quailfamah]

does he do it randomly or after he drinks?

 

[Kwartel]

It seems totally random. Sometimes he just stands there and does it, or will walk forward kind of pecking at the air, and then will just switch to totally normal mode.

 

[Quailfamah]

ive never seen anything liek what your describing ans ive hatched thousands of quail. the only thing i can think of is wryneck, buthave never seen it in quail. if its not a big loss on your part id cull it just for genetic reasons. you dont wanta flock of messed up neck birds in teh future

 

[JJMR794]

Wry Neck Isnt Genetic. If It Is Wry Neck You Can Add Some Baby Vitamins To The Water Font And It May Well Be Releived. The Bird May Well Have Had Difficulty Hatching And This Is The Most Common Cause Of Wry Neck.

Now If Its Not Wry Neck Then Yeah, The Bird Is A Genetic Dee-dee-dee! So Long As It Is Not Suffering And Continues To Thrive Then You Can Allow It To Mature And Sign It Up For Camp Kenmore

 

[Hafsa]

I have a three week old quail chick that will turn his head to the side and just kind of jerk it back and forth. It looks a little like a person fighting to stay awake. It eats, drinks and interacts just fine with the other chicks, but when they are just standing around it is the only one that starts twitching. Has anyone seen or heard of this?

He

I have a three week old quail chick that will turn his head to the side and just kind of jerk it back and forth. It looks a little like a person fighting to stay awake. It eats, drinks and interacts just fine with the other chicks, but when they are just standing around it is the only one that starts twitching. Has anyone seen or heard of this?

Hey My 6 month old quail does the same thing.Its been a month since he stated but the condition is getting worse. Any tips of what you are doing to prevent this?

 

[Nabiki]

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Hey My 6 month old quail does the same thing.Its been a month since he stated but the condition is getting worse. Any tips of what you are doing to prevent this?

This thread is 11 years old. I would suspect a genetic defect or malnutrition, though. What are you feeding them?

 

[JessicaB86]

Did anyone ever figure out what’s wrong? I have a 3-week-old quail that can’t balance on its legs. It’s also doing that aggressive head jerking movement after it eats and drinks.
Two days ago I found it laying on its side and very lethargic in the brooder. I was able to get it to eat and drink and now it’s very alert. It just does the head jerk and can’t balance. I thought maybe it has coccidiosis, but it doesn’t have a lot of the symptoms. I’m at a loss.

 

[Nabiki]

Did anyone ever figure out what’s wrong? I have a 3-week-old quail that can’t balance on its legs. It’s also doing that aggressive head jerking movement after it eats and drinks.
Two days ago I found it laying on its side and very lethargic in the brooder. I was able to get it to eat and drink and now it’s very alert. It just does the head jerk and can’t balance. I thought maybe it has coccidiosis, but it doesn’t have a lot of the symptoms. I’m at a loss.

That sounds like either a head injury, disease, malnutrition or something neurological.

How many chicks do you have?
Are any others showing symptoms?
What are you feeding them?
What is your setup like? They should be comfortable at room temperature now, so if you still have them on heat, it might be getting too hot.

 

[JessicaB86]

Did anyone ever figure out what’s wrong? I have a 3-week-old quail that can’t balance on its legs. It’s also doing that aggressive head jerking movement after it eats and drinks.
Two days ago I found it laying on its side and very lethargic in the brooder. I was able to get it to eat and drink and now it’s very alert. It just does the head jerk and can’t balance. I thought maybe it has coccidiosis, but it doesn’t have a lot of the symptoms. I’m at a loss.

That sounds like either a head injury, disease, malnutrition or something neurological.

How many chicks do you have?
Are any others showing symptoms?
What are you feeding them?
What is your setup like? They should be comfortable at room temperature now, so if you still have them on heat, it might be getting too hot.

I’m really hoping it’s not neurological, but I’m starting to lean towards that.

We have 10 chicks (we had 12, but two passed before they reached a week old).
No one else is showing symptoms.
We are trying to move them in to a hutch out in the garage, but for the time being they are in the house. They were in a tote with heating pads, but they no longer need heat and they outgrew the tote, so they’re in a cardboard box until we can finish the hutch. They are on 30% protein game bird crumble. I clean the box and water container at least once a day.