Quail Hatched with curled toes

[Shabbir512]

Hi, some of my quails that hatched today have curled toes. i have straightened then with a surgical tape. please advice for how long should i keep the tape on their toes so that they straighten?

 

[dc3085]

Hi, some of my quails that hatched today have curled toes. i have straightened then with a surgical tape. please advice for how long should i keep the tape on their toes so that they straighten?

How curled are we talking about? are the toes rolled up or are the bent from left to right? btw this is a symptom of humidity issues, get your humidity under control and you won't have curled toes anymore. If they are bent from left to right or vice versa you don't need to do anything. If they are curled under you will have to change the tape out every couple days as their feet grow and the problem will eventually correct itself. Go to the search bar at the top of the page and type in quail chicks with curled toes and you should get more info than you dreamed. This is a very well covered topic on BYC.

 

[Shabbir512]

Hi dc,
some quails have legs curled left to right and vice versa, while others have rolled up but not extreme.
when you say humidity issues, does it mean its high or low that causes curled legs?

 

[James the Bald]

go to this site, it should help.
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry
James

 

[chickenboy100]

Also, it could sometimes be genetic, just a warning.

 

[dc3085]

Humidity fluctuations the ups and downs, its the higher humidity you want to avoid, lower humidity doesn't usually hurt anything but the hatch rate. .

 

[TwoCrows]

Also, it could sometimes be genetic, just a warning.

X2

MANY times curled toes are genetic. Especially when you order eggs from an unknown source. People should not be breeding these types of birds, but they do anyway and sell you these eggs.

But as stated by DC, improper conditions in the incubation process can also cause curled toes, and other foot issues. Especially high heat or hot spots in the bator. Still air incubators are famous for causing toe problems with poultry because of the hot spots that form from the lack of air movement.

 

[Camp Julsby]

I am at the tail end of a hatch most of my quail chicks hatched out yesterday day 18. On the remaining stranglers hatching today I am seeing toes curled to the side. I saw this with my last hatch too. All the first wave seem to have normal toes and are bouncing around the brooder now but these last few are going to spend a bit more time in the incubator. I am wondering if it is a late hatch issue. Any ideas?

 

[BuddyB]

My quail hatched right on time but there were babies with curled toes. The incubator deffinately got too hot during my hatch, I thought about doin the quail shoes thing and instead opted To do some research and ended up feeding them ground up sesame seeds and parsley . The results were phenomenal, curled toes were gone in 2 or 3 days

 

[Lobzi]

I have one with curled toes that just hatched yesterday. I made shoes for it and am giving it and the other quail hatchlings vitamins and extra vit B. They are already eating game bird starter and ground sunflower seed. I hope this little one gets better.

I agree it is possibly genetic. I got my quail eggs from James Marie Farms which is a very reputable breeder but Im guessing even with a reputable breeder like them genetic problems will show up as the breeder breeds for a specific characteristic, such as blue feathering in this case. Im going to call them and discuss it with them.