"Quail Thread-Hatching, Mutations, and everything quail related!!!"

[TwoCrows]

Quote: I have a batch of bobwhites hatching today, and so far I have 4/12 of them with curled toes. What variable could be responsible for this?



This could be a genetic problem passed down from the parents...either they did not receive enough nutrients while laying, or they also came from parents with curled toes and it was just passed down.

High heat during incubation can also cause curled toes or feet deformaties. Many times these things heal over. As the chicks grow, the feet can straighten out. You do not want to hatch eggs from these birds as they will no doubt pass it down the line again.

 

[QChickieMama]

Quote: I have a batch of bobwhites hatching today, and so far I have 4/12 of them with curled toes. What variable could be responsible for this?



This could be a genetic problem passed down from the parents...either they did not receive enough nutrients while laying, or they also came from parents with curled toes and it was just passed down.

High heat during incubation can also cause curled toes or feet deformaties. Many times these things heal over. As the chicks grow, the feet can straighten out. You do not want to hatch eggs from these birds as they will no doubt pass it down the line again.

Thanks for this helpful information! Out of the incubation period, there was only 1 day when the temp spiked to 103 or 104 for no good reason. I brought the temp back to 99 immediately. Otherwise, the temp was 99-100 the whole time.

As far as genetics go, this will be the last time I let this batch reproduce. In general, how many times can parents & siblings breed before problems arise? Our set of bobwhites are 2yrs old maximum, plus maybe 3 or 4 hatchings' worth of birds within 2 years.

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote: You know, I am not 100% sure on how long you can go. But I have gone several years without seeing anything go bad. In the past, after about 3 years, I would introduce new blood in. I know a local breeder that has bred his birds generation after generation for 7 plus years with no trouble. If you started with a bird or birds that was carrying something funky, it may not show up in the first generation, but can later turn up in the offspring.

Generally a quick spike in temp like yours, shouldn't do much damage. It is the long term day after day high heat that causes issues. But in this case, I am sure it didn't help.

If I were you, I would start over with some good blood. Keep the ones you already have, or eat them. Your birds are only as strong as their weakest gene. Good luck!

 

[Weirdness555]

Please help!

We have two 11 week old coturnix quail who are not laying. They are in the bottom of our budgie aviary, with a cockerel. I know the ratio is a bit wrong, but we started with 3 hens and lost one mysteriously a few days ago (lost as in dropped dead). We intend to get 3 more hens, but I'm worried we're doing something wrong.

We are currently feeding them on layer's pellets, which I know are a bit low in protein, but no-where near us stocks quail pellets so we've had to hunt around, and we've just found somewhere to order them in, but they won't be here until next week. We've been giving them crushed hard boiled egg and lots of mealworms to build up their protein, and they're all eating well and seem healthy in all ways except for the non-laying and, *ahem* death.

The cockerel is very gentle on the hens (maybe because he's an older boy) despite the low ratio, but they seem totally disinterested in mating. He tries to mount them and they run away, and if he manages to catch one she just keeps running and he falls off and then gives up.

They have 15 square foot plus, and plenty of hiding places, including a hut which is water and draft proof to get out of the weather. They had turf but they've killed the grass so they now live on earth. They have a dish of bird sand for dust baths.

They are definitely getting their 14+ hours of daylight, with sunrise around 5:30am and sunset around 9:30pm. However, it's been pretty wet and cloudy recently, so could that be putting them off lay?

They've been in the aviary for nearly 6 weeks now, and they seem settled, apart from one of the hens is VERY nervous whenever we approach the aviary.

Today we found an egg, but it was very small and pure white, so we think it was a budgie egg, I know first eggs can be small, but are they ever pure white?

I started a thread on here but I haven't had much in the way of replies, so I thought I'd ask on here where stuff is going on.

Please help!

Thanks

 

[TwoCrows]

Please help!

We have two 11 week old coturnix quail who are not laying. They are in the bottom of our budgie aviary, with a cockerel. I know the ratio is a bit wrong, but we started with 3 hens and lost one mysteriously a few days ago (lost as in dropped dead). We intend to get 3 more hens, but I'm worried we're doing something wrong.

We are currently feeding them on layer's pellets, which I know are a bit low in protein, but no-where near us stocks quail pellets so we've had to hunt around, and we've just found somewhere to order them in, but they won't be here until next week. We've been giving them crushed hard boiled egg and lots of mealworms to build up their protein, and they're all eating well and seem healthy in all ways except for the non-laying and, *ahem* death.

The cockerel is very gentle on the hens (maybe because he's an older boy) despite the low ratio, but they seem totally disinterested in mating. He tries to mount them and they run away, and if he manages to catch one she just keeps running and he falls off and then gives up.

They have 15 square foot plus, and plenty of hiding places, including a hut which is water and draft proof to get out of the weather. They had turf but they've killed the grass so they now live on earth. They have a dish of bird sand for dust baths.

They are definitely getting their 14+ hours of daylight, with sunrise around 5:30am and sunset around 9:30pm. However, it's been pretty wet and cloudy recently, so could that be putting them off lay?

They've been in the aviary for nearly 6 weeks now, and they seem settled, apart from one of the hens is VERY nervous whenever we approach the aviary.

Today we found an egg, but it was very small and pure white, so we think it was a budgie egg, I know first eggs can be small, but are they ever pure white?

I started a thread on here but I haven't had much in the way of replies, so I thought I'd ask on here where stuff is going on.

Please help!

Thanks

I am guessing it is the layer pellets. An egg is basically a LOT of protein and amino acids. Chicken layer feed will not offer them enough protein to lay often. And as you just found, small eggs. On the other hand, high protein will cause them to lay daily.

On top of this, the calcium in the layer feed will destroy the kidneys of the male. So you really need to get them off of that stuff. If you can not find quail feed in your area, get some starter feed of any kind. For any poultry. The highest protein you can find. Also, feed them hard boiled eggs, meal worms and animal proteins. If you can order "Farmers Helper" chick kibble on line, it is very high in protein. It is a supplement only that is added to the feed. Even soybean meal added to the feed will up the protein.

 

[Weirdness555]

We found someone who is willing to order it in for us, and we will have some on tuesday Will "quail and partridge breeder/layer pellets" be ok? and as they're still layer pellets, will they still have too much calcium? How do we stop the male eating it if so? Thanks for the help, I thought that the protein issue might be a problem, either that or the rain. Forums are the saviour of the beginner

 

[TwoCrows]

We found someone who is willing to order it in for us, and we will have some on tuesday Will "quail and partridge breeder/layer pellets" be ok? and as they're still layer pellets, will they still have too much calcium? How do we stop the male eating it if so? Thanks for the help, I thought that the protein issue might be a problem, either that or the rain. Forums are the saviour of the beginner

You can't stop the male from eating it. Maybe if you can order any quail feed, as in layer, you could order instead starter or a fight conditioner type feed? I have found that my males will not eat much of anything with a lot of calcium in it. So your boy may not eat much of the quail feed. So if he is good about knowing not to eat it, you can supplement his diet with lots of veggies and fruits, greens as well and he may do fine.

Also you can add finch and wild bird seed, as well as parrot feed for the male to help keep him healthy.

 

[Weirdness555]

Also, I'm pretty sure I've found the brand which we will be getting, and it still says it's only 17% protein, but I thought quail needed 20% or more? Will it be ok because it's designed for quail? Should we get turkey grower to mix with it or something? The only problem is that most of the chick crumb around here is medicated so we wouldn't be able to eat the eggs.

 

[TwoCrows]

Also, I'm pretty sure I've found the brand which we will be getting, and it still says it's only 17% protein, but I thought quail needed 20% or more? Will it be ok because it's designed for quail? Should we get turkey grower to mix with it or something? The only problem is that most of the chick crumb around here is medicated so we wouldn't be able to eat the eggs.

Generally quail need at least 22% protein. However they can live on less, but again...they won't lay as often. If you supplement the diet with animal proteins, you can up this % and they will lay more frequently.

 

[Weirdness555]

Ok, so if I mix their pellets with crushed hard boiled egg and keep up with the mealworms then that should be ok? We kept Chinese painted quail for years on nothing but spilt budgie seed and they laid an egg a day, but it seems that coturnix require a bit more specialism Thanks so much for your help