skin problems in quails raised on chicken starter vs. turkey starter?

[romea]

yesterday, i picked up a group of 2-week-old quails from a person who supplied me with fertilized eggs from which i hatched 4 chicks.
his group had been incubated just 2 days prior to mine and, thus, hatched 2 days earlier. they were then fed with chicken starter whereas i fed turkey starter to mine.

his chicks (although 2 days older) are about a third smaller and look 'raggedy'.
i applied a drop of revolution (selamectin) on the new-comers and, of course, am offering the higher-protein food but i am concerned about the skin condition of 1 chick in particular:

it looks dry and scaly to me but i am not seeing mites.

this morning, i moved the 2 groups besides each other...
here is the difference (my group is 'on top' in this picture and includes 1 much younger bobwhite quail - some of his 7 chicks can be seen in the bottom of the picture):

i will later weigh the individual chicks to get a better sense of the difference.

is there anything that i can feed to help them 'recover' from what i would think is a (mild?) case of malnutrition? so far, they are largely ignoring the mashed up egg but are liking my mix of ground up turkey and probiotics...
(i am also adding an electrolytes/vitamin-mix to their water.)
will they eventually 'catch up' or must i expect for them to remain comparatively stunted?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Sorry, I didn't read your whole post.. but got the jist of it.

Difference between chicken and turkey starter is protein content. Quail need MORE protein then chickens. So his bird are being under nourished.

It's been a while since I did the research on quail... but they need to be on a turkey/game bird starter.

Also feathers are made of 90% protein and the amino acids it contains. So birds lacking it will have very poor feather quality. Please tell your friend to find something that will work better or to supplement extra protein.

Ok, I went back and read!

Yes they will eventually catch up. Good for you for taking care of them. Things that are high in protein are tuna, mackerel, meal worms, chicken, whatever meat.. So you are doing good with the turkey. I think you are on the right track.

 

[romea]

love your intro... *grin*
thanks for the additional hints re: "whatever meat". although i am not a big meat eater, next time i will save some cooked chicken... in the meantime, i have some decent cat food and tuna. (my mealworms are currently dormant and it will take a while for the new batch to have grown to a size where i can actually see them... )
also, they finally seem to take some interest in the mashed up eggs i offered. tentative: yay.

so glad to hear they will catch up! and yes, their overall feather quality is poor... of course... being 90% protein - - wow! i had no idea it is THAT much. (which explains why they end up as dog/cat food...)

any thoughts on the skin? is that... dryness... also part of the lack of protein?

lastly 1 more question: do you have any idea when it might be safe to move the 2 groups together (as in: they will all be friends )?

 

[JaeG]

Do you think it's been plucked by another chick? Lack of protein and/or boredom can cause feather picking in quail chicks. Cooked egg is another easy option for boosting their protein intake.

 

[sylviethecochin]

No idea on skin, but I've put ducklings of different age groups and chicks of different age groups together with no problems. (once, we mixed muscovy ducks and bantam silkies. The silkies slept on the ducks) The key thing seems to be a smaller group of the larger type and a decent amount of space.

That said, I've never had quail. If you want to integrate them, I'd just add one larger quail chick to their end of the pen for a day or so and see what happens. If it works out, I'd add the rest. They're already living with a tiny bobwhite, and chicks are much less aggressive than adults, usually.

 

[Jessica Thompson]

Protein will help

 

[romea]

hi jae! no, i don’t think it is getting plucked or harassed in any way. i only had them for a day but having them in the living room helps to keep an eye on things and i am not noticing anything of that kind.

when i saw the small bobwhite pacing in front of them, i took it out of the pen and into theirs and they showed 0 aggression. s/he was snuggling up to them in no time. pretty amazing...

 

[romea]

No idea on skin, but I've put ducklings of different age groups and chicks of different age groups together with no problems. (once, we mixed muscovy ducks and bantam silkies. The silkies slept on the ducks) The key thing seems to be a smaller group of the larger type and a decent amount of space.

That said, I've never had quail. If you want to integrate them, I'd just add one larger quail chick to their end of the pen for a day or so and see what happens. If it works out, I'd add the rest. They're already living with a tiny bobwhite, and chicks are much less aggressive than adults, usually.

these are the first quails i am raising entirely by myself. usually i would use a broody bantam hen and the last time, i actually had a quail hatch eggs.

without the influence and cues of the mother, these chicks are amazingly chill.
adding the little bobwhite days later to my group (since the eggs take longer to incubate) was no problem at all - so i guess, it will be just fine and, as i wrote to jae, i already 'tested' the bobwhite with the new group and all went really well.

this is so very different from earlier experiences, where the mother hen would start identifying outsiders very quickly and 'peck them away'...

 

[romea]

Protein will help

do you mean with regards to the overall condition of the chicks or also regarding the particularly dry/scaly skin i noticed in the smallest chick?

 

[Jessica Thompson]

Oh umm do you have a light on them