STARTING INCUBATION SOON HELP NEEDED

[mporche]

You have to cut the corners and bend the edges down.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Thanks! But unfortunately I have no local places that sell quail and thats why I was forced to get 50, they're coming next tues, wed, or thurs. I do have alot of room for them outside when they're older. As for the cages as chicks, I know someone who has HUGEEE cardboard boxes, and if thats isn't big enough, I'll just get two cages, and heating lamps . I've been researching and on this website it says not to keep more than one male in the cage...? About the food, I already ordered it so that it would come before the chicks, and it states that its for all life stages of quail, even if its too big, I'll grind it up for them. Also for the water would I need to put anything in it? Ok, I wont order that lamp, do you have any places I could get a lamp not too expensive? And don't worry about me getting overwhelmed, I have soooooooo much free time, its good I'm getting 50 because whenever, I have nothing to do

lol.

 

[Binki]

Once the males become sexually mature in several weeks they can start fighting each other for mating rights, usually people keep one male to at least three females if they want fertile eggs although two of my groups are each favoring one female which is leading to more than a bit of head feather loss so I'm going to post about that to see if there's something I can do to get the boys more diversified in their loving, hehe.

Did you order the quail chicks from a feed type store? It sucks about the minimum orders they probably know where to get the big bags of crumb if the chicks don't take to the seeds/have nutritional problems - what are you using for grit for them to digest the seeds?

You don't have to put anything in the water if you don't have any problems - you just have to make sure they discover it and have figured out how to drink and prevent them for drowning

Do you know that quail won't take to shelter in bad/rainy weather like chickens do? They will stand in the rain lol so to protect them outside they're usually kept with three closed sides to their cage with a roof or within greenhouses.

As for the lamp, I live in Canada and my dimmable clamp lamp is older and doesn't have a name on it but I'm sure pet smart or something similar carries at least a dimmable lamp so I would start your search there if you don't want to order off of amazon like the one I previously linked.

If you're using cardboard, it's going to get gross really quick if there is any wetness that touches it like spilled/walked through water and poop saturation. They will even poo a few inches up the cardboard walls of they're standing too close to it when they do their business lol hence why I like the aquarium and the linoleum flooring raised a few inches on the side - good for cleaning/disinfecting because wet dirty brooders can make all of your chicks sick.

You could try taping the newspaper bottom a few inches up the cardboard to catch most of that wall poo lol but beware any sort of tiny holes or raised paper/paper towels because a chick might go into it and not find its way back out before it gets too cold

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Ok thanks, lol! I'm not feeding them the seeds, I meant the crumble. I have a 40 gallon fishtank, empty, so I could use that. As for when it rains, I'll cover the top with cloth or something. So not more than 1 male in the cage??? Because If so, thats going to be very hard.. I'll take a look at the heat lamp. As for bedding, would newspaper and then tissue on top work? At about a week of age, they can fly?! I was planning on using one of those plastic tubs used for storage... I'm just so excited for them coming!!

 

[mistymmg]

"My experience"- Using these totes for oh, 12 days now has been a pain after the first week.. They disperse sooooo much fecies that changing the bottom is almost non stop (with 13 quail & a huge tote).. I was using cut sheets & rolling up, shaking out in large trash bag & bleaching.. Now, I have newspaper then paper towels on top.. Although it's much easier to throw away it's getting harder to open the tote while reaching in to get the waterer out & food tray to clean & the bottom with them fluttering every which way & almost getting out.. Plus since they've grown some their poo stinks!! I'm having trouble with them getting it caked on their feet as well.. Even if I change the towels every 2 hours they still have it all over them!! Ughhhhhh.. I put a pie pan in with gravel so they could maybe scratch around in it & get their feet clean but it hasn't helped.. I've GOT to get them on wire so they'll stop stepping in the droppings.. However, if I cover the bottom with the wire as stated how will I get the paper towels out from under it without all the quail falling to one side when I lift it up??

 

[eHuman]

My last brooder was a see through tote with deep litter (decomposed wood chip mulch sifted through 1/4" mesh.) Stir it up a few times a day no issues.

 

[Binki]

Mine start flying out of their 18" tall brooder at about a week yes I've solved this by draping some bird netting over them - they know they can't get through it too because once I take it off to clean them (I can handle and give them food and water through the sides of the netting that's not attached - I just push it over) they will start popcorning (popping around on the ground) and flying out hehehe.

When they're older you need to make sure your ceiling fan is off or you could end up with some "shredded tweet"

@mistymmg - I'm not sure why your little guys are having such a problem with poo feet since we use the same setup of newspaper (I use two ply) and one ply paper towels (although I do use brand name Bounty?)

Maybe it's because my brooder has more space to poop around in giving the poop more time to dry between tramplings? And/or the absorbency of my paper towel brand??

Also, I move them to a bigger brooder with just newspaper and a thin layer of hay (not straw) after about a week and the hay is probably way cheaper than the paper towel considering you can get a bale for a few bucks and it would last me cleaning my 4x2 foot brooder every day for months - it's so compacted

Then the newspaper is free and the hay and poo can be composted or taken away in those brown paper yard waste bags and the newspaper can go in the recycling so no trash!

I've had one chick out of about 50 that I had to soak his foot to remove a poo clump and his name was Murphy for Murphy's law because it seemed everything that could happen would happen to him lol. How's everything going? I noticed one of my 2 week old quail is limping today

I think when he was popcorning he clipped his foot on the plastic sand tray or something, there's no wound so I can't think of anything else that could have happened other than him landing on it wrong while having a happy spaz

Lol

 

[mistymmg]

@Binki I'm not sure.. I guess it's your super absorbant towels since I went the cheapo route with just whatever.. I'm still searching for netting.. Man those boogers can skidattle awful fast!! e Shew, I'll need a nerve pill or a bottle of wine if I'm going to raise these things again!!.. Aweeee, Also, I have the 13.. So is everyone saying I won't be able to keep them all in a pin together??? Male & Female??? If I have to separate them what will I do??? Lol

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Idk, thanks what I'm asking too lol

 

[eHuman]

I left out that I cut out the top leaving a 2" boarder and used pop rivets to secure 1/4" mesh to the lid.
With 15" of space above the deep liter, the mesh was forgiving enough to prevent boink injuries.