strange quail behavior

[bkvail]

well, I ended up putting mine down - he couldn't even hold himself upright anymore. I think it was that his legs were just too weak because otherwise he seemed fine. I didn't notice any swelling on my quails legs at all - don't know what was up, but he was only getting worse, so was best to end it before he suffered.

 

[rachel]

Wow. This is very interesting. I know ducklings are supposed to have niacin (brewer's yeast) added to their feed to prevent leg/wing problems. Maybe it's something similar to that? I think the ratio I use for ducks is about 2 cups brewer's/nutritional (NOT the stuff for making bread) to 10 lbs feed. If you can't find the yeast, you can add 100mg of niacin that you buy in the vitamin section, crushed up, per gallon of water). If you decide to experiment with this, be sure not to add extra as too much niacin can be toxic.

 

[bkvail]

Quote:
hmm - I have been using Purina Startena for them from the start - and the other 8 all seem perfectly fine. The last bag of feed I got was Nutrena game bird starter though - they just started on that a few days ago (I switched my rabbit feed to Nutrena too, so wanted to get them at the same feed store and that store only carries Nutrena which is made just one town away).

Karin

 

[rachel]

So guess what. I moved my quail out of the brooder yesterday to a wire floor and now I've got a jumbo brown walking on it's knees. Well, mostly just sitting. From what it seems in this thread, this doesn't generally improve. Since the bird is looking at being put down anyway, I'm going to test my niacin theory and see if I can get any improvement. I'm also going to switch it to regular gamebird feed, rather than the 28% starter. I know this is too many variables for a proper experiment, but maybe something will help. I'm not sure if it was on it's knees before today since it would have been hard to tell looking down at all of them in the brooder. My plan is to isolate it back in the brooder, with a runt so it won't be lonely.

 

[nicoleandeliceo]

Interesting... I came on here this morning to look up the same question. I have a quail, about a month old, squatting down and walking backwards. So weird...

 

[sniper338]

Id guess genetics and its messed up somehow. Either way its not normal and needs to be culled.

 

[white ninja]

mine do the "crawdad" all the time there just fine maybe its a mateing thing mainly a female perhaps getting her butt to corner running over everything knocking stuff over before she gets its by the cocky male lmbo!

sometimes a male will do it justa dancein happy to be alive? my 8 quail are characters enjoy watching them there mating is halarious ! always hopping around dusting eating and suning