Sudden Death of Button Quail--Any Ideas WHY?

[Calebs Acre]

I hatched button quails on 6/3 and 6/10. Quite a few of them sold, leaving me with 3 from the 3rd, all of whom have survived and then 8 from 6/10, with 4 of them just dropping dead this afternoon. They were on their sides, legs stretched out, dead.

They are in a small tank, with light that has been warm enough to keep them active. They have a quail waterer and none have drowned. When they first hatched, I gave them very tiny millet spray from finch and they have done well with it. I also had ground up turkey pellets. But, a couple of days ago, I purchased Purina Layena gamebird finely ground crumbles and that is the ONLY change I have made in their routine....could it have killed the younger birds? I continued to give them their well-loved millet spray and for the past week have added small amounts of finch seed.

They are on Wee Wee pads with a screen top. No power outages, drafts or other variables. They are in our dining room and I saw nothing odd in their droppings.

What changes would you experienced quail keepers recommend? I am going to remove them, give them a brand new tank and a new waterer, so there will be nothing left over from the other set up. But, I have a feeling it has something to do with that Purina feed for some reason? Not sure. Actually, I bought the feed at my feed store and it was in a baggie without any tags. The owner said that it was the same as the Layena, and I bought a 50 pound bag of Layena AND the smaller bag. Maybe it was a different food? I doubt it because they have been feeding the same thing to their buttons. ?????? I hate it when they die....

Are they particularly sensitive to anything except cold and fast temperature changes?

Thanks for any help or information.

 

[ya chick ya]

well i dunno about the changing the food killing them but ive changed my quails food numbers of times and it doesnt effect em often times i keep them with new chicken or ducklings just for extra warmth and during that period they get baby food and they lay just as well so i dont no why may b a disease was goin around it also might D pend on the breed but im not tottaly sure

 

[ya chick ya]

well coturnix arent really super sensitive to cold but hey what do i no about cold i live in tx so when its cold all mine do is ........ yup thats bout it and sometimes chicks just die ive never had button quail so i dont no how they work soo may b a smarter person will come along

 

[Calebs Acre]

What's odd is that the older buttons seemed to survive. I'm just wondering if that game bird feed was medicated and it was too strong for the tiny buttons? I swore that he said it wasn't, but I can't call until tomorrow. The buttons at the store that were consuming it were much older than my little ones who died.

Thanks for trying. I'm not worried about the act of changing the food, more about if I changed to a food that wasn't good for them. Poor little things.

 

[ya chick ya]

you are giving the babies chicken starter right??

 

[Calebs Acre]

I switched to a fine gamebird crumble ....Purina Layena.

 

[ya chick ya]

cuz if they are babies and u give them layena hehe... well u no

 

[ya chick ya]

how old were the ones that died??

 

[Calebs Acre]

Actually, I read the Purina site and this is the Purina Layena Gamebird Crumble and it is actually approved for young quail. I read several articles about people using it for quail and liking it very much.

The buttons were about 10 days old.

 

[ya chick ya]

i always thought layena was always for laying fowl like as in ones that are ready or just a couple months (chickens) or weeks/days(quail) i dunno