Under developed embryos

[TheCakeIsAWolf]

I candled my quail eggs today to check for development on day 5 today (20 of the 27 shipped eggs have healthy embryos in them and one I left in cause I was suspicious). All of them are kidney bean sized at this point. I crack open any eggs that clearly have no development at this stage just to see what happened. This time there was a very tiny embryo in one of the eggs (smaller than a grain of rice). Does anyone know what would cause delayed development like this? Is it any indication of what the health of the chick would have been had it developed? The embryo was still alive as well with a heartbeat I have videos if anyone is curious.

 

[JaeG]

I had a Button quail embryo that stopped growing about 5 days in. It kept wriggling for a whole week (I candle every day) and while the others got bigger this one stayed itty bitty, but it was very active. I was rather sad to discover it had finally given up one day, inevitable as that was.

 

[Keeperofmunchkins]

Not sure what could have caused the delayed development but I strongly suspect the embryo would not have made it to hatch, and even if it did it would have had some serious health problems.

 

[aart]

I had a Button quail embryo that stopped growing about 5 days in. It kept wriggling for a whole week (I candle every day) and while the others got bigger this one stayed itty bitty, but it was very active. I was rather sad to discover it had finally given up one day, inevitable as that was.

That's interesting!