What is wrong with my quail? (Cotournix)

[18angovem]

Ok, so about a week ago I went and got 6, 9 month old cotournix quail. 4 females and 2 males, they came home and went into the aviary. It has been in the mid-40's here, was 60 here today, so it's getting warm. Has been sunny, but no eggs, no crows, and no signs of mating. What's up?

 

[Tabasco Jack]

Give them a few more days. The stress of moving can stop them from laying. And you may need to remove one of the males. Four females to one male is a better ratio.

 

[18angovem]

Ok, I'm not sure she gave me 2 males tho, the more I look at their feathers it looks like I might just have one male. Which would be nice. Tomorrow I will take some pics to show you guys and see what you think. So you just think it's the stress? Nothing I could now to help with that?

 

[jeffreygaskins]

Post some pic s of them also have u had quail before also u can grab the quail u think are makle And it soundswrong but turn them upside down and pull the tail down and rub them bback and forth and if its a male u will see white stuff that's how I tell on some cause males sometimes stay quit when there are more than 1

 

[Tabasco Jack]

A couple of questions for you. Were they laying before you moved them?

You said you put them in the aviary. Are they on the ground or elevated in cages? They will lay eggs wherever they are standing when the urge hits them. Sometimes they will use a nest area, but usually it's just wherever.

Are you feeding them the same feed as the previous owner? Is it a high protein gamebird feed? Some people feed 28 - 30% protein gamebird for the quails entire life. Some feed a 20 - 25% protein to their layers.

It doesn't take much to stress these birds out. Moving, change of feed, change of cage mates,etc. The hours of daylight and your temperatures are ok. So just give them a few more days.

 

[18angovem]

A couple of questions for you. Were they laying before you moved them?

You said you put them in the aviary. Are they on the ground or elevated in cages? They will lay eggs wherever they are standing when the urge hits them. Sometimes they will use a nest area, but usually it's just wherever.

Are you feeding them the same feed as the previous owner? Is it a high protein gamebird feed?  Some people feed 28 - 30% protein gamebird for the quails entire life. Some feed a 20 - 25% protein to their layers.

It doesn't take much to stress these birds out. Moving, change of feed, change of cage mates,etc.  The hours of daylight and your temperatures are ok. So just give them a few more days.

They are on the ground, the aviary is very large, about 1200 sq ft, so they have plenty of space, they are on the same feed, although I have lately seen them eating the dove feed. They were not laying before I got them. I'm just worried because I haven't heard any crowing or anything?

 

[Em Ty]

They need at least 12 hours of light to lay and for the males to breed, so the foam method likely won't work. Make sure they have 12-14 hours of light and give them another couple of weeks. They'll stop laying at the drop of a hat and also when you pick up that hat. I'd like to move mine but they're laying and I don't want them to stop, but if the egg production drops off even for a day, I'm moving the little SOBs

 

[Gatewayto]

We just started Quail and purchased adult laying quails. For the first 3 days, they only produce 2 eggs then 4th days 4 eggs, after the 4th days, they start laying 1 egg per day each (minus the male). On the first couple of days, we didn't know the leave at least 12 hours of day light on for them. Now we are leaving 16 hours of day light on.

I guess, first you need to know if there are actually any female in there.

 

[18angovem]

Well, most all of them have spots on their chests, only the one doesn't, and that's the male I assume. We had two males, the one died, I did a necropsy just to be extra sure he was a male

 

[Gatewayto]

Its already been a week, they should be laying. Sound like you have 4 female and 1 male now.