Hi all,
My quail chicks are now 23 days old and we’re still having a very bizarre development process with them all. Seeing pictures of everyone’s Coturnix chicks have them almost adult sized and plumes by 14 days, but my clutch are still looking extremely similar to when they were a few days old.
A lot of signs are telling me that there has to be some sort of deficiency, but I can’t tell what I’m missing! They’re eating constantly and are eating a larger variety of feeds than ever before, and yet barely any progress has been made.
Here is a list of their daily intake:
-28% protein starter crumb
-a handful of oat groats
-crushed pistachios, chestnuts, and sunflower seeds
-crushed cat food
-chopped lettuce, cabbage, carrot, raspberries and blueberries
-egg food mix
-cut up lugworms and mealworms
-a powdered multivitamin tablet
-powdered bird supplement tonic
-oyster shell grit
I physically cannot think of what I could be missing. And yet as their growth remains slow, various health issues have occurred.
Plum’s neck kinked, which is assumed to be wry neck. I added the multivitamins and sunflower seeds during this time which have done nothing to fix the issue. Luckily they’re running around fine and eating and drinking without issue.
Peach’s toe died. I have no idea how. It went necrotic and has shrivelled up, fortunately it hasn’t affected their walking, but I don’t know the cause. My guess is that in the first week or so the chicks were quite vicious regarding pulling each other’s toes that maybe it got damaged to such an extent that I didn’t notice?
And the latest incident; Chip suddenly stopped walking. One afternoon they were running around the cage and then 30 minutes after I put them to bed they were hunched over shivering in place, nowhere near the heat pad. An emergency trip to the out of hours vet got me a shrug and some antibiotics on the potential that they could have septicaemia, even though we both checked them over for injuries and found nothing. Fortunately, they're still alive and eager with life right now. However I still can’t get them on their feet, and their toes are now curling. I tried 4 different attempts to straighten their toes using ‘shoes’ but they keep knocking them off and I’m now just straightening them manually every day whenever I bring them out.
Basically, these quail have been stressing me out a LOT. For all these things to be happening, there HAS to be a cause right? I can only think of deficiency being the underlying factor, but as they all eat so well I don’t know what it is I’m missing.
Could there be such a thing as bad genes in quail growth? After all these are the clutch I bought under the false assumption that they were buttons only to find out they were Coturnix 2 days before they hatched. I genuinely don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
Chip:
Cookie:
Rocky (he's had his underbite since birth):
Plum:
Peach:
Dot (literally the only one that resembles a quail at this point):
My quail chicks are now 23 days old and we’re still having a very bizarre development process with them all. Seeing pictures of everyone’s Coturnix chicks have them almost adult sized and plumes by 14 days, but my clutch are still looking extremely similar to when they were a few days old.
A lot of signs are telling me that there has to be some sort of deficiency, but I can’t tell what I’m missing! They’re eating constantly and are eating a larger variety of feeds than ever before, and yet barely any progress has been made.
Here is a list of their daily intake:
-28% protein starter crumb
-a handful of oat groats
-crushed pistachios, chestnuts, and sunflower seeds
-crushed cat food
-chopped lettuce, cabbage, carrot, raspberries and blueberries
-egg food mix
-cut up lugworms and mealworms
-a powdered multivitamin tablet
-powdered bird supplement tonic
-oyster shell grit
I physically cannot think of what I could be missing. And yet as their growth remains slow, various health issues have occurred.
Plum’s neck kinked, which is assumed to be wry neck. I added the multivitamins and sunflower seeds during this time which have done nothing to fix the issue. Luckily they’re running around fine and eating and drinking without issue.
Peach’s toe died. I have no idea how. It went necrotic and has shrivelled up, fortunately it hasn’t affected their walking, but I don’t know the cause. My guess is that in the first week or so the chicks were quite vicious regarding pulling each other’s toes that maybe it got damaged to such an extent that I didn’t notice?
And the latest incident; Chip suddenly stopped walking. One afternoon they were running around the cage and then 30 minutes after I put them to bed they were hunched over shivering in place, nowhere near the heat pad. An emergency trip to the out of hours vet got me a shrug and some antibiotics on the potential that they could have septicaemia, even though we both checked them over for injuries and found nothing. Fortunately, they're still alive and eager with life right now. However I still can’t get them on their feet, and their toes are now curling. I tried 4 different attempts to straighten their toes using ‘shoes’ but they keep knocking them off and I’m now just straightening them manually every day whenever I bring them out.
Basically, these quail have been stressing me out a LOT. For all these things to be happening, there HAS to be a cause right? I can only think of deficiency being the underlying factor, but as they all eat so well I don’t know what it is I’m missing.
Could there be such a thing as bad genes in quail growth? After all these are the clutch I bought under the false assumption that they were buttons only to find out they were Coturnix 2 days before they hatched. I genuinely don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
Chip:
Cookie:
Rocky (he's had his underbite since birth):
Plum:
Peach:
Dot (literally the only one that resembles a quail at this point):
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