King Quail chicks dying

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noah.till
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finchbreeder wrote: 08 Mar 2020, 20:39 seeing one of my doves shaking a quail chick
What sort of Dove? I have had diamonds with mine a great deal of the time with no problems. In fact my last remaining old boy frequently helps keep the chicks warm.
LML
Yeah it was a Ringneck dove cock, picked up a chick and shook the hell out of it, happened too quick for me to intervene
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finchbreeder
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OK Haven't ever kept quail with doves that big. Budgies are also rather untrustworthy with quail. Mostly its because the young budgies treat baby quail like toys to play with. Which tends to be fatal to the quail.
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Rod_L
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It could be something in the sawdust, it might have been contaminated by something that is affecting the young.

I have never had an issue with doves hassling quail. Cockatoos and some larger parrots will eat quails but doves are seed eaters and don't touch meat.

I still don't understand how baby quails can get tangled up in their mother's feathers. That just sounds illogical and would lead to the demise of that species. Hi lets have babies, ok but half of them will choke to death in their mum's feathers. Doesn't sound right.
Which feathers are the babies being caught up in?
Last edited by Rod_L on 09 Mar 2020, 14:11, edited 1 time in total.
death to all cats & ants
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finchbreeder
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Lost 3 chicks out of first clutch to being hung by entanglement in hens feathers. I had to manually remove them. Last chick was so badly entangled it pulled out the feathers when it came away.
I have never had this happen in 40yrs of quail breeding so something is definately wrong. Were the feathers of the hen tacky to feel?
In the mean time, try the process of elimination method. e.g. remove all sawdust for a couple of weeks and see if this makes a difference. If not try removing your next guess as to what could be the cause for a couple of weeks. etc. slow but effective method.
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E Orix
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with 4 hens in the one aviary are there more than one hen sitting on the eggs.
Are the clutches abnormally big.
When a clutch is due to hatch you will find the hen will sit a lot tighter, if there are two or more there would be a
wrestling match to who sits on the eggs. If this happens there maybe infertile eggs being broken. If this happens you
will get dirty glue type liquid on the birds feathers.
I have bred my share of King Quail and not had that problem. The only problems I have found is chick loss due to no cover
for the female to hide with her chicks. The other problem which annoys me is some hens get impatient and when 2 or 3 chicks
hatch she will get up and leave the rest of the clutch even though they are fertile and ready to hatch as well.
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finchbreeder
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wrestling match to who sits on the eggs. If this happens there maybe infertile eggs being broken.
Good thinking E O.
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Talven
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The chicks were entangled in the feathers on the wing. From what I could see two of the feathers had become twisted/stuck together at the tip with a small amount of poop forming a V. Chicks poked head between V. I'm guessing that the hen took off catching chicks panicked and bolted breaking neck or choking them. It was only when the last chick pulled the feathers out with it that I was able to work out what was happening.

Yes multiple hens sitting eggs but usually they take it in turns rather than at the same time. It's the male that tends to sit with one of the hens. Haven't had any leaking eggs as yet. Usually they have two nests on the go at the same time rather than lump all the eggs together. Occasionally a third nest.

Once eggs start to hatch everything is left to care for them so late hatchers or other nests get left to die. Another reason that I have been taking and incubating the eggs. Would rather leave it to the hens to do but it's not just my opinion on the matter.

At first I thought it was something in just the aviary as I only ever had the chicks die with the red legs in the aviary. Until I lost one that I hatched in the incubator and put straight into the brooder. Never had a death with the red legs in the brooder until this chick. I uses sugar cane mulch in the bottom rather than sawdust. Once the chicks are big enough to move out of the brooder the mulch is tossed out and it's cleaned with fresh mulch added for the next lot of chicks.
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finchbreeder
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It's the male that tends to sit with one of the hens.
My best dads do that too. Good sign.
If it is happening in two different locations, then the question is. What, apart from their genes, is the same? What are you feeding them?
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LML
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Rod_L
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It's probably a bacterial infection if it's happening in the aviary and the incubator.

Take the bodies to a bird vet and get them necropsied.
death to all cats & ants
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finchbreeder
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If it was avairy only could be an ant attack, but that it is happening in both is puzzling.
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LML
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