Aussie Finch Forum

Went out to feed the birds today and found mumma quail dead (was a bit weird she was sitting in her normal favourite sunning position and looked normal till I reached out and she didn't move) so I thought I should open her up and have a look see if I can work out what went wrong. I haven't done a bird dissection since the pigeon in second year uni (so 20+ years ago lol) and she's the first bird death I've had in years so first real opportunity. So what are the main places and things I should be looking at?

It's better to use scissors than a scalpel
Look for discolouration in the organs (as well as lumps, possible creamy-white fungal infections etc), though this may be difficult if the quail has been dead for a while, as they start to go squishy and yuck pretty quickly. Don't hold out too much hope for finding the problem, though, it can be really tough. One of mine had a brain haemmorhage, which was pretty cool to see when I opened him up (in a morbid way). I'll leave further tips for the professionals!

I always use scissors lol (I dissect all my pet rats that pass as a matter of course, just so I can keep on top of anything repetitive cropping up)