Urgent help with Quail chicks needed

[bleeding green]

My father called this evening to tell me he had three young chicks which he found exhausted on the floor. After keeping them in his hospital cage for a few hours they seemed lively again so he put them back in the aviary again but they deteriorated again.
I think they are only 1 or two days old and it appears they have been rejected by their parents. You'd never know who the parents are as there are about 20 quails in the huge aviary.
They don't appear to know how to eat. If they last the night Dad wants to drop them off to me as he hasn't got the patience.
Does anyone have any ideas on what to do with them? Will they take to a soft food mixture? How could I get them to eat?

[chris66]

Hi..Mine are 6 days old now & today some have silver wings.5 hatched,5 alive.I removed mum & babies from avairy as there were 3 pair of quails in there.Mine ate white ants on the first day as soon as mum did.I have bread & biscuit in there too but they dont seem to eat much of it.They eat whiteants twice a day as soon as I put them in.
Ideally ,I think you should leave them with mum ,but its going to be hard in your situation.Make sure your water dish is very shallow.Good Luck.

[bleeding green]

Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately there would be no way of knowing who the mum is. I'm hoping to get htem to eat on their own. I can keep them warm under a lamp but with out food they won't last.
Many have been raised without interference but this does seem to happen from time to time.

[Pete Sara]

try some ground down chicken crumbles or egg and buiscut, the light for warmth is just like a chicken brooder, like chickens once hatched they have to be on the go, so they can pretty much feed them selves , you just have to show them where it is , maybe in a old coffee lid, and for water smae thing but put cotton balls in there so they dont drown...pete

[Diane]

Mine ate boiled egg, I put it through a garlic press and it comes out like little worms, they also love the small mealworms and small earwigs. I ground up some chick starter feed in with the seed to begin with too.
Good luck with them.

[bleeding green]

Unfortunatly we had no luck with the chicks. We just couldn't build up their strength again. I think the biggest mistake was trying to feed them water with a dropper to rehydrate them. Thinking that a small drink would do them good they really went down hill after that. I now think that they drown so easily not becuase the water dishes are too deep but becuase they do not know how to swollow the water and they breathe it in a suffocate.
I did try moistened bread crumbs, a milky farrex mix and dry biscuit crumbs. I was able to force feed them but at no point did they show signs of improvement.

[jusdeb]

You did your best and you may well be right about them choking on water .

[bleeding green]

Yep we tried. They say experience is what you get when you don't get what you want, but at least we'll know better for next time. I'll also have a new respect for the adult quails and they job they have in teaching the younger ones.

[Jayburd]

sorry to hear Green
you did your best and you can't win them all