keeping "sick" chicks alive

[Daan]

What i noticed on this forum that a lot of people put in lots of effort to keep chicks with a crooked nek or spray legs alive.
i never help my chicks so only the strong survive, if a chick can not open a eggshell on its own stenght then i will not help it. if chicks have crooked neks, toes or spray leggs than i will end their lives so bad genes don't get into the population, we had lots of trouble in the past with edwarts pheasants having crooked toes, because everybody set them straight with tape when there chicks you cannot see it anymore as adults. people start breeding with these animals and sooner or later the whole population wil have crooked toes.  
it might look cruel to most of you but its a way to minimize sick chicks to occur in the future

[penny's dad]

I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THE OTHER PERSON WHO WAS WRITEING ABOUT THEIR CHICK WITH THE CROOKED NECK , BUT AS FOR ME I FEEL AS THOUGH THE STRONG SHOULD BE THE ONLY ONES TO SURVIVE. I DON'T HELP QUAIL OUT OF SHELLS I DON'T STRAIGHTEN NECKS. BUT SOMETIMES I WILL LET A CHICK LIVE LIKE THE ONE I WROTE ABOUT THAT LOOKED DOWN ALL THE TIME. HE DID SURVIVE TO REACH THE AGE OF 18 WEEKS BUT HE DIDN'T SURVIVE THE MEAT BIRD HARVEST. I WOULD NEVER LET A NONSUPERIOR BIRD BE SELECTED FOR ONE OF MY BREEDERS. :roll:    P.D.

[quailer370]

most of the time it depends on what you're keeping them for

if they're just for meat or breeding purposes i agree with you both but if someone's raising them as pets or for a hobby it can be different.

it varies with the amount of sentimental value attached to the bird  

-quailer370

[lhamid]

I have the little Coturnix with the crooked neck. He isn't sick, I think he was cramped in the egg. I left it up to him to survive or not, and he is doing fine. Of course I'd never breed him (not sure if he even could reproduce) but he gets along fine. As for crooked toes, that can be hereditary I suppose, but I heard it occurs primarily in incubated birds (in chickens anyway) but rarely in birds hatched out by a hen. I never help a chick out of the egg. They rarely survive if they can't get out by themselves anyway. I don't do anything heroic to keep a sick bird alive but I don't see any reason to cull birds that are just going to be butchered for meat anyway. (Someone I know feeds her weak or deformed quail chicks to her cat!) I only keep the best, healthiest birds for breeding stock. Anyway, Gimpy is doing just fine and I am glad I let him live. He's actually pretty friendly for a quail. Most are skittish but he doesn't seem to mind being held.

[quailacres]

Hi Daan,

There is some wisdom to what you are doing with these chicks which, if used for breeding purposes, might produce more of the same. Notice that I have used the word "might" because it seems nothing is ever a certainty! It may depend in some degree on whether it is a genetic problem or arising from improper incubation or something else. I do recall reading an article in the Gazette some time back where they talked about Edwards pheasants in aviaries being highly inbred because so few ever came out of the wild. Problems like you mentioned would show up more often in birds like that.

[penny's dad]

YOU KNOW WHAT I WAS JUST THINKING ? IF I COULD BREED A STRAIN OF BOBWHITE QUAIL THAT ALL HAD CROOKED NECKS I WOULD GET RICH. I COULD SELL THEM TO MY HUNTING CLUB BUYERS FOR THEIR BAD SHOTS WHEN THEY FLUSH THE COVEY THEY WOULD FLY IN CIRCLES UNTIL THEY WERE SHOT DOWN.   P.D.

[Fivehollers]

well for my two pennies worth, if the kids had their way we would keep everything that decided to come into the yard sick or not. We have decided tho that the strong should stay and the weak shall go. But we are in the business/hobby to re populate our area with good strong healthy birds.
some think us cruel, oh well, I thump everything that comes out of the egg wrong. Just has to be that way. To those of you who go to all the trouble to keep them alive, "keep up the good work" and I wish you and your birds the best.

Lori