Boy did I mess up...

[pocketsierra]

You may find "non drowning" waterers at the feed store. If not, you can find some normal chick waterers and put marbles in them for the first week.  

Better waterers are nipple systems overhead or drink cups outside the cage. But these are more elaborate and your local store may nto have these parts.

Paper towels are probably rough enough.  If they are on smooth floors and start doing the splits and skidding, that's bad. They can develop spraddle leg, a serious condition. I doubt you are seeing that on paper towels. You would see it if you were directly on the plastic tubs in the first week.

If you can't find the vitamins and electrolytes, you can pour in some pedialyte, straight or half and half.

Nathan

[KP777]

Hi Topknot! Thank you for the meal worm suggestion.. I never thought about them looking for more and pecking at eachothers toes, geez that would be terrible!!! Maybe chopping them up into crumbled pieces would be better... I'm so glad I found this website and was able to share this experience with everyone. I don't even know any of you but I feel like you're all some of my closest friends!
I also want to say that the experience has not only been fun to share with you all but my kids have sooo much enjoyed it. They were all very attentive to the eggs, then with the hatching and of course they can't stop watching the babies. They were very sad too when some died. Does anyone on here have kids involved with your quail hatching and raising? My daughter just turned 10 on Monday and I have twin boys age 6, it's been quite a family experience!!
Thanks again and I appreciate any feedback and suggestions about anything, pacing, cheaping, eating, drinking, housing, etc....
Hope to hear from someone again soon!
Oh hey, does anyone use the chat on here?

[KP777]

Thanks again Nathan  :)  The paper towels are probably good enough then, they run around just fine, no doing the splits or skidding! Should I change the paper towels frequently due to messiness? Also, should the starter be spread out on the paper towels directly or should I have some type of feed dish? At first I spread it out on the towels, but then I took a large plastic coffee can lid and put the starter in there. They seemed to really like that but inevitably they scratch it out of the dish onto the paper towel anyway. They also like to sleep in it (more cushion/comfortable?).

[pocketsierra]

My daughter is three and love this project her daddy has gotten into for her.

She often wants to hold a baby bird. Some coturnix quail are laying eggs, and she wants to go out and check for eggs. Each day is like Easter for her.

Nathan

[KP777]

My kids want to hold the babies too, I've let my daughter sit on the floor and hold one but they are so squirmy and fast I don't think my boys are coordinated enough to handle them correctly and carefully, so for now they just watch. The chicks are such funny little things, such distinct little personalities, we could all just sit and watch them for hours!

[KP777]

Hi all! Today at lunch I noticed the babies look different than they did last night.... 2 of them have more on their wings, like quills (isn't that the inside/middle part of a feather?) but nothing on them, like little sticks hangin' on their wings. I'm hoping this is normal and is growth of their wings and not some weird sickness or something?? If it is growth and it's normal, how in the heck did they do that overnight??  :shock:

[faro]

Hi Kristin,
They do grow fast!  When I said they would fly out of the brooder box at 3 weeks, I wasn't kidding :P

[pocketsierra]

They should do that growing thing overnight. And the feathers do look like sticks for a while.

I can't be more exact because I've had coturnix in the past and not gambels. I just hatched a few valleys. The growth rates will be different.

Yes, change the paper towels often. As they get more advanced, you can gradually make it more civilized. After a week, you can replace paper towels with pine shavings which will last longer.

You can probably find a feeder they can't get in - once they are big enough and if you can afford it. I am fortunate to have a "cafeteria" with a GQF quail chick feeder, but my valleys aren't big enough to use it yet - unless they climb inside. It was good that you had scattered feed at first until they found the feeder - you don't need it now. You can continue to use the lid if you clean it once in a while. Even more often for water.

Nathan

[gp]

so KP777 how are your quail doing?

[SouthOCJim]

WOW, this was a story that I could NOT stop reading until I read through the entire thread.
I LOVE knowing there are people that will go to ultimate lengths to help animals and not just pass by and say....oh well that's nature...a broken nest, a torn down tree, they'll nest again later. That sort of thing makes me want to start slapping people with the trunks of those cut down trees! :)

To think that you came up with a makeshift incubator in the way that you did....I'm amazed.

I hope they kept growing and growing and got their feathers....would love to see pictures if you have them.

If you get back on this message forum, please let us know.

Jim

[KP777]

Hi Jim and hello all!

Yes it's been quite awhile since I've been on here with an update. My babies (yes that's what I call them and they know it ;)  ) have grown and grown into beautiful birds.  I was taking them out and letting them ride around on my shoulders for awhile, then it just started to get a bit too messy... if ya know what I mean!

We eventually built a larger cage/box for them and had them in the garage for awhile until they were big enough to keep warm then we moved the cage/box outside. I continued spoiling them every other day or couple days with some hard boiled egg and mealworms. Watching them go after the worms was the funniest thing I've ever seen!!! Even though I put enough in there for them all to grab one they would run around like crazy things for a minute before eating them, thinking the others were trying to take their treat away. I never did get a special kind of waterer, just made sure daily they had fresh water in a little tupperware container. We found some great game bird starter at the feed store, then as they got bigger we found some game bird grower of some sort and some mixed seed made for Dove and Quail.

Well, now the story boils down to this... as I said, we moved them outside. We have a dog.............................. We knew at the beginning our dog is a pit mix, just didn't know what the "mix" was. Once we put the birds outside we found out. She would not stay away from them, she gets real still at times and "points". She kept jumping on top of the cage/box too... So I had to make a decision. My selfishness or God given freedom of a natural creature? So just 3 nights ago we put the dog in the garage, opened the cage/box and sat on the back patio and waited. It took them a long while to venture out but when they did, they took off and flew together over our back fence into a neighbors tree. There are quail over there all the time we can hear and sure enough, my babies heard them too and flew down to join them.

My heart was a little sad at first but just knowing that I gave them a chance at life is all that matters. Of course I'll miss them but they are wild birds and I couldn't keep their freedom from them for my own personal reasons. All in all it was a wonderful experience and this website was such a tremendous help through everything, so again, thanks to you all!
Who knows, maybe someday I'll have all the right set up to incubate, hatch, raise and breed some quail as a planned thing. For now, I'll never forget my 3 miracle eggs.