Pupfish Ranch

Category: Quail

  • Cats #1

    My cat is named Samantha. She is 14+ years old and has been with me through so much. She has been having problems with her digestive system, and pancreatitis. We have put her on Rx food before and it might have helped a bit but not much. Now we have her on a low fat diet from the local feed store and I feed her one raw quail egg a day.

    Since I started feeding her the quail eggs, she has put on a good amount of weight. She would eat way more than one at a time but I am also trying not to give her too much at a time because I think that is why she was throwing up sometimes. Other times it would be bile or foam so there are probably multiple things going on but the eggs are so easy for her to digest and contain so much nutrition. They have less cholesterol than a chicken egg but more nutrition, I have read.

    I believe the quail eggs have been a huge help to her health. Even though she contantly asks for more, I think one a day is good so she can digest it well and also because we are not producing that many. The quail have probably made a dozen or so eggs and Sammy has had more than half of them, with most of the rest of the half being given away to people.

    My wife and I have only had one. It was amazing and we are getting 6 more girls in early May so we will have more to work with, but I really like sharing right now and just figuring out who I know that likes them.

    –Nichollas

    (human written)

  • Quail #1

    I received a box containing 11 Coturnix Qail from AZ Chickens sometime a couple months ago. I will look up the date and insert it here, hopefully.

    There were some issues with the shipment and it got delayed. From what I understand, they usually get shipped in around 2 days. They are fed and hydrated as much as possible before the shipping but they can not ship food or water with the quail and no matter what it will be stressful. I got adult quail since I have never raised quail before. Growing up, we always had chickens, so I didn’t feel like I didn’t know what I was doing, but I also knew quail are a whole different bird.

    It ended up taking 5 days for the quail to get to my house, or to the local post office rather. My wife was in Mexico and so my aunt gave me a ride to the post office and we got them as soon as possible. I had two areas for them setup that provided for all their needs while they recouperated.

    When I received the box, there were 3 dead quail already. The box separated the two flocks, which were supposed to be 4 females and one male per flock, and they threw in an extra bird. I got them into a place with food water shelter and comfort to allow them to heal. I gave them chicken egg yolk as recommended by the people I bought them from, but I think they fell asleep in it more than eating it.

    When I first got them they reminded me of junkies. They were so exhausted they would fall asleep while going for a piece of food, or a drink of water. I have video of this I believe and definitely want to upload it. It was cute, but sad, but I knew they were doing better, I hoped anyways. They were so exhausted one of them fell over and could not get themselves up. I was extra cautious since they are such small birds and I am not used to them, so I did some research.

    I ended up picking the bird up gently and very softly inspecting their body. Their legs seemed to be working but probably just weak. I put the bird back on their feet and the bird was able to walk around just fine (if you haven’t caught on, I’m not sure whether this was a male or female).

    The next time I checked on them, this bird was trying to get underneath the other birds. At this point I want to say it was a male. He was trying to tuck himself under them. It was not cold at this point so I’m not sure what he was doing, but later that night I went to check on them and while the flock with the male I have been speaking about was on the cold side of the cage, the other flock, in their own cage, was in the warm area. I had blocked the back half of the cage so ther were no drafts, some airflow, but somewhat insulated and full of straw. I believe the birds that stayed in the cold area were staying with the weak male. I can’t be for sure, but the situation got worse, and by the morning all the birds were in our room with us and three had not made it, including that male and two females that were with him.

    I was there the whole time. I had a thermal imaging for detailed reading of body temperature. I made a solution of sugar and salt in warm water and fed them with a small dropper under the tounge. I warmed them with my hands. I did everything I could but they just were too weak.

    Since then they have been doing pretty well, although I have lost one more bird, the hardest. I stupidly allowed me dogs to be out with me when I would transfer the quail. The dogs would just watch and so far no bird had gotten away from me. Well, one got away from me, and I yelled “leave it!” which for the most part works very well with our dogs, but I also tried to protect the quail with my body somehow. Once I got the dogs out of there and I located the quail, it was immediately apparent that she had suffered a spinal injury (she was just twitching, not actually conscious, so some sort of severe injury) during the chaos and I had to put her out of her misery immediately.y

    I woke up the next morning crying. I know I did the right thing but it hurts so much. I love the quail and that is why I have to do the right thing when taking care of them.

    Many things have happened, but at this point I have one male in a batchelor pad and two females with one male in another cafe. I don’t like the word cage but that’s what these are. I am still constructing their permenent environment which should be much better.

    We started getting eggs and I would estimate that we have collected about 15 eggs or so. Before they started laying eggs, was cleaning their cages and while handling one of the females she had what appeared to me to be a vent prolapse. I isolated her and did what I felt was necessary to protect her but I think it ended up just being related to her laying her first egg, and what I can tell at this point both females are laying well and their needs are being provided for.

    (May continue this blog today)