Harris Chick food, help!

[Lurcer]

hi all, just wondering what everyone is feeding there newly hatched harris chicks, have had someone sya just to feed them chcik for the first couple of weeks???!! any suggestions??
thanks stu

[DeathFromAbove]

Chopped/mashed quail, chick, rabbit, mice, rat....etc.....

just think how the parents would be feeding the chicks in the wild mate.

[Claire]

chick is ok but a varied diet is better, not sure whether you are imprinting them and feeding them yourself or whether you are talking about what to feed the parents?

[BuzzBee]

Keep it varied so they dont just like one food source.

[Lurcer]

thanks guys, they are parent treared, i just had 4 first chicks all comew out with bowed legs, and someone has said not to feed quail as its 2 greasy for them, and i have been recomended just to use rat and chick for the forst week or 2???

[Finnish]

I feed my young what the HH normally get Chick, Rat, Quail, Rabbit and even pheasant. Well I give that to the parents and they feed the young you no what I mean.:D

[MickeyDredd]

thanks guys, they are parent treared, i just had 4 first chicks all comew out with bowed legs, and someone has said not to feed quail as its 2 greasy for them, and i have been recomended just to use rat and chick for the forst week or 2???

What breeding experience does this someone have??

I would imagine most breeders of HH will use quail mostly for the first week or two then introduce other foodstuffs. Bear in mind that in the wild the parents would be feeding pure meat initially - dont expect a one week old HH to bring up a nice yellow pellet.

Are you planning to advertise your bandy-legged HH on here? ;)

[Ben C]

Hi Lurcer:

Did they hatch with these bandy legs or are they in the correct nesting mateial???

Just a thought.

[Lurcer]

What breeding experience does this someone have??

I would imagine most breeders of HH will use quail mostly for the first week or two then introduce other foodstuffs. Bear in mind that in the wild the parents would be feeding pure meat initially - dont expect a one week old HH to bring up a nice yellow pellet.

Are you planning to advertise your bandy-legged HH on here? ;)
no they all died at 22 days hold, so unless nayone wants to stuff them???
the falconer who gave me this advice has bread the best birds in my area for a long time, both of my birds, and my birds before that, despite being a complete ****** he knows what hes talking about i think.... ithey did have alot of quail the last time, and he thinks thats waht did it...

[Lurcer]

Hi Lurcer:

Did they hatch with these bandy legs or are they in the correct nesting mateial???

Just a thought.

they are nesting in conifer, and lilande, but there has been a good variety of different branges of different species put in the aviary, which the parents have used aslo...

[MickeyDredd]

no they all died at 22 days hold, so unless nayone wants to stuff them???
the falconer who gave me this advice has bread the best birds in my area for a long time, both of my birds, and my birds before that, despite being a complete ****** he knows what hes talking about i think.... ithey did have alot of quail the last time, and he thinks thats waht did it...

Are you saying he thinks feeding quail killed them?

[Lurcer]

Are you saying he thinks feeding quail killed them?
hes saying that quail is a very greasy meat which he is right in saying, and that it doesnt kill them, but it CAN deform them

[MickeyDredd]

hes saying that quail is a very greasy meat which he is right in saying, and that it doesnt kill them, but it CAN deform them

I bow to his greater knowledge then mate :roll: :lol:

[GoodFooter]

the quails I feed dont appear to be 'greasy.' yes to high protein,high nutient but low fat .....the rats I feed have more fat........were the quail ex-layers as the 'prime' quail from honey brook dont seem a fatty food to me???
wonky legs normally indicate rickets or similar.... caused by calcium uptake deficiency. to absorb calcium vitamin D is required.
If it was caused by feeding quail I'd like to hear from others who have had the problem as it is a new one to me.......
Could understand if the parents were only feeding the breast meat to the young as most calcium lies in the skeletal tissue.

[Lurcer]

i too use honey brook farm foods for my birds, and quail is greasy, i didnt say fatty, as there is a difference, you will notice the shine of grease ont he meat when you skin it, that in comparision to other meats is much higher on quial.

[OutFlying]

Quail didn't cause the bowed legs.

[GoodFooter]

i too use honey brook farm foods for my birds, and quail is greasy, i didnt say fatty, as there is a difference, you will notice the shine of grease ont he meat when you skin it, that in comparision to other meats is much higher on quial.
that shine is grease is it???? I think not! and if you do a nutritional analysis of prime quail you may change your mind...
define grease or greasy?

[Coedhirion]

Quail didn't cause the bowed legs.

I bet Out Flying is correct !!!! or there would be an awful lot of dead or bandy leged HH out there.

[GoodFooter]

Quail didn't cause the bowed legs.
thanks JIM....I'm just not as subtle as you!....like you more with each post!

[OutFlying]

Could in-breeding produce the same results ?

[Finnish]

This is a wind up in it.:P

[GoodFooter]

It is possible that inbreeding could cause such a defect.... also the pre-egg laying nutrition of the parent birds .....leading to a deficiency in the embryonic stage of the young which only manifest itself in the growth stage of the young.... I have seen similar once before but our university labs were unable to determine the cause.....it definately wasnt the nutrition post hatching as the breeder was experienced and treated this clutch as all others.... he admitted it was an early brood and hadnt supplimented the parents as he normally did simply as he wasnt expecting eggs so early.

[Blaze]

no they all died at 22 days

All 4 chicks died on the same day?

[OutFlying]

It is possible that inbreeding could cause such a defect.... also the pre-egg laying nutrition of the parent birds .....leading to a deficiency in the embryonic stage of the young which only manifest itself in the growth stage of the young.... I have seen similar once before but our university labs were unable to determine the cause.....it definately wasnt the nutrition post hatching as the breeder was experienced and treated this clutch as all others.... he admitted it was an early brood and hadnt supplimented the parents as he normally did simply as he wasnt expecting eggs so early.


Good reply.

Jim.

[Matty]

I feed my young what the HH normally get Chick, Rat, Quail, Rabbit and even pheasant. Well I give that to the parents and they feed the young you no what I mean.:D

yep exactly what i did
leave it in the hands of the parents
just make sure they get plenty of variaty

[Matty]

yep exactly what i did
leave it in the hands of the parents
just make sure they get plenty of variaty

**** just read the rest :oops:
quail wont be to blame for this
more likely prob with one or both parents
or diet given to female during embryonic developement
sorry to hear you had such probs
good luck in the future

[Barbary Boy]

forget about quail being "greasy" or anything else, even ex layers wouldnt cause a problem. did your young birds have enough exposure to adequate sunlight? did you hatch them in an incubator and hand rear them for a bit b4 returning them to the parents? what else have you fed them and what substrate is thier nest built on? i could go on for ever but there are numerous tings that could have caused this problem, we need more in depth info on everything basically before anyone can come up with any ideas,

[GoodFooter]

forget about quail being "greasy" or anything else, even ex layers wouldnt cause a problem. did your young birds have enough exposure to adequate sunlight? did you hatch them in an incubator and hand rear them for a bit b4 returning them to the parents? what else have you fed them and what substrate is thier nest built on? i could go on for ever but there are numerous tings that could have caused this problem, we need more in depth info on everything basically before anyone can come up with any ideas,
pointing out the possible causes....is a worth while exercise. It stops any inexperienced breeders or would be breeders making the mentioned mistakes!
So far by people suggesting causes it has been determined that it is highly unlikely to be feeding quail, the nesting substrate has already been discussed, the food from what I have read...mainly quail other wise why would he post about him being told it was the quail? Take your point about sunlight as it aids the production of vitaminD which increases the absorbtion coefficient of calcium... but vit D can be supplimented. Pointing out possible causes on this thread is a very useful and valid post it could save and improve others sucess!
Worth pointing out that if 4 chicks died it would be well worth sending them for analysis......this could answer the question very quickly and if it comes back with nothing then a whole heap of things could be immediately eliminated.