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Post by FireAngel on Aug 24, 2015 10:46:52 GMT -5
They are an hour and a half or further to drive to, so it seems like a huge waste to have at least a 3 hour drive to come home empty handed.
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Post by Desiree on Aug 24, 2015 11:08:59 GMT -5
Hmm, that definitely sucks. I really like the ASF's, even with being bitten every so often. Not hard, though, more like a warning bite. They barely smell to me, they are softer than heaven and they are incredibly easy to take care of. Also, the ferrets go nuts for them.
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Post by msav on Aug 24, 2015 18:38:02 GMT -5
They may be soft but they are definitely not cuddly..LOL
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Post by Desiree on Sept 4, 2015 17:46:25 GMT -5
I'm home!
Unfortunately we lost the entire group of female weanlings from the first litter of rats we had while I was gone. We have no idea what happened. The bodies are frozen and they look fine, maybe a little skinny. The boys of the same litter are fine. I do not believe it was poison or viral. I'm leaning towards dehydration (even though water and food were full). One of the girls survived the others by a few hours but she eventually passed on.
All the mice had their babies and they ate them all so we are doing a different route right now. Merida is being bred now, she will be alone in a ten gallon tank for the birth while I breed Colete again. Snow is going to take a break, she has lost some weight and is less active so we are monitoring her and supplementing some food so she can gain some weight back.
Quail are pretty much all grown up. We have three males and five females. The white one and the pied one turned out to be males as well. So we will keep him and the other male together until we hatch some more girlies. Male quail are noisy little shits. They are lucky they are pretty.
Asf's finally had babies. 30 pups so far from three moms, waiting for the fourth mom to pop. They are great moms and let me near the babes so that was a nice surprise. I only got one little nip but she was never a calm one anyway.
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Post by FireAngel on Sept 4, 2015 20:13:00 GMT -5
Welcome back! Wow they were busy while you were away! I lost a litter too while you were gone. I don't think they felt like they had enough room. There were already two litters in there and everyone of the adults participated in eating the newest litter. My son saw them I wasn't home when it happened. I hope your new method works for you!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2015 20:38:00 GMT -5
Talking about quail. I love them dearly The bobwhite make such soothing sounds. Still do not have my big cage fixed. I would play u- tube sounds on the computer specific for bobwhite. Had one girl return one particular sound VERY LOUD. While it tickled me, I was a little worried because she was so loud that I thought it may be a distress call or something. My five were in a rabbit cage, and one would pick on the other, so I knew the cage was just too small. I did let them go in a field near my house.
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Post by Desiree on Sept 6, 2015 19:20:14 GMT -5
So I have four female quail and four male quail. I want to stick with three 1:4 breeding colonies so (this might make me seem a little evil) my very noisy obnoxiously loud golden male is getting culled tomorrow . He has woken us up every day since he turned four weeks old at the crack of dawn. The other males crow but not nearly as much or as loud as he does. I'll try and see if my OH will help me take pictures. The remaining males will go out into the yard (in a dog run) to stay until I can purchase or hatch some more females for them.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2015 19:29:14 GMT -5
Oh dear, if I come back as a male quail, I promise I will behave How r you going to cull? They say watch out for rats. They will eat the feet of quail.
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Post by Desiree on Sept 6, 2015 20:05:00 GMT -5
HAHA! It's also sad for him that goldens and goldens cannot mate (they do not have great hatch rates) and with three female goldens, my percentages of getting non golden females is pretty slim. So besides the fact that he is loud, he is just an unfortunate color. I'm going to try the neck breaking method. This guy will be for the ferrets so I want to try and keep his head intact. Yep, these guys will still be in a cage (rat proof) just outside in the dog run because the dogs would probably topple them over. In excitement, they really could care less about the actual bird since they are caged and cannot fly. If one ever escaped though my husky would probably get to it before I could. She has jumped to catch pigeons out of the air before.
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Post by FireAngel on Sept 6, 2015 20:33:44 GMT -5
Fresh quail
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Post by Desiree on Sept 7, 2015 23:31:22 GMT -5
Culled the male quail tonight. As much as I hated how loud he was, it definitely is never easy to take something elses life. I spend so much of my time caring for animals and making sure they don't suffer its weird to purposely take that away. However, it is done and they will have fresh quail tonight for dinner. Also built the top part of my indoor quail pen. And I saw a long haired satin black and white male mouse at the store today. He is absolutely beautiful and I normally don't like mice. So I got him and another three girls. Two are satins as well. Now I have two colonies of 1:3, hopefully I will have some babies soon. Butchered quail Top portion of the pen 1:4 ratio Eventually all of these will be full of quail. HE'S SO SHINY! His hair is so long and soft. Satin female Her face Agouti satin female, she has a notch in her ear. Pretty fur Coloring on the last female Her face
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2015 0:22:35 GMT -5
The mice are amazing. I bet it is weird to take something's life, especially after caring for it xx
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2015 7:44:34 GMT -5
Sometimes my parents kept quil for our bird of prey... Not anymore, because my mom found it to hart to dispatch them... But I can suggest offering a sand bath for them. They´re really enjoying it and it´s a real boost in quality of life.
Nice satin mices btw :-) I kept pet mices a few years ago. Nice little creatures.
ATB Jenny
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Post by Desiree on Sept 8, 2015 11:26:27 GMT -5
@kimba, what type of sand and container? I have sterilite bins or I can use a cake pan? I have play sand available. Dispatching is always hard. I don't think there is anyway around that but I love the fact that I know exactly how my food is being kept, what they are being fed and how they are being culled. My breeders live a cushy life I don't really like mice. LOL. They are so skittish. Although the satin white and black female is a sweetie and lets me hold her. I don't really bother the mice except to feed and weigh. My rats on the other hand are adorable sweeties and I like them.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2015 13:10:57 GMT -5
We used chinchilla sand and a simple shallow box, one quail with slight spread out wings should fit in it.
Quails are too sweet and hit a soft spot. Mom switched to pigeons.
It's the other way around here. Dislike the rats, here. But it's just personal preference... Don't know why.
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