So, as I sit in the lounge typing my previous post, lamenting the fact that I had eaten my eggs and so couldn’t show you the comparison between the egg types I was getting, my two girl quails (who’s cage I cleaned out 4 hours ago, so these are brand new) have each laid an egg.
Eggy comparison (just washed)
Speckle was nesting them, but with quails that means nothing I believe. Mine are a little unusual in that they even bother to sit vaguely near their eggs on occasion; Japanese Coturnix are known to be appalling mothers. These are typical of the eggs I’m getting at the moment. One quail is laying beautifully smooth, strong, marbled eggs that are slow to go off and look smashing when wet, and which have included two double-yolkers so far. The other is laying faintly blue-green eggs with lumpy brown bits on (which was the norm for both quails up until recently), often larger than the other quail’s eggs but so fragile they are often broken before I collect them.
So – when quails on layers pellets from PetsAtHome – all eggs were blue-green with brown lumps. I assumed two were laying as more than one a day collected… but perhaps I wasn’t collecting them as often as I thought I was?
When quails switched to unbranded pellets from PetsCorner – 1/2 eggs blue/brown lumpy, 1/2 Eggs of Beauty.
5th Feb – The Great Mealworm Dispenser tries to get them to eat egg shell. Results pending.
They ate the mealworms and left the shell. I added the shell to their food (before they commenced the National Shell Powder Throwing Championships of 2017) , much to their dismay.