Yesterday I bought six female quails. The seller deceived me; I asked him to sell me six birds that he advertised on his social media. The birds were supposed to be 21 days old. The price he set for the birds was a little high, but I want birds that are close to laying eggs.The birds are a little stressed when they get here.
I sent the man who works as my assistant home, and the seller gave him the six birds. I paid him immediately for the amount agreed upon by phone.
When my assistant arrived, he handed me the box with the six birds, and I proceeded to take them out one by one and place them in their temporary cage. They will remain there until they are 40 weeks old, when they are supposed to be adults and begin their productive age.
The birds were not 3 weeks old; they were barely 2 weeks old based on their size and weight. I have incubated birds before, so I can tell approximately how old they are by looking at their size, the development of their feathers, (such as size, color, and the growth of feathers in some parts of the bird.)
I called the seller and told him that these were not the 3-week-old birds he had advertised. He did not send me a reply.
From the moment I contacted the seller who advertised his 3-week-old birds, plus the time I spent talking to him, I agreed on the day they could come to pick up the birds, and the time that was passing, my birds should be about 4 weeks old by then. That is, 26 or 27 days old.
I tend to believe in people's honesty. I always give them the benefit of the doubt to find people worthy of their work. I often find people who only think of their business as a one-day sale. Like this man who has deceived me.
What he means is that when he promoted these little birds, they were only 8 or 9 days old, reaching 14 or 15 days this week.
The good thing is that they adapt quickly to their environment because they listen to the older birds that are already laying eggs. They have enough water and food in the morning and afternoon. I must wait patiently until the second half of April for them to be mature enough to move them to the larger cage with the male quails.
I sent someone to buy feed for laying quails, and at the store where they distribute this feed that they prepare themselves, they also did their thing.
The salesperson will always say that it is the right feed. In my region, they do not prepare feed suitable for quails, but rather the merchants make their own from a base feed and a mixture of corn and other grains.
On Monday, my birds started eating the food I bought, but they began throwing it away and leaving the rest. These birds normally eat all their food once they get used to it. They don't leave a single grain in their feeder. What has happened since I started giving them this new food I bought is that they shake it out of the feeder and throw it away on the waste tray. The rest is left untouched in the feeder tray.
Birds don't need to speak to tell me that there are changes in their food. By changing their daily feeding habits, I realize that something strange is going on. Even if the seller says it's the same food and prepared in the same proportions, birds don't lie. So they will continue to throw the food away for a few days until they get used to the new formula and eat it all again.
The small newly arrived birds are not eating much either. This is how they respond to food changes. Where they were, sure they were given different food, so they behave here just like laying quail birds. They throw the food away while they peck at it a little.
They will soon get used to it and then they will eat it all, this will be in about four or five days.
In the meantime, there is nothing else to do but continue to trust in people's honesty, even though cases to the contrary are on the rise.
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The photographs are taken with the Samsung Galaxy S26.
So frustrating!