Negative Layne Labs experience

[Malum Argenteum]

I don't raise quail, so I'm not sure about the particulars of their husbandry. I've researched them a bit in considering whether I want to raise them (I don't think so, as harvesting sounds tedious), though. I do raise chickens for meat and eggs, and a couple times guinea fowl, and my wife has raised turkeys and ducks. I get day old live chicks shipped to me, and I'm certain they're the same as quail in that there is no conflict between day old birds (a couple weeks in, the situation is different).

The wording on Layne's website is careful to avoid saying that anything but rodents falls under their general claims of cleanliness, humane care, etc. I really doubt they raise these.

The day old poultry industry hatches out eggs, and use those chicks to fill preorders for hobby keepers and at least some commercial producers (Murray McMurray offers discounts on 100+ lots, and that's not hobby keeping). Shorts on orders are not really a thing; presumably they hatch out way more than they have orders for, and the extras have to go somewhere. Some chicken breeds are sexable at hatch, and those get ordered very female heavy so there are a lot of males left, too.

It is a high volume low profit margin industry, from what I can tell, and so I don't assume that treatment is anything but efficient. Birds get dropped on their heads accidentally, I'm sure. And that would make a fine feeder animal, actually.

I simply wanted an admission of the situation from Layne, and a chance to point this out publicly. An apology (or even an explanation of the facts of feeder treatment) and the posting of the review (this most importantly) would have left me quite satisfied. I didn't ask for a refund, and don't really want one (though if I were the seller that would have been the first thing I would have offered; it is a very cost-effective way to keep customers happy and take blame for something that wasn't 100% right). As you point out, the coverup is the problematic part of this.

I haven't gotten really any broken rats from my local herp shop (who orders them in from one of these companies), but they're tucked and block-frozen. I can see how the josling would break the IQF (individually quick frozen) loose packed ones.