Neonatal chicks for the practices like sexing, vaccination, packaging and transport from after hatching until located in the farm deprived of feed and water for about 48–72h. Delaying access to feed and water mobilizes body reserves to support metabolism and thermal regulation which resulted in retardation of gastro intestinal development and body weight and impairment of overall performance. This study conducted to evaluation the effect of post-hatch delayed feed intake on gastro-intestinal tract development in Japanese quail. One hundred and twenty newly hatched Japanese quail chicks were placed in three treatments with four replications of 10b each. The experiment was arranged with three treatments in a complete random design, birds delay access to feeding for 3, 24 and 48h immediately after hatch. The chicks subjected to fasting for 48h showed significantly (P<0.05) lower live body weight, GIT organs relative weight and blemish small intestinal epithelium than those fed with up to 3 and or 24 h delayed after hatching. The results of this study revealed that up to 48h delayed access to feed after hatch has adverse effects on Japanese quail chick gastrointestinal tract development

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