Hello everyone!
I have successfully raised a couple very tame quail for pets over the past 7 months and would like to share my methods.
Step 1: Buy eggs or use eggs from your current quail
- if you use eggs from your own quail use the eggs from your friendliest quail (or the one that's most easy to handle). If you buy, get as little eggs as possible, you'll only be using one of the eggs!
Step 2: Put 1-5 eggs in incubator and candle them everyday until you can tell which ones are fertile
- Once you can tell which ones are fertile remove all except just one fertile egg. Depose of the other eggs.
Step 3: Now you wait!
- If it dies or doesn't develop, repeat the first 2 steps.
Step 4: Make sure you have a small brooder ready! Keep the brooder in your room or a bathroom near your room. Make sure you'll be able to hear the chick when it cries.
- I recommend paper towels to cover the bottom of the brooder until the chick is around 3 weeks. I use clear, plastic, storage containers for my brooders.
Step 5: Once the chick hatches, wait till it's up and moving around easily and then take it out and handle it on a table on top of paper towels with a heat lamp over it.
- Pet it, rub it's feet if they're curled, give it sugar water if if needs a energy boost, let it fall asleep in your hand, blow hot air on it will your mouth (think of how you would fog up a window with your breath, they love this but be careful because they might try to stick their head in your mouth!). All this will create an immediate bond. Once you put it back in the incubator it will probably start crying for you to come back. I recommend you take it out a couple more times until it's dry enough to be moved to the brooder so it doesn't get lonely.
Step 6: Move it to the brooder.
- Provide food, water and, a stuffed animal
Step 7: Handle it every time it starts crying! This is VERY important!!
- This will keep the bond strong and help it trust you as it's "mother". It will be A LOT of work and possibly annoying at times but stick with it! They don't constantly cry forever! It also helps if you keep the chick our with you if you're just watching TV or working. Put in a shirt pocket or even in a sports bra! They love skin to skin contact, that's why they fall asleep in your hands so easily. Just make sure they stay warm enough when they aren't under a heat lamp.
Step 8: Once the chick is 3 days old, start taking it outside everyday for about 15+ minutes.
- Offer it small bugs to eat if it wants them. Encourage it to follow you around. I've found this outside bonding time can be one of the most important things.
Step 9: Do step 7 and especially step 8 religiously until it's fully feathered.
-You'll quickly start to see it becoming more independent as it won't be crying for attention all the time anymore and it will be content to be on it's own for longer periods of time now. But always handle and spend time with it at least once a day and try to give it some outdoor time when possible. Offering it mealworms by hand is a great way to keep the bond strong, plus it's good for them!
Step 10: You now should have a very sweet and tame adult quail!
- It's now time to get it a friend. Wait till your current quail is at least 2-3+ months old before introducing it's friend (for continued bonding purposes) and don't put the new quail in with it until it's fully grown to prevent bullying. Quail are very social and don't like to be alone (that's why single chicks cry so much!). Raise the new chick the same way and you'll have a great tame pair of quail!
**Only keep females together, never ever a male and female pair!**
Why I raise the chick alone, and only one at a time:
When I hatched my first batch of quail, I kept all of them together but still handled them multiple times a day (cage cleaning and just petting and holding for fun) but they became skittish and hand shy at only 3-4 days old. I was so disappointed! They become skittish in a group because they are together 24/7 to comfort each other and I am only there a couple times a day, so they learn to get comfort and security from their siblings and bond to each other and I became an unwanted intruder to their little family. So I did some research and I saw this video on YouTube of a man who had hatched a single quail egg and his quail was so tame! It followed him everywhere and even went outside with him and didn't run away. So I decided to hatch a single egg from my current quail to try it out and it worked! That's how I got my first tame quail, Cricket. I recently hatched a batch of 4 quail chicks for the purpose of taming them all and choosing the most tame to become a friend for Cricket. It was a lot harder then tending to just one screaming chick! It was impossible for me to keep them separated at all times and sadly two of them became skittish at 4-5 days old but the other two stayed tame and I was able to focus on those two and keep them separated and now I have two more lovely little pet quail and Cricket is very happy with her new friends! The two that got skittish got added to my skittish flock that lived outside and are much happier then they were inside with me!
Raising a quail to be a tame pet was a lot of work in the beginning but I believe it was definitely worth my time. I take my favorite quail Cricket with me everywhere, even on vacations! She's been to the local park, on a 5 hour road trip to a cabin in the mountains, and is now about to go to the beach!
I wish you all the best of luck!
Feel free to comment any questions.
If you try this, let me know how it went for you and if you got the results you wanted.
-Allygibbs73
I have successfully raised a couple very tame quail for pets over the past 7 months and would like to share my methods.
Step 1: Buy eggs or use eggs from your current quail
- if you use eggs from your own quail use the eggs from your friendliest quail (or the one that's most easy to handle). If you buy, get as little eggs as possible, you'll only be using one of the eggs!
Step 2: Put 1-5 eggs in incubator and candle them everyday until you can tell which ones are fertile
- Once you can tell which ones are fertile remove all except just one fertile egg. Depose of the other eggs.
Step 3: Now you wait!
- If it dies or doesn't develop, repeat the first 2 steps.
Step 4: Make sure you have a small brooder ready! Keep the brooder in your room or a bathroom near your room. Make sure you'll be able to hear the chick when it cries.
- I recommend paper towels to cover the bottom of the brooder until the chick is around 3 weeks. I use clear, plastic, storage containers for my brooders.
Step 5: Once the chick hatches, wait till it's up and moving around easily and then take it out and handle it on a table on top of paper towels with a heat lamp over it.
- Pet it, rub it's feet if they're curled, give it sugar water if if needs a energy boost, let it fall asleep in your hand, blow hot air on it will your mouth (think of how you would fog up a window with your breath, they love this but be careful because they might try to stick their head in your mouth!). All this will create an immediate bond. Once you put it back in the incubator it will probably start crying for you to come back. I recommend you take it out a couple more times until it's dry enough to be moved to the brooder so it doesn't get lonely.
Step 6: Move it to the brooder.
- Provide food, water and, a stuffed animal
Step 7: Handle it every time it starts crying! This is VERY important!!
- This will keep the bond strong and help it trust you as it's "mother". It will be A LOT of work and possibly annoying at times but stick with it! They don't constantly cry forever! It also helps if you keep the chick our with you if you're just watching TV or working. Put in a shirt pocket or even in a sports bra! They love skin to skin contact, that's why they fall asleep in your hands so easily. Just make sure they stay warm enough when they aren't under a heat lamp.
Step 8: Once the chick is 3 days old, start taking it outside everyday for about 15+ minutes.
- Offer it small bugs to eat if it wants them. Encourage it to follow you around. I've found this outside bonding time can be one of the most important things.
Step 9: Do step 7 and especially step 8 religiously until it's fully feathered.
-You'll quickly start to see it becoming more independent as it won't be crying for attention all the time anymore and it will be content to be on it's own for longer periods of time now. But always handle and spend time with it at least once a day and try to give it some outdoor time when possible. Offering it mealworms by hand is a great way to keep the bond strong, plus it's good for them!
Step 10: You now should have a very sweet and tame adult quail!
- It's now time to get it a friend. Wait till your current quail is at least 2-3+ months old before introducing it's friend (for continued bonding purposes) and don't put the new quail in with it until it's fully grown to prevent bullying. Quail are very social and don't like to be alone (that's why single chicks cry so much!). Raise the new chick the same way and you'll have a great tame pair of quail!
**Only keep females together, never ever a male and female pair!**
Why I raise the chick alone, and only one at a time:
When I hatched my first batch of quail, I kept all of them together but still handled them multiple times a day (cage cleaning and just petting and holding for fun) but they became skittish and hand shy at only 3-4 days old. I was so disappointed! They become skittish in a group because they are together 24/7 to comfort each other and I am only there a couple times a day, so they learn to get comfort and security from their siblings and bond to each other and I became an unwanted intruder to their little family. So I did some research and I saw this video on YouTube of a man who had hatched a single quail egg and his quail was so tame! It followed him everywhere and even went outside with him and didn't run away. So I decided to hatch a single egg from my current quail to try it out and it worked! That's how I got my first tame quail, Cricket. I recently hatched a batch of 4 quail chicks for the purpose of taming them all and choosing the most tame to become a friend for Cricket. It was a lot harder then tending to just one screaming chick! It was impossible for me to keep them separated at all times and sadly two of them became skittish at 4-5 days old but the other two stayed tame and I was able to focus on those two and keep them separated and now I have two more lovely little pet quail and Cricket is very happy with her new friends! The two that got skittish got added to my skittish flock that lived outside and are much happier then they were inside with me!
Raising a quail to be a tame pet was a lot of work in the beginning but I believe it was definitely worth my time. I take my favorite quail Cricket with me everywhere, even on vacations! She's been to the local park, on a 5 hour road trip to a cabin in the mountains, and is now about to go to the beach!
I wish you all the best of luck!
Feel free to comment any questions.
If you try this, let me know how it went for you and if you got the results you wanted.
-Allygibbs73
