Coturnix indoors

[Pineapple]

For complicated reasons I may need to move my quail indoors. I'm worried about smell, light levels, and their happiness. What should I know?

For anyone who's keeping them indoors currently what would you have liked to know before you moved them inside?

I currently have 4 birds so I'm hoping a giant rabbit cage is adequate.

 

[eHuman]

I think that the most prominent issue will be the dust that they create. the smell is very manageable with deep litter, lighting isn't an issue just a table lamp on a 12-14 hour timer. I have 42 that will be going outside this weekend.

 

[Oreo quail]

It sounds like deep litter is the best for odor control. I havent tried it yet but want to when my outdoor pen is complete. I kept some cages and brooder pens in the garage. I tried sand alone and the odor just builds. I had paper under the wire floor of the cage. It was smelly quickly and if a bird could have diarrhea, mine did. I used surgical waterproof paper so it wasn't soaking into the paper. It just made changing/cleaning easier. FINALLY, I think I like my option. I am adding cedar shavings daily to my grow out pen, which was covered in sand. The odor is minimal although my garage has a vent fan running constantly.

 

[eHuman]

Of all the wood shavings you could use cedar can kill your birds. Search the quail forum for specifics. Pine is one of your better options.

 

[Oreo quail]

Thanks! I had no idea. Fortunately the birds still look ok. Time to clean out the brooder.....

 

[nikirushka]

I have 8 indoors. They are in my spare room and I've sectioned off most of it for them - it's an L-shaped room and small, so they have an 8x4ft pen in there. Open-topped, but with the space and once they got used to it, they don't spook-fly any more.

Litter is 1-2" deep woodshavings, best thing I've found so far, and the smell is ok, although they have a window open almost constantly as it does build up otherwise (mesh over the window just in case!). The dust is definitely the biggest problem, it coats *everything* so be prepared to do a lot of wiping or surfaces! I recommend having minimal other stuff wherever you put them, or dust sheets over what has to be there as it will get in every nook and cranny.

I also recommend wearing a face mask when you clean them out as it sends all the dust in the litter flying, it is not a pleasant experience!

Mine will be going out next year - I had hoped this year but for a few reasons, I didn't get the aviary built.

 

[purslanegarden]

I use one of those cages that have a tray underneath. It was actually designed for dogs so it is about 2x3 feet, but I've had quail in smaller cages like smaller ones that are used for parakeets. However, in retrospect for that, I now realized they really got along well together and there was not much fighting or pecking going on in close quarters. That helped with another issue that I'll bring up.

I line the tray with newspapers, which get removed every 2-3 days. That helps with the odor problem.

The next issue is that if they don't get along and chase each other a lot, there will be lots of feathers and fluff around the cage or floor. To over come that, I used a tarp on the floor and taped up along the wall to help contain the fluff. The birds were put in one corner of the house so that I just have one general direction of access as well as for the feathers to fly out around, which still mostly land on the tarp.

Once they go outside again, the cleanup is generally pretty fast and not too much time needed to do it.