How long till my buttons lay eggs after mating?

They will only lays eggs if they get enough daylight. They will mate and court all the time regardless of whether they are laying eggs. if you want them to start laying expose them to 14 hours of daylight every day on a  schedule and the rest dim or darkness. She should start laying a clutch within a few days if she is healthy and old enough and not molting. They also sometimes take a few weeks to adjust to a new place before laying, i don't know when you got them.

if they are already a few months old then they should have been laying a long time ago as they start laying at about 6 weeks of age. Buttons aren't fantastic producers like coturnix so you might just have to let nature do it's thing. It's a little early in the year for there to be enough natural daylight - don't put them in direct sunlight as it can get too warm, just stick a 40 watt bulb over the cage and put it on a timer to supplement the daylength :) I would give them some time too considering they were just moved to a different cage. Unless you want them to start laying right now, personally i would just leave them. They'll probably lay a few clutches per year on their own.

If they are fighting that bad I would separate them into pairs and either try to re-home the other female or find a mate for her. Buttons can be really finicky little buggers that way. I found that mine were good in a colony but I had one base pair the the rest were the offspring so they got along all right. I did have one male that fought constantly with the others and I had to keep him by himsefl and he went nuts - so I gave him a coturnix for a girlfriend and he fell in love with her.

Space seems to be a big deal with buttons - not so much in sqaure footage but they need personal space and lots of option to get out of each other's space...

If you can only have one cage total and don't have room for more cages, I would suggest keeping one pair of birds that get along and get rid of the rest. One thing about keeping quail is you tend to accumulate more and more birds and more and more cages over time :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbobs 

If you can only have one cage total and don't have room for more cages, I would suggest keeping one pair of birds that get along and get rid of the rest. One thing about keeping quail is you tend to accumulate more and more birds and more and more cages over time :D

AMEN! It is real easy to get more than you planned...they're like potato chips you can't just have one!