Quail indoors?

[Pippy]

Does anyone keep quail indoors, like in a big birdcage ? Why or why not ? Smell? Noise?

Entertaining the idea of keeping 3-4 in the house, but not sure if that's realistic?

 

[Duckyquail]

Product Description (Nature's Odor Eliminator by Randall Burkey)
Do you have an odor problem? Ammonia or other odors in your brooding or breeding house? If you can smell it for the short time you are there, then think of your poor birds that have this odor 24 hours a day. Odors can curtail eating, resulting in poor growth and development, or restrict egg production. Mix 4 ounces of Nature's Odor Eliminator into one gallon of water and spray litter and droppings heavily.
Features:

• Ammonia odor disappears in minutes, as if by magic! Best results are obtained by first cleaning out old litter. Before putting down fresh litter, spray mixture heavily on the floor and walls of brooders and pens.
• Nature's Odor Eliminator wafts up through the fresh litter to counteract the formation of ammonia odor.
• Used in the drinking water, Nature's Odor Eliminator is the most economical and effective way to prevent the formation of ammonia odor. After pens and brooders have been cleaned and sprayed, mix 1/2 teaspoon for each gallon of drinking water for the first week, then reduce to 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of drinking water.

Does anyone here uses the above product? I want to order some but not sure if it is a good product. I have one group of 6 standard size brown coturnix, 1 male and 5 females, in a 2.5' by 4' cage. The smell is not too bad if I replace the pine shaving every other day. I want to extend the cleaning period to twice a week or even one a week if possible with this product. Thank you in advance for your reply.

 

[Pippy]

Never mind! I found a bunch of old threads on the subject. I do have a question about the smell - how smelly do they get? I have a pretty sensitive nose, so I won't do it if they get smelly quickly. I don't mind changing the bedding about once a week, but don't want to do it any more frequently.

 

[Lyrika]

I kept my quail indoors when I first got them, and I wouldn't want to do it again. I had to clean every few days or they just become too stinky.

 

[owlett5]

I only have one right now until my eggs hatch, but currently the smell is pretty minimal. She's quiet, hardly makes any noise at all.

I use shavings under the cage floor and use a water bottle for water. Pretty much as long as the bedding stays pretty dry I only have to clean her out once every week and a half. I'd guess with two birds it'd be like once a week, three birds every four days, and four birds probably every three days.

There is something called Sweet PDZ which people say helps a ton with odor, I've yet to try that out though.

 

[sammit]

i had two inside and i had to clean them everyday, i couldnt stand it! they were on newspaper and straw. wont do that again!

 

[teradragon]

I have 8 chicks (hatched 17th Dec) in a box 90cm x 55cm which is made of wood and is open at the top. They are jumbo chicks so are about the size of the smaller breeds of quail now. I am using newspaper, then sawdust, then hay. I am currently cleaning them out twice a week. The smell of the sawdust and hay is nice and lasts a couple of days. After day 2 I light a scented candle to mask any smell, but I haven't noticed much smell.

The only issue I have is dust coming off the feathers. You get that with most birds though.

I'm planning on processing half of them when they are fully grown, so I could let you know what it's like in a few more weeks!

 

[Pippy]

Thanks everyone! Judging from the replies, they do get smelly, so I'll build a pen for them outside. I have a very keen sense of smell, so it sounds like it won't work. The room I'd keep them in (sunroom) gets warm in the summer too, due to all the windows.

I currently have 8 two week old chicks in a large cardboard box on newspaper and aspen wood shavings, and am changing it out at least twice a week. I'm hoping for at least 3-5 hens and plan on giving the boys away. If anyone lives in virginia you're welcome to them!

 

[teradragon]

have you tried apple cider vinegar in the water? It really does make a difference to the smell of the poo.

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

I only have one right now until my eggs hatch, but currently the smell is pretty minimal. She's quiet, hardly makes any noise at all.

I use shavings under the cage floor and use a water bottle for water. Pretty much as long as the bedding stays pretty dry I only have to clean her out once every week and a half. I'd guess with two birds it'd be like once a week, three birds every four days, and four birds probably every three days.

There is something called Sweet PDZ which people say helps a ton with odor, I've yet to try that out though.

I work at a feed store, and I use sweet pdz powder in the brooders (there are ten brooders in one room, each capable of 100 chicks) I prefer not to use pdz in the bantam cages just because of how they are set up, but the biggest smells are the rabbit and cat! the chicks put out very little odor with pdz