Bar spacing for button & Cortunix quail

[Dill]

What is it?

My Cortunix quail I might house in a rabbit hutch I have and I wanted to know if the bar spacing is too big. Probably isnt but I just wanted to make sure.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Most people use 1/2 inch hardware cloth for the flooring and 1 inch wire for the sides. Just be sure that the top is soft or really high or they will break their necks when they pop up.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Yep... I'm using 1/2" hardware cloth for even my buttons, though 3/8" would be better for them. I can't find it here, though. 1/2" works great for coturnix.

 

[Dill]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about them 'popcorning'. Would mesh at the top work?

Hmm I think the bar spacing is 1/2. Its kind of hard to tell though because its in a circle (like chicken wire).

 

[shelleyd2008]

I would use something like window screen for the top. Either that or a bed sheet or something. Just so it's not hard, and preferably has a little give to it. If you are using that rabbit hutch, you could always put a 'dropped' ceiling in it, to give them some cushion. Honestly my pharoahs that I have never boink themselves. Now the buttons and the A&M's are constantly doing it!

 

[Mrs MIA]

I lost a coturnix to a head-smash... and the ceiling is 3' high. I just try really hard not to startle them. The buttons will smash their heads over and over and over and over and over... you get the picture... until their heads are beat to a bloody pulp. Soft screen, or canvas, is ideal. Either that, or a really high cage that they can't bonk their heads on.

 

[Bossroo]

The lower the top of the cage is , the less force the quail can exert on it when they jump up. 9" to 12" works really well. Example... say if you are in a swimming pool and you submerge your head under water and hit your head onto the side of the pool from 12" away then go and swim and hit your head at the same spot from 10feet away. Which hurts more?

 

[Tn Gamebirds]

Yep I agree the 1/2 inch wire should work fine . Our buttons never fly up and smash there heads. We have a small hollow log in the cage with a small cedar branch over it where they can get under it when something scares them. If a dog or anything scares them they hide under the log and limb untill they calm down.

Now the bobwhites and mexican speckled and Tn red, quail are a little more flighty. We just try and not scare them. But they also have shelters in one end of the pens to escape too when they feel threatend... Hope this helps a little

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
Now why would you want to go and do a thing like that?

That HURTS!! LOL!

I have 12" high cages, and my Buttons bludgeoned themselves on them. Seems to me it would be the opposite, that their momentum decreases the higher they have to fly/pop.

Probably a bell-curve ...

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Yep... I'm using 1/2" hardware cloth for even my buttons, though 3/8" would be better for them. I can't find it here, though. 1/2" works great for coturnix.

For the buttons: are you using 1/2" for the floor too or just the sides? I used 1/4" for the floor (and 1/2" for the sides/top) but the poops aren't all falling through. Was wondering if 1/2" would be too big?

Oh - for my coturnix, they are in cages with bars spaced probably 3/4"-1" wide on the sides and top and they are fine. 1/2" hwc on the floor.​