Button Advice

[Lemming]

Hello, me again.

I went to get a pair of button quail today (after my chick disappointment) and they just had a little male but said they can get females in hopefully by tomorrow.

So here he is, seriously cute (I’m a bit smitten!). I was worried about him being stressed alone but he seems very chilled. I have lady Coturnix in the same room, don’t know if that helps?

My question is, the guy in the shop seemed to think he needed more than one lady friend? Everything I’ve read says pairs?! I don’t mind getting a couple, it wasn’t what I’d planned but I just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing!

Thanks in advance!

 

[chickencheeper]

Hello, me again.

I went to get a pair of button quail today (after my chick disappointment) and they just had a little male but said they can get females in hopefully by tomorrow.

So here he is, seriously cute (I’m a bit smitten!). I was worried about him being stressed alone but he seems very chilled. I have lady Coturnix in the same room, don’t know if that helps?

My question is, the guy in the shop seemed to think he needed more than one lady friend? Everything I’ve read says pairs?! I don’t mind getting a couple, it wasn’t what I’d planned but I just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing!

Thanks in advance!

I’ve never raised buttons or even had them but I’ve wanted some and everywhere I’ve read it said 2 females to 1 male. As long as you give him plenty of attention and love till tomorrow he should be fune

 

[Lemming]

Oh well, the more the merrier! Just want to get it right for them!

He’s a sweet thing, he was chattering to me before

Thanks for your help!

 

[DK newbie]

When I got my first buttons, the guy at the pet shop said the male would mate the female to death if he only had one. So I got 3 girls and a boy. In general they've done okay, they live in an aviary so they've got room to get away from each other. Any problems certainly haven't been caused by the male. After a couple of years one or two of the females started plucking the others though, mainly the male. I don't know if that has anything to do with the number of females.
Since then, however, I've been reading about lots of people keeping them in pairs, so I've tried that as well. Whereas I won't claim it's been without issues, I don't find the issues have been caused by over breeding, but rather by incompatible birds. The problems usually don't show right away but once the birds have settled in for a few months, sometimes the male will start pecking the female or chasing her around. With another partner, the same male might be perfectly fine.
I've also tried two females to a male, in a 2x5 ft cage. That worked, for 6 months, then spring hormones set in and one female wouldn't leave the other alone. I moved them to an aviary and they have coexisted peacefully since (for nearly 2 years). I've tried two girls for a male in 2x4 ft cages twice. Once a young girl was integrated to an existing pair with a somewhat violent male. It was fine till the young girl matured, then she started bullying the old one. The other time I let a young hen stay with the mother that had brought her up (not her biological mother) and later I introduced a male. Same thing happened - once the young one matured, she turned on the mother.

Right now I have a temporary cage with an adult male, an adult hen and 2 younger hens. There is some chasing going on sometimes, but I'm not sure who's chasing who and it isn't too frequent.

In conclusion, my advice will be:
If you have an aviary, one or more hens should be fine.
If they will be living in a cage, I would go for just one hen. Sometimes more hens will work, but my experience with this hasn't been good.

 

[Lemming]

Oh god! Now I’m scared!

 

[JaeG]

They are naturally monogamous in the wild. But it all depends on their personalities (as it so often does with quail). This site has some good advice:
https://floridabuttonquail.wordpress.com/how-to-pair-up-male-and-female-button-quail/

I've got a trio at the moment and the male only ever mates with one female. They all seem quite happy though. They have hiding places and wood to climb on. The favoured female is laying a clutch of eggs so I may have to remove the other female when she decides to sit. Out in my aviary I have a pair and one of their daughters. The original hen will help out with incubating any eggs - it seems to be a team effort, and they all help to take care of the chicks.

 

[Lemming]

Omg, that is painfully cute!

Mine will be caged indoors so maybe I should start with 1 hen & keep an eye on how they’re getting on.

If you don’t mind me picking your brain, could they live with my Coturnix? I’ve read mixed reviews & im not even sure I would anyway, but I’m curious about it.

 

[JaeG]

I've had some Coturnix in my aviary (so lots of space) with the Buttons but the Buttons never bred (whereas they had been previously). I think it does stress them out to have the larger birds in their territory. They seemed much happier when I moved the Coturnix to their own cage and they started breeding again. There was also one Coturnix that I had to remove very quickly as she did not like those Buttons one little bit and she was going to attack them. The rest seemed to ignore them but the Buttons were definitely more relaxed once they were gone.

 

[lena_]

Omg, that is painfully cute!

Mine will be caged indoors so maybe I should start with 1 hen & keep an eye on how they’re getting on.

If you don’t mind me picking your brain, could they live with my Coturnix? I’ve read mixed reviews & im not even sure I would anyway, but I’m curious about it.

I have a pair of buttons that live in my aviary with the coturnixes. I have two male coturnixes (Luck of the draw three week old chicks) At first they were very aggressive towards the male button. So I sectioned off some of the aviary using a piece of wood with a small hole drilled in the side. Only the buttons could get in and it was their Safe space. It seems to work well enough for me. There is the occasional skirmish, but nothing to bad.

 

[lena_]

Also, kinda off topic but has anyone had a coturnix naturally incubate?