Button Quail Chat

[mixedUPturk]

@blackoaktammy @mixedUPturk

Do your cocks call at night?

Mine started to crow yesterday and then on the hour all night from 2 am to sunrise. Its not a horrible sound... Kind of sounds like a little dog going "awooooo!" But it is shrill.

There is no light at all in the room at night.... And there under a blwck sheet as well. I checked to see if they had gotten separated but he was calling while sitting next to the hen.

View attachment 1936344

No sir i cant say my cock ever makes That noise. He does call out at night sometimes but it is a shoo shoo shoo and not like that on the hour, its only once in awhile. They really dont make much noise at all but theyre still far from my bedroom because if its not my children i dont like to be woken. This mama neeeeeeeds her sleep.

On a diff note, Mr Serin, yesterday i approached the topic of a pet bird for my teen for Christmas. I know her and a month into the critter care will be my job the newness will wear off. This and a desire for a whole Parrot has always made me shoot her down. The DH wants a house bird too though, so maybe if he can encourage her enough then they can play w them, i can keep em clean and fed then the whole merry go round goes around... i didnt bring up your adorable society finches but DH did so i told him how wonderful yours are even if theyre mostly a look but dont touch pet. Hes still not on board. So i offered up the idea of the budgie/parakeet one for each of them. Have i finally lost my mind??

Good news. I was out to get a free (older smallish) chicken coop while u were askn this question

 

[Serin]

No sir i cant say my cock ever makes That noise. He does call out at night sometimes but it is a shoo shoo shoo and not like that on the hour, its only once in awhile. They really dont make much noise at all but theyre still far from my bedroom because if its not my children i dont like to be woken. This mama neeeeeeeds her sleep.

On a diff note, Mr Serin, yesterday i approached the topic of a pet bird for my teen for Christmas. I know her and a month into the critter care will be my job the newness will wear off. This and a desire for a whole Parrot has always made me shoot her down. The DH wants a house bird too though, so maybe if he can encourage her enough then they can play w them, i can keep em clean and fed then the whole merry go round goes around... i didnt bring up your adorable society finches but DH did so i told him how wonderful yours are even if theyre mostly a look but dont touch pet. Hes still not on board. So i offered up the idea of the budgie/parakeet one for each of them. Have i finally lost my mind??

Good news. I was out to get a free (older smallish) chicken coop while u were askn this question

Yeah I've got the quails in the bedroom. If the night calling keeps up they'll have to move. The finches are also there but don't sing until sunup.

If you get parakeets and want them handleable to any degree avoid buying from a pet store and find a breeder who raises them hands on and socializes them from hatching.

Parakeets raised that way can be very sweet pets but generally store bought birds never become tame especially if you have two.

My pigeon is the most affectionate and interactive pet bird I have kept though.

 

[mixedUPturk]

Yeah I've got the quails in the bedroom. If the night calling keeps up they'll have to move. The finches are also there but don't sing until sunup.

If you get parakeets and want them handleable to any degree avoid buying from a pet store and find a breeder who raises them hands on and socializes them from hatching.

Parakeets raised that way can be very sweet pets but generally store bought birds never become tame especially if you have two.

My pigeon is the most affectionate and interactive pet bird I have kept though.

Yes sir thank you! A pair of pigeons is another route that we considered. Again i referred to you telling the DH i know this man who has the sweetest cutest lil gal who lives inside then i went on to tell him how shes about potty trained herself and able to move freely through your home theres this guy about 45 mins away who breeds this amazing array of colors. I had posted a link to his ad on the pigeon thread awhile back did you see it? I can probly dig it up again if not. Pigeons have been a consideration for a long time but were not in a permanent location we are in a rental while we redo out house that flooded.

 

[blackoaktammy]

@blackoaktammy @mixedUPturk

Do your cocks call at night?

Mine started to crow yesterday and then on the hour all night from 2 am to sunrise. Its not a horrible sound... Kind of sounds like a little dog going "awooooo!" But it is shrill.

There is no light at all in the room at night.... And there under a blwck sheet as well. I checked to see if they had gotten separated but he was calling while sitting next to the hen.

View attachment 1936344

Mine call. All hours of the day and night, hens and males, but I have a lot of birds. When one starts, they all sound off.

 

[Serin]

Grover waited until about 6 am to crow today but made up for it by crowing a few times an hour all day. He sounds like a mix of a blue jay and a kitten now. I moved them onto the enclosed porch but that brings me to another issue. Are these guys okay down to like 60 degrees with no drafts? It gets chilly out there in winter but my canaries do great. We do have a heater we use in the coldest months but nights drop a bit.

 

[mixedUPturk]

Yes sir I believe thatll be fine. I have a young button growing out with some cots and it was a wet 50 overnight. Wet as in High humidity, after two full days of rain.

 

[Serin]

So I've had my buttons for two weeks now! My overall impressions on them as little indoor pets are very positive.

They are very low maintenance. With the water in a hamster bottle, a couple inches of wood shavings has kept the enclosure dry and totally odorless for more than a week without any issue.

They are very cute and fun to watch. The way the male tidbits to the hen when they get treats by grabbing the food and calling he to come take it is adorable. I finally got them some sand (reptile calcium sand) to bathe in and they immediately went into the little covered bath thing to roll around in it. Every so often they get playful, and run around and jump up in the air apparently for no reason but the fun of it.

They eat everything I offer! It's fun to give them different treats. They always have their gamebird crumble, and I sprinkle a little parakeet seed and hemp seed in the bedding a couple times a day to encourage them to scratch and forage. They eat mashed hard boiled egg though not a huge amount of it, nibble broccoli and they like to at least play with spinach and lettuce though I don't know how much they eat. Their favorite treat by far is mealworms, and the male loves them so much he will run up to my hand and take them from my fingers. I give them about six each, split over a couple feedings, every other day and am feeding the mealworms gamebird crumble too so they're extra nutritious.

There is just one negative.

The male is loud. Very, very loud! He now crows all day long and through the wee hours of the morning in the dark. Between three and ten crows in a row, and it is shrill and repetitive. What I at first thought was the crowing, which he did the first few days, was just a contact call with the hen, and it's quiet and three-syllables. The crow is similar to a hawk screeching... he cranes his neck way high and likes to stand up on something and lets it go like a tiny, tiny rooster - which is cute I'll admit. I am glad I had a space to put them where I can't really hear them at night though because he does not care if it's too dark to see when the urge to sing hits him.

 

[seespotbitejane]

Do you think it's loud enough to upset neighbors through the floor

I found a 40 gal tank at Goodwill for $15 last weekend so that actually speeds up my quail timeline quite a bit. I thought I'd have to build something. It still needs some work. All the silicone needs to be redone. Plus I need a longer table to put it on. But I think the quails can be my Christmas present to myself.

 

[Serin]

No I cannot hear him when I am in the basement so you're good there.

 

[muddy75]

@Serin We’ve got baby finches!!!! I was checking the nest to see if I needed to remove eggs because they have been in there a lot more lately and to my absolute surprise they were fertile and hatched!!!! one fell out of nest and was gone already....not sure how many more are in there as we didn’t want to disturb the new babies!!!