button quail, help

[jarvis]

so i would normally never just buy animals i know knothing about .. but .. it is kinda a rescue situation .. got four from the pet shop i was selling my mice and rats at ..

ill add picks .. one has been pecked bloody on her face( pretty sure shes blind now .. ) the pet shop didnt know how to tell them apart (male /female ) but i figured since most of them have been picked naked on their butts .. that those were the girls .. and the ones with all their feathers were the males.. so i got the hurt one for free .. and two naked butts and one with all its feathers .. the hurt one is seperated .. and actually the most active since putting them in their cages .. shes all over feeling around tryin to get the feel of stuff.. poor baby ... i got some game bird feed for them (a small bag untill i found out what i should be feeding them for sure .. ) im going to cook up a egg .. and put in it each cage( im thinking chicken ... and babys who arent doing real great .. ) what should i do with them .. how do i tell them apart .. i may get more of them when i get more money .. just didnt want to get way over my head .. =/ i feel bad they had soo many in such a little cage with one single nest area for them all .. plus they obviously dont know anything about them .. =/ *sigh* ill post picks of them in just a minute i have to upload and resize them .. they arent real good picks because i didnt want to stress them anymore than the move has .. =/ hopefully ive done something right with them so far with thwm being in bigger cage .. and the hurt one put alone.. can i give them yogurt ? to help them out jsut at first ..? i think the pet shop was just feeding the bird seed like you would feed a parakeet .. ?? HELP

 

[jarvis]

heres pics ...

the hurt one .. actually solid white







not a good pic of the other three but all three are different colors ... the one in the middle is the only one with all his tail feathers ..

 

[WalkingNorth]

I'm not an expert but hopefully I can help a little My birds are currently eating a 23% turkey grower. Game feed is good too. You're looking for an unmedicated feed, ideally around 25% protein. Someone might correct me there. They'll like the boiled eggs, you can throw the shells in too crushed up for extra calcium, you won't need that daily until they start laying again though. They're going to need a good broad spectrum UVB light to help them perk up. A bit of finch seed is okay too, but not as a sole diet, it should be mainly the game bird feed. They'll also eat some fruit and veg if you have some. If they're really looking bad you could try a little bit of sugar water to perk them up, but personally I wouldn't unless I thought one was dying. I don't know about the yogurt, never tried it. Plenty of fresh water and food should be good. Mealworms are good too.

What type of bedding do you have them on? Pine shavings are good or shredded paper. Try to stay away from anything slippery like glass or newspaper. Some people keep them on wire, I prefer not to though, they have such little feet.

Button quail are territorial and can be very aggressive, enough to kill each other. You're going to want to figure out the females from the males. I can't see your pics but look for a little black and white bib on the males and reddish vent feathers. One male and one female per cage is the most ideal. Button quails are usually monogamous, so try to see if they are already bonded, look for snuggling and preening each other. The males may offer their females mealworms to eat if they're bonded.

Hope this helps, I wish you good karma for rescuing these guys

 

[jarvis]

all four are doing good this morning ..
one has been making some super cute noises ( i suspect it is crowing ..??? ) i fixed the pics ..
i moved the whtie one into a bigger cage (floor space its not tall at all ..) i gave them all hidey places .. i think i have three hens and one roo .. but as three out of four are missing all their feathers on thier rear .. im going by the bib thing you mentioned .. i got a quail waterer in the bigger cage .. and a shallow dish in the white ones cage .. gave them some meal worms to eat ( just a few since they are high in fat ..?) crumbled up some hardboiled egg in both .. and they have all the game bird feed they can eat .. ( its 24 percent protein i think .. it was the highest my feed store had in stock ) i also gave them all a bowl of de to eat or roll in ( the three all rolled in theirs like crazy .. lol .. ) they didnt have anything like it at the pet shop .. =/ what should i do to get their feathers to grow back .. ?

 

[jarvis]

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What type of bedding do you have them on?

I use wood pellets for bedding .. its awesome super low dust .. super absorbant greatly reduces smell and cleaning .. lol you can see them in the picks .. plus they are all hardwood .. so no respritory issues from them that pine and cedar shavings cause .. have it for my mice/rats .. use it for all my animals though its for horses and small animals i got it originally for baby chickens to see if it cut down on cage cleaning .. it works wonders =)

 

[marilyn1]

Try and pair a couple Male and female. We tried different combo's at breeders as not sure of sex on some because of coloring. When we tried 2 females with a male the one female chased the other. So I just took the male female pair. I also took 2 males housed together which are doing fine. The crowing is a male. Females won't do that. Also when putting meal worms in (only about 3) my male will pick one up and hold it til female comes to get it.
The feathers should grow back once you get them settled down and paired to get along.

 

[jarvis]

the three are getting along good so far .. i might have to get another male to pair the other off ... but i want to keep the white one seperate untill its better .. and maybe always alone .. i think shes blind .. =/ unless you guys think shell do better with a friend?

 

[marilyn1]

all four are doing good this morning ..
one has been making some super cute noises ( i suspect it is crowing ..??? ) i fixed the pics ..
i moved the whtie one into a bigger cage (floor space its not tall at all ..) i gave them all hidey places .. i think i have three hens and one roo .. but as three out of four are missing all their feathers on thier rear .. im going by the bib thing you mentioned .. i got a quail waterer in the bigger cage .. and a shallow dish in the white ones cage .. gave them some meal worms to eat ( just a few since they are high in fat ..?) crumbled up some hardboiled egg in both .. and they have all the game bird feed they can eat .. ( its 24 percent protein i think .. it was the highest my feed store had in stock ) i also gave them all a bowl of de to eat or roll in ( the three all rolled in theirs like crazy .. lol .. ) they didnt have anything like it at the pet shop .. =/ what should i do to get their feathers to grow back .. ?

Some do not have bibs. The black and white will not have a bib. It's a tuxedo. My male tux.(black and white) have rust color feathers under their tail area no bib. My silver tux male no bib no rust under tail feathers. Normal color tux. female no rust under tail.

 

[marilyn1]

I think you can keep several of same sex together without a problem. They will be really nice when they get settled. I enjoy watching both both my males and my pair. Bother sets seem very bonded.

 

[jarvis]

looks black in the pic but its a dark bown and whit ( if it was a mouse id call it aguoti lol ) ill try and get some better picks .. but i cant go by the vent feathers.. they are all missing their feather there .. =(