Button quail questions

[Johnny17]

Hi everyone. I have some questions for the button quail specialists!

I intend to buy a button quail pair and I would like to know some things. First off all, what food should I have as their main menu?
Which are the ideal dimensions for their cage?
If I have a nest in the cage,the hen it has any possibilities to hatch her eggs?
That's all for now! Thank you for your time!

 

[Nabiki]

You should feed them game bird food (crumble). They should have a minimum of 1 square foot per bird, but more is better. The more space they have, the more likely the hens are to go broody and hatch their eggs.

Give them small boxes to hide in, and they will use them for their nests.

 

[muddy75]

mainstay food is a higher protein gamebird food and buttons love millet and mealworms for treats. ideal space is at least 1sq foot per bird of floor space minus decoration, feeders, waterers and hideaways. you may also want to consider ease of cleaning when choosing a cage design. many use aquarium or small animal/bird style cages or a converted clear tote. I mention ease of cleaning because buttons can be more flighty than coturnix and can escape during cleaning.

 

[Johnny17]

Thank you guys for your answers!

I was thinking to buying a rabbit cage and inside to put a wooden house for small rodents so they can hide. For substrate I will have sawdust or something like this. In the past I had enough coturnix quails but I'm not sure if buttons can eat the same food. I will give them of course small insects, mealworms - buffallworms, greens and a bowl with sand so they can eat some and make dust bathings but can I give them the same food as coturnix?

 

[Fishychix]

Thank you guys for your answers!

I was thinking to buying a rabbit cage and inside to put a wooden house for small rodents so they can hide. For substrate I will have sawdust or something like this. In the past I had enough coturnix quails but I'm not sure if buttons can eat the same food. I will give them of course small insects, mealworms - buffallworms, greens and a bowl with sand so they can eat some and make dust bathings but can I give them the same food as coturnix?

My coturnix chicks loved being in their rabbit cage brooder but the mess was something else. I ended up wrapping up the bottom half so the bedding would be flying all over the place. Something to think about. The second batch was in a fish tank. They seemed to like it just as well and I didn't have to worry about the mess nearly so much. I had a reptile cover on mine. Its a metal screen, fyi.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Yes, they eat the same food as other quails.

 

[SulkyBantam]

If you have the space a wire dog crate is often bigger.

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

This isn't really related to housing but I've learned that it's easier to have tame button quail if you VERY slowly build there trust. Start by opening their cage to feed and water them everyday like you normally would. By the time they begin to lay eggs they SHOULD be used to the opening and closing of the cage door but they may need a more time. When they lay eggs develop a routine of collecting or at least checking on the eggs. Eventually they will become used to your hands being inside their cage. You can even try to feed them out of your hand but it took a very long time for mine to trust me enough to do that.

 

[Fishychix]

If you have the space a wire dog crate is often bigger.

Just remember how small they are.You will likely have to add something to the cage to keep them from getting stuck in the wire.

 

[ButtonBag]

I have one of my pairs in a large, well ventilated vivarium, and the other in a big rodent cage. The vivarium is my favourite by far, you can easily see what they’re up to, and there’s no way for sand or bedding to get flung out. It’s also easy to clean, as I open one of the doors on the front and just block off the half that the birds are in whilst I mess around. I have the tops on both enclosures covered by netting to make sure they don’t hurt themselves if they boink.

I give them a handful of hay every time I clean, which they use to make nests—underneath artificial trailing plants seems to be their favourite spot for that.

If you’re based in Europe, wachtel-shop.com does a really nice ornamental/button quail specific food.