button quail questions

[gypsy2621]

I just realized I am totally clueless about button quail.

I asked a few friends about them and they all call them fish tank birds.
" can be raised in a fish tank"?
doesnt seem approprate to me.

I dont know what they are supposed to have for feed.
incubation time, do they set their own egs.
( I was also told to keep babys seperate after hatch as they are dumb enough to think hatch mates toes are meal worms)?
can someone with experience offer some insight into these cute little birds?
thanks.

 

[Sherry]

Funny, I too am getting ready to incubate button quail eggs. Found a couple of good websites you might want to check out.

thatquailplace.com

and

chinesepaintedquail.co.uk

has info on incubating, feeding and housing.

Good Luck!

 

[gypsy2621]

Thank You Sherry,
I was looking and came up with some pretty off the wall stuff. nothing pertaining to button quail I could use.
I will check out the sites. Thanks again

 

[Lophura]

Quote:
Search the topics on this forum, been talked about a ton. Also, Dr. Leland Hayes has a great book on the Chinese Painted Quail - http://www.lelandhayes.com/

As for your questions: Aquariums are for small mammals, fish and herps - agree with you as I also feel that they are no appropriate for birds. I have kept mine with a variety of other species such as finches, doves, hookbills, etc and they are fed the same diet as those species. Mine were kept in outdoor aviaries (some pics around this forum), the hens would raise their own chicks as there was plenty of natural cover. Each year when I would bring the birds in for winter, I would always have many more than was placed out!! I have seen toe picking take place in some gallforme species, but never with these.

Good luck with your research!!

Dan

 

[monarc23]

Button Quail can be raised in fishtanks, however I wouldnt. I do use a 10 gallon fish tank as a brooder for chicks however.

ANd ofcourse you can brood buton quail chicks together..what you DONT want to do however is feed them meal worms, because meal worms look a lot like thier toes and for this THATS when you'd have toe eating problem..however chicks have been known to eat their OWN toes thinking they're meal worms.


Button quails do not incubate their own eggs NORMALLY....you will want to have an incubator handy because you probably wont get them to lay them HOWEVER I know of a few personally who have had sucess with hens laying and hatching chicks themselves!

Most however jsut incubate them.

16 days incubation- 99.5-102 F Humidity 40% then 60% 4 days before hatching- stop turning on day 14.

They do well on a game bird feed, ground up for chicks to a powder consistancy so they can eat it (they are as tiny as bumblebees at hatching).

They take 6 weeks to mature.

Hope that helps some!