Button Quails

[foxchasr]

Hi everyone. I have my button quails about a year now. I have 2 females and 2 males. I noticed my female button quail has been laying on 4 eggs for about 3 weeks to a month now. I have chickens so I didn't know if they can get broody as well, well, this am I woke up to a different chirping. I looked in the cage, and there were 4 little babies! I took the remaining 3 out, please let me know what I should be doing. I didn't move them, didn't put them under light, absolutely nothing, this is a total shock. When I woke up, the mother and the 3 were scrambling all around the cage, the babies were in all ends of the cage. I took out the other 3 and now she has them all rounded up and she is sitting on them. Please give me advice on what I should be doing in terms of feeding, etc. My local pet store doesn't open until 10 am!

 

[Stellar]

Each pair is separated, right?

Pm me your email address and I can forward you a care sheet. OR info is on my website.


Otherwise: take the babies and put them in a 5-10 gallon fish tank with a nonskid lining (towel, bedding), heat lamp, feed then the gamebird starter (what the parents eat) ground to cornmeal consistency, have water in a jar lid with marbles in it.

 

[farmdude]

Quote:
Why shouldn't the mother quail brood the chicks?

 

[Stellar]

Sometimes the parents will not care for the chicks well.

 

[farmdude]

Quote:
I'm new to quails and just hatched out some buttons a couple of weeks ago, so please be patient with my niave questions. I here to learn. Are the hens normally bad mothers? Is it rare for them to go broody? What is the normal clutch size? Can the male be present with hen & chciks? Thank you.

 

[Stellar]

I was on my phone so had to answer briefly

But here ya go:

CBBQ ,Chinese Blue Breasted (Button) Quail are monogamous and live in pairs and the best housing for them is in fact, pairs. The hens do go broody and I have left the male in the cage with her, he will bring goodies to her and make a prototype nest nearby (in nature this distracts predators). The hens can hatch out the chicks but rarely do they take good care of them. Some do, but others forget about the babies. The male will bring goodies to mom and babies...in 7-8 weeks the original pairs shoos away the offspring so they can find their own mates and pair off.

 

[farmdude]

Quote:
Wow, what a wonderful reply. Thanks! Until now I thought they were like chickens. 1 cock for a bunch of hens.

 

[B. Kossum]

I don't have button quail, but this thread peaked my interest. I was reading about them and on wikipedia it said that only the male incubates the eggs and care for the young. I know you can't believe everything you read on wiki. Just wondering what ya'lls thoughts on this was.

 

[Rozzie]

Wikipedia is a lousy source for info on CPBQ....

 

[foxchasr]

I am new to button quails too and I did notice that the male did sit on the eggs during the 3-4 week process. I have the Mom in the babies and the 2 males and another female in another cage and the male is singing for the female. I hope I'm not stressing them out too much by separating them.