Californian Quail... housing and feeding requirement questions

[maadroj]

Handle them frequently to get them used to humans so they won't be afraid of you as adults. I have 9 in an outdoor aviary and one indoors as a pet. The indoor one follows us around the house and likes to cuddle, but as adults they ALL hate being touched. They do become aggressive during mating season (males vs males and females vs females) and need large spaces or separation as others have mentioned. They're intelligent and social. Please don't confine them to small battery cages.

 

[007Sean]

These little runners are super high powered lol.... even a small game bantam chick looks enormous next to themView attachment 2921118View attachment 2921119

Be careful with those chicks....the bantam chicks can easily smother or trample the quail chicks. If you can, separate them from one another.

 

[maadroj]

Be careful with those chicks....the bantam chicks can easily smother or trample the quail chicks. If you can, separate them from one another.

@007Sean what do you feed your adult valley quail? I'm wondering if I'm giving mine too much protein.

 

[007Sean]

@007Sean what do you feed your adult valley quail? I'm wondering if I'm giving mine too much protein.

I have my feed custom milled. It's 24% protein and has the proper amount of methionine + cystine and lysine and other minerals, vitamins not found in commercial feeds.
I feed this from hatch till death.

 

[raingarden]

Those are my favorite quail. They have much more personality than coturnix but they're REALLY flighty. We found that they seemed more comfortable in a pen with a lot of head room. They wuold spend most of the day jumping around from one perch to another instead of on the ground.

 

[maadroj]

I have my feed custom milled. It's 24% protein and has the proper amount of methionine + cystine and lysine and other minerals, vitamins not found in commercial feeds.
I feed this from hatch till death.

Thanks! Would you mind sharing what's in the milled feed, or the nutritional analysis you seek (eg cystine, lysine), to try to replicate locally?