Can a single quail live alone ~ happily?

[StephanieD]

A friend found a quail outside her home, she could not find an owner. It is very friendly. She put it in a cage and is thinking about keeping it. Any suggestions for her?

Can a quail live alone? in a large pet carrier? what do you feed it?

 

[chrishel]

We have a single male quail that I hatched. He lives by himself. He has his whole life after he killed one of his female brood mates (long story). The females died off one by one and he's the only one left. I talk to him a lot and let him out of his cage (he gets free run of the room while I do chores) then I shoo him back in his cage. I treat him like I do my cage birds (parakeets, lovebird). Once in a while, I'll hold him and rub the back of his neck and talk to him eye to eye. He tolerates it, but I know I don't do it often enough that it doesn't terrorize him to some extent!

I give him gamebird layer or starter, however you can get it at the feed store only in 50 lb bags. For one quail, you could probably get away with flock (look for turkey) crumbles or chicken crumbles if you have to (usually the feed store has 10 lb bags). He likes millet as a treat and in an emergency, you could feed them birdseed. You can buy 5 lb bags of gamebird feed over the internet such as Manna Pro. I've never fed mine birdseed as a whole diet, only as treat along side their crumbles (about 1 tablespoon per bird). I give them bread (usually, our heels, whole wheat), apple halves, lettuce, spinach, and carrot peelings as treats as well. He will eat mealworms, but I limit them to 5 a day. They are pigs about them (if they like them) and they will come up to you and eat them out of your hand.

If you decide to go with the 50 lb bag, I have an air tight dog food container that I keep it in. For my 3 quail, I'd go through 2 bags a year (the girls would waste a lot of it, though). The container kept everything nice and bug free.

I know that the more experienced keepers will frown on some of my recommendations, I know it's not the "right" thing to do, but since there is only one as a pet, sometimes you have to make do with what you have. I live in the city and my feed store is over 50 miles away, so do my best with what I have available.

 

[gamebirdboy]

Is it wild? What kind of quail? How old? You can keep it alone, it would be happier with others but it will be fine alone. Feed it game bird feed and put it in a rabbit hutch like cage.

 

[chrishel]

I wanted to add that I've been using Carefresh, per recommendations on this forum, in my brooder for the past 2 days, and I love it as a litter. You could use that in the carrier. A lot of people use pine shavings, but I'm resistant because it seems really messy. The carefresh is a little dusty when you first put it in, but my chicks stamp it down and they like to lay on it. It keeps them clean and they have clean feet. It isn't dusty the rest of the time. I'm cleaning it today, so I don't know how much of a mess it will be yet.

I have my single roo in a rabbit hutch that I got from Petsmart on clearance. It has a 1/4" mesh wire bottom and I just put newspaper in the tray.

 

[cuntryuppiechick]

I have A&M's and they are too violent to be together. They killed off one female and the male was on his way out before I got him to the hospital (the rubbermaid tub in the house) just in time. I've tried reintroduction and it hasn't worked. They have made it very clear that they do not like roommates. They do like to be talked to, coo noises and light conversation, they don't talk religion or politics. They like a shallow bath for the heat and a frozen jar to stand near. Mine produce eggs daily and haven't stopped with the heat even though I've noticed a few moments of heat stress before I got them more ice packs. I feed natural food, people grade grains, tuna, eggs. I've tried large pens, 3 sq ft per bird, diet change, etc. and it didn't make it possible to leave them together.

 

[chrishel]

My quail are coturnix. The roo has a screw loose so rather than spreading his attention around to all the hens, he fixates on one and chases her to death literally. It was either lock down isolation or barbecue and one one roo doesn't make a meal!

My quail are indoor pets, so I have lots of experience with keeping them inside (in the living room) while struggling to keep the house clean.

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote:
I have a male Bob with this same exact affliction! He will pick one female for the day, and run her down till near death. All year round, even in the "off season". He has no idea how to court the opposite sex! So he lives in isolation. I don't have the guts to take his life unless he was suffering. Then of course his head would come right off! But for now, he lives alone. And boy has he gotten mean. So maybe you and I aught to get together and have ourselves a BBQ.

 

[oxymoron71]

My quail are coturnix. The roo has a screw loose so rather than spreading his attention around to all the hens, he fixates on one and chases her to death literally. It was either lock down isolation or barbecue and one one roo doesn't make a meal!

My quail are indoor pets, so I have lots of experience with keeping them inside (in the living room) while struggling to keep the house clean.

We are having a similar problem.... also kept indoors. So do you keep him separately in the same room? Or is he somewhere completely different. I was thinking of putting 2 cages next to each other with the girls in one & the naughty boy in the other as they could then be close but he couldn’t hurt them- or is this not a good idea?

 

[oxymoron71]

My quail are coturnix. The roo has a screw loose so rather than spreading his attention around to all the hens, he fixates on one and chases her to death literally. It was either lock down isolation or barbecue and one one roo doesn't make a meal!

My quail are indoor pets, so I have lots of experience with keeping them inside (in the living room) while struggling to keep the house clean.

Quote:

I have a male Bob with this same exact affliction! He will pick one female for the day, and run her down till near death. All year round, even in the "off season". He has no idea how to court the opposite sex! So he lives in isolation. I don't have the guts to take his life unless he was suffering. Then of course his head would come right off! But for now, he lives alone. And boy has he gotten mean. So maybe you and I aught to get together and have ourselves a BBQ.

do you keep him near the girls? Or is he away from them. We have just had to separate our male from the 2 females, atm he is in a small cage right next to theirs, but all he does all day is stand and stare at them, I feel quite sorry for him... but he’s not to be trusted! I don’t want him to be sad & lonely all his life

 

[TwoCrows]

do you keep him near the girls? Or is he away from them. We have just had to separate our male from the 2 females, atm he is in a small cage right next to theirs, but all he does all day is stand and stare at them, I feel quite sorry for him... but he’s not to be trusted! I don’t want him to be sad & lonely all his life

It's hard to know what goes on inside these little birds heads. I posted this 8 years ago, let me tell you what transpired over the years.

This particular bird, who I had named Simon, was quite an intelligent bird who must have retained that "wild" gene because I believe his need for freedom caused him to be so aggressive with the females. I kept him within sight of the hens because complete isolation seemed to cruel. As with your boy, I felt sorry for Simon, but I had no other solution at the time.

However about a year later, at his age of 2, I had a lone female that needed a mate. I set them up each in their own cages within the aviary, side by side and left them this way for about 2 months. At first the hen was scared of Simon and he continued with his evil eye toward this hen. But eventually she must have gotten lonely because she began court him a bit from the other side of the cage. I let this go on for another month, (I let each of these birds out alone in a smaller aviary several times a week so they weren't stuck in small cages all this time), and then decided it was time to SEE if it was possible that this crazy male could actually have a normal relationship with a hen!! LOL Long story short, it worked! He was SO gentle with her, she was the boss and Simon was in love!!

Unfortunately being that she was 2 years older than him, she passed away a couple of years later leaving Simon all alone again. He mourned for 4 weeks, hiding under the brush pile, not uttering a word, not coming out for food, I was sure he was going to die under there. LOL But he came out of it one day, meaner than ever!! OMG, if he were a chicken rooster, he would have flogged me to death! Simon was horrible, flying up into my face, attacking my pant legs in the aviary, rushing me when ever he had the chance. LOL He was a very strong willed bird and would have made a wonderful wild bird, passing on wonderful genes of power.

Well, over the years, all my quail passed on, one by one. I had decided not to continue with quail and focus on chickens. Simon ended up being the sole survivor! And wouldn't you know, he got super friendly in the end, he was sitting on my lap, following me around like a drooling puppy looking for goodies, calling for me, coming when called, just sweet! He finally passed away in the fall of 2017, he was 7 years, 5 months and 11 days old. Hatched him myself. Sad day.

Good luck with your quail!