Coturnix Quail Basics- Information and Pictures Galore

[SandraMort]

do I really need to use an incubator? will coturnix sit on their own eggs?

 

[SandraMort]

I'm living in the city now so I'm not worried about big animals, but we have a lot of cats. How do I need to cat proof the hutch?

 

[SandraMort]

Can I use the gamebird adult food and supplement with grubs? I'm thinking about the maggot farm discussions that I was reading last year. I was thinking... if I took plastic mesh and made a bag to hold cat food in the center, I could put that in the hutch and let them munch the bugs as they arrived.

 

[SandraMort]

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That was pretty much how I'd envisioned it. Scissors sound harder than my small cleaver.

I scald as you would with chickens, cut the wings off, then pluck, being careful not to tear the skin (it's very thin).

Temp? How long?

I like to leave them whole and with the skin on and package with the Foodsaver. Depending on what I'm cooking, I can skin or debone from there.

Oh, great idea. Link for a deboning tutorial maybe?​

 

[SandraMort]

How long does it take per bird? Can you assembly line it -- kill a dozen birds, scald all, pluck all, eviscerate all?

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[SandraMort]

I've got a good grasp on which table scraps I could give my chickens already. Are the nutritional needs of quail very different, other than needing extra protein? Example -- I have some beef in the fridge that isn't spoiled, but isn't as fresh as I like it. Could I cook it up and give to the quail (if I had any quail) for a calorie and protein boost

Also, how much food does each quail eat a day, generally, before factoring in snacks? Are we talking in the range of an ounce, or a quarter pound, or their weight in grain?

 

[monarc23]

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No in a cage setting more than likely NO. But if you make them as natural as a habitat as possible like say in a large flightpen you may get a hen or two that may sit but for the most part the breeding instinct is bred out of them.

 

[monarc23]

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Keep the hutch off the ground should do the trick. The outside ferals and tame cats do not even bat an eye at my birds. You need ot worry abotu loose dogs.

 

[monarc23]

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spoild cat food doesn't sound like a very healthy idea for the quail to be honest. Raising redworms is cheap, and easy, as is mealworms if you dont mind raising them to beetle stage.


Eta: they will eat teh cat food....so more than liekly the cat food will be gone before the bugs get to it....least here they do. BTW cat food HAS the protien you'd need

 

[monarc23]

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It takes me less than a minute per bird to have them killed, gutted and skinned....then in the baggie until I either put them in the fridge/freezer or skillet.


If you're good at it you can kill,skinn and gut all in one fellswoop i'm almost "that good" LOl working on it.