Coturnix quail vs. Bobwhite - Which makes a better pet?

[MobyQuail]

I have crossed white with brown, and crossed the brown offspring to get white colored birds again. meaning, the birds came from the same parents. feather color does not make a difference, its what they bred for under the feathers that counts more...

 

[tinzman8]

I have had coturnix in the past and now I only raise/hatch bobwhites and californias. I tend to like a little more wild type of bird thats somewhat native to the area im living. Coturnix are great if you are looking for lots of eggs and a bird that isn't as spooky as the "wild" breeds. Good luck!

 

[spikennipper]

I have 7 quail at present, 1 male and 6 females, 2 Italian/golden semi tame, 3 Tuxedo tame, 1 range fairly tame and a wild type completely wild to the point she freaks out whenever I go near the run! they were all hatched out from the same batch of birds and raised by me, my last batch of mixed quail also had a crazy wild type, the only bird that reacted this way to my presence, I have had wild types in the past that haven't been so skittish though they were never tame but my last two batches have only been the wild types that have behaved in this way so I dunno!

 

[DNAatWork]

I never thought of that. I don't think color would be a huge difference between breeds. Perhaps it's just genetics? As a poultry breeder - if I were you, I would start on coturnix quail, and move up to the wild types of quail. Coturnix are the basic line of quail, for beginners, and learners. They are not necessarily "nice", but they are tame. Most of my quail are tame enough to handle, but they will fly (jump in the air 10 feet) to escape if your not watching.

 

[jbobs]

I think coturnix make great pets - but it depends on what you want from a pet. Certianly they won't cuddle with you and they don't like being restrained, but I have had several coturnix as pets over the years and think they are great. Here is some stuff I have been doing with my pet (aka science project LOL) coturnix Brita:



Brita is kept in the house in a large tupperware with a sandbath and gets time outside the cage every day for training and wandering which she finds really fun. She will sit on my hand easily without being scared at all but will struggle a bit if I restrain her. She seems to tolerate and maybe even enjoy being petted gently and eats from my hand when i give her mealworms. I think coturnix make great pets - not as hands-on as a cat or dog of course but more handlable than a canary, finch, and most budgies.

I do not reccomend bobwhites as pets. I hand raised one once and it imprinted on me and followed me everywhere - he LOVED to cuddle and sit on my shoulder and lap and was quite the entertainer - but when he matured he was very upset that i actually had to work and couldn't be with him 24/7 and he became extremely agressive when i had to leave him alone. Because he was imprinted on humans he didn't know how to be a quail and was scared of other bobwhites. It was a bad situation and I ended up putting him down.

I have a page on my blog about housing for coturnix that touches briefly on pet-housing, but I am working on another poage right now that is all about keeping coturnix as indoor pets.

 

[jbobs]

PS - if you are planning on keeping just one or two birds as indoor pets get females - the males crow and crow all day and all night sometimes and get really frustrated if they don't have enough females to keep them busy. (I had a blind silver rooster for 5 years in the house, he never shut up for longer than 5 minutes his whole life!)

 

[DNAatWork]

This is so dang cool! I Have to teach one of mine to do that ! but where is the time :/

 

[jbobs]

I actually only spend five minutes twice a day with her - but I spend more time reading behaviour books and doing research than anything else

 

[mysilkiebrood]

well i didn't give my self time to think!! i have all kinds of chickens but have always been interested in quail,so one day on a web site i saw someone selling a group of quail, 4 in total for 10.00! i have seen bobwhites go for quite alot more money at auctions . so i made the decion to give it a try! i went to pick up my quail, and was told the white one was a male, and i had 3 brown coturnix quail. after having done some research i found that this was a perfect grouping for these quail. they were 7 weeks old and already laying eggs!!! i made a coop for them out of smallest hardware cloth metal for the bottom and the sides and roof out of solid wood , and a door on one side. they are easy to feed, but require a higher protien content than chickens. i feed them food for turkeys and such that has the higher protien. they enjoy grass, and they absolutely love a small container with sand !!! they are friendly but extemely skittsh, they are getting more use to me now! they start to lay eggs at 7 weeks and in good conditions you can get 2-3 eggs a day! i have a dozen eggs in the bator right now ,and a dozen under one of my smaller chickens. in my opinion a silkie would do just fine hatching the eggs. they have a very quiet coo noise that is very soothing, with the male having a bit of a different sound. also each hen lays a distinct colour pattern on her eggs! if you are wanting eggs they rerquire 14 hours of light, so i hooked up a single 40 watt bulb that i turn on at night, seems to be making them happy! if you have anymore questions i would be happy to try to answer them for you!!

 

[jbobs]

Mysilkiebrood, quail only need a higher protien diet when they are young - once mine get to be 6 weeks old I switch them to 17% chicken layer crumble. Purina Game Bird Layena is 20% but turkey growers can be upwards to 25%. A turkey grower diet might be too high in protien and not have the balanced nutrition for maintaining birds in production, I wouldn't want to feed anything higher than 20% myself.

1/2 inch hardware cloth is the reccomended size for wire flooring too -smallest is not nessesarily better. I tried 1/4 inch once and it is too small for the droppings to fall through and just makes a mess. You might find this works better for you now that your quail are mature