Dry incubation for button quail

[DK newbie]

It's a baby bird thing

Being slightly squashed from above, means being protected.
I have my chicks in a small aviary, as long as I move slowly, they don't seem to worry about my presence at all. They don't move away from the door when I open it to feed them. The parents come over to check me for bugs, if I sit too still. But I have their 2 older sisters in a cage, they seem more nervous - they hide at the back of the cage when I open it. And I have their 4 older brothers in a larger cage, they are more nervous than the parents but at least one of them will eat seeds from my hand. I'm not entirely sure whether the difference between the 2 females and the 4 males should be attributed to cage size or sex, but I think the cage has the most impact, as the parents in the aviary seems to be equally tame regardless of sex. So you might want to consider a larger cage, to make them less nervous about your hand.

 

[Quail man 45]

Good idea. They're in a 10 gallon aquarium for now, but on week 15, I'm planning on putting them into a 4 ft by 2 1/2 ft cage. Would you recommend a smaller or larger size?

 

[Halloweengirl13]

I have noticed that the little ones will try to snuggle under bigger ones its what they would do if their mom was raising them.I put a couple of young coturnix in with my baby buttons to help teach them how to eat and drink and the babies will get up under the male who is older and he'll spread out his wings and cover them. They even ride on his back as well and follow him around.

 

[DK newbie]

4 ft by 2½ ft sounds good for 3 buttons. It's slightly larger than the one I have the 4 males in, so I think it will work well, but bigger is almost always better, so if you have something even bigger, I'd probably go for that.
I've read that approaching them from above(as you probably do in the aquarium) makes them more nervous, so if the other cage has side doors, that might help as well.

@Halloweengirl - sounds cute ^^

 

[Quail man 45]

Awesome. I'll see if I can get one with a side door. Thanks for all of your help

 

[Halloweengirl13]

Isn't he tho?

 

[Halloweengirl13]

These are two of my set-ups

This is actually my brooder for my week old button quail

 

[DK newbie]

Your set-ups look really nice

But hard to clean? Looks like lots of things have to be removed when cleaning but I can't really tell if they are on soil or what it is?
Those of mine that live in cages, are on sand. Dead easy to clean with a cat litter type shovel. But I dare not put sand in my aviary, as I fear the budgies in there will eat it, and so they are on wood chips meaning I can't just remove droppings when cleaning, I have to remove everything, and thus I clean very rarely.. But they seem to be fine, the droppings dry out relatively fast.

 

[Quail man 45]

What should I do if one of them keeps backing up in circles and then sprinting forward? They usually back up a bit before they poop and I haven't seen him poop recently. Help.

 

[DK newbie]

Well.. What are you feeding them and do they have water at all times? Could he have hit his head on the top of the cage? Does he seem to have balancing problems when moving forward?