Button Krista

In the Brooder
Sep 20, 2021
11
22
39
I had 2 of the 4 eggs hatch today.

The parents are very timid and I bought them already mature so there's not much taming I could do with them. Today 2 chicks hatched and they are imprinted on their parents. If I pick them up the mom gets worried and the chicks if I carry them away will call out. If I'm in their space the chicks actually seem very interested in my hand and one of them will follow around my fingers.

I don't care to take them away from their mom. They are raised as pets and live in a very comfortable large space.

I do wonder if the chicks will turn timid because their parents are? If it's a behaviour they observe. Anyone has experience taming button quail chicks that still live with their parents?

They are so cute <3 I wish they would be more tamed unlike their parents. It makes it extremely hectic when I try to clean their space.

One of the chicks seems to struggle a little with walking. It's not like his legs are spread apart - they stay under him but it might just be that he hasn't gained the strength yet. Will keep an eye on him.
 

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Cute as a button! Oops.

I don't know about quail, but the best way to get a hen to approve of my handling her chicks is to bribe my way into her heart with meal worms. This works extremely fast. Nothing corrupts like meal worms.

Once I have the hen eating out of my hand, sorry about all the cliches, the chicks automatically get on board.
 
Cute as a button! Oops.

I don't know about quail, but the best way to get a hen to approve of my handling her chicks is to bribe my way into her heart with meal worms. This works extremely fast. Nothing corrupts like meal worms.

Once I have the hen eating out of my hand, sorry about all the cliches, the chicks automatically get on board.
Unfortunately, the hen is nowhere near brave enough to come near me. And at their first end of the day, they also seemed to be acting scared of me. I will keep trying some suggestions about handling the chicks multiple times a day for a short period of time and I hope they see it's not bad.

Now I understand why some people choose to seperate them from the hen since it seemed to help in taming them. But, hopefully they are at least a little better than their parents :)
 
2 days old :) One is a fast little thing. Will probably be more of a handful- the other is still not as strong on his legs but he's healthy and keeps up. So cute :love

I take them out few times but they aren't happy about it. I realize now why some may choose to remove them from their mother to tame them.
I just hope they accept me a little, eventually 😅
 

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Unfortunately, the hen is nowhere near brave enough to come near me. And at their first end of the day, they also seemed to be acting scared of me. I will keep trying some suggestions about handling the chicks multiple times a day for a short period of time and I hope they see it's not bad.

Now I understand why some people choose to seperate them from the hen since it seemed to help in taming them. But, hopefully they are at least a little better than their parents :)
I am a first time button quail mother of 3. I hatched them in a vivarium which is also the brooder. it's a bit different for me because I was the first thing they ever saw and they've never had to be taken out of the first environment they saw. Because I have been changing food/water and skipping out about 4 times a day each time they get more and more used to the fact I'm in there and they finally seem to catch on to the fact that I am busy doing things like bringing the goods rather than being particularly 'interested' in them. Obviously I am very interested, but you know what I mean.
If I was going to catch and kill them I could/would have done it when they were walking over my palm. (I say that but then I realise that lots of people here do raise them for meat and that kind of relies on breaching that trust/destroying the logic in that you having not killed them YET therefore means you're not going to kill them. ever...).

I also started just leaving one side of the glass doors open for a few minutes after refilling food water and just staying with my arm fully in so they get comfortable resuming their eating and drinking with me so close, but there's still a 'barrier' between us. I before that I would just hover around the front of the glass as soon as they were reliably coming to eat and drink to begin with and then progressed to leaving my entire forearm in. I just try to be deliberate with my movements- I don't rush or move suddenly but I'm moving with purpose when rearranging things. Being TOO tentative will just make them think there is something to be nervous about. E.g. I put a little hide in there for them and moved the heat mat under it instead of closer to the food to encourage exploration away from the heat lamp and they just had to deal with waiting in the corner until I was finished. They flapped a bit to start with and then ended up just watching me until I was done.
 
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I had 2 of the 4 eggs hatch today.

The parents are very timid and I bought them already mature so there's not much taming I could do with them. Today 2 chicks hatched and they are imprinted on their parents. If I pick them up the mom gets worried and the chicks if I carry them away will call out. If I'm in their space the chicks actually seem very interested in my hand and one of them will follow around my fingers.

I don't care to take them away from their mom. They are raised as pets and live in a very comfortable large space.

I do wonder if the chicks will turn timid because their parents are? If it's a behaviour they observe. Anyone has experience taming button quail chicks that still live with their parents?

They are so cute <3 I wish they would be more tamed unlike their parents. It makes it extremely hectic when I try to clean their space.

One of the chicks seems to struggle a little with walking. It's not like his legs are spread apart - they stay under him but it might just be that he hasn't gained the strength yet. Will keep an eye on him.
So cute 😳🐦
 

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