First time quail owner with harsh Canadian winter!the

[Casastash]

Hi all,

I’m new to BYC and keeping coturnix quail over winter.

we have 7 quail

1 Tibetan
1 tuxedo
I think 3 Italians
2 pharaoh

I have yet to tell if any are roosters by vent sexing but none that can be feather sexed have red chests!

We weren’t planning on getting these quail as quick as we did so our set up isn’t perfect.

Right now we have them in a 3ft W by 8Ft L by 8 Ft high run inside of our barn. This is MUCH bigger then the rabbit cage the old owner housed them in but I am still worried it isn’t big enough, any advice is appreciated!

I am also feeding them chicken layer crumbles with alfalfa foliage available and have a shavings bath set up,I understand turkey or game bird feed is better but I worry about buying a large bag and it going bad. Is there anyway to supplement chicken feed?

They are housed 30 ft from the chickens beside our horse stalls in an insulated barn, the temp is around 5c with a ventilation system. Is this warm enough?


Any advice is great, cheers!!!!

 

[Casastash]

 

[JaeG]

As long as they are out of the wind they will do just fine in cold temperatures. Female Italians and Pharaohs will have spotty chests, the males will have solid, rusty coloured chests. I've had no luck with vent sexing until they were mature so you may have to wait a little longer for that to work.