Good "indoor" quail?

[monarc23]

You can also hear my Tuxedo coturnix male Ike crow on my link in my sig below.

My husband gets annoyed at them (i have two males indoors right now). Ike is quieter than Enceno. Enceno is my A & M male he crows insesantly but for some reason it doesnt bother me one bit, he does some that are really high pitched and if im close that can hurt my ears but most of his crows are managable. Im a light sleeper and he normally only wakes me up once early in the morning and then i go right back to sleep.

I use a mixture of Stall Dry and Aspen bedding to keep the smell down. I personally say they do stink their poo is disgusting smelling....one lil poo is equivilant in smell to a chickens poo IMO. However with the stall dry the smell is almost nonexistant. I scoop out the poo every morning and the smell isn't noticable that way. They arent on wire, if they were id' probably beable to manage the smell better but the way I do it the smell is managed well. My mom and her bloodhound of a nose can't even smell them and I have 6 indoors.

They are my favorite of quail I hate my button quails lol!!! They're okay and cute but they get on my nerves way more than the coturnix do.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I've given up using feeders with my quail. Like was said here they use
it to play or they sleep in the bowl.

I now just pile the feed in a corner.


The key to smell of any bird is giving it enough room to stay dry. Wet
poo smells.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
^ poo is wet when they poo

LOL im talking about fresh doo doo

The stall dry dries out the poo but it's the fresh poo that's

I also just pile my quails feed in an area otherwise they dont have any food within just a few minutes because of dust bathing in it or scratching at it frantically lol

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Jumbo coturnix are wonderful birds but they poop alot. If you don't clean their cages every other day, you'll be sorry. Mine are in the basement and I like it because they are easier to take care of (don't have to go out in the snow). Mine are in cages on 1/2" hardware cloth with pull out trays. Don't do it any other way.

I also bought these feeders on ebay, and I HIGHLY recommend them. Quail waste alot of feed and I got tired of throwing out more than they ate. The cages that have these feeders have no feed in the tray and I will be buying more. Just tried to paste the pic but I can't. Check out the auctions by jimsbirdhouse. I have absolutely no affiliation other than the fact that I bought his feeders and they really do work great!

 

[Bettacreek]

Would one of those types of feeders be better than the hanging feeders? Tractor and Supply has both types, but I wasn't sure if one would be better than the other.

Also, I was hoping to try something that someone on the frugal forum suggested. They use sawdust for their chickens, then sift it with a kitty litter sifter. I'm thinking that I can keep the cage cleaner this way, without spending a fortune on bedding, because I can sift it twice a day instead of having to wait a day or two (or however long) and let it build up and then change it completely.

 

[gypsy2621]

http://animalhauspetsupplies.com/prod_details.php?pcode=SSR60238&sc=5&PHPSESSID=167a73d1f73e325efbf92efba8b0ce1a

this is what I am using for my Pharoah, the largest one they have is the one I have, its something like nearly 4 ft long.

What I did was flip it over on its top and attach 1/2 x 1 to make a floor using J clips to secure it.
place it back on the bottom ,latch it down and load up the quail.
this makes it so much easier to clean, just unclip the latches and dump.

I also found if I use one of the larger ceramic dog bowls they can get in there and dust away till their hearts desire with little waste. the sides of the bowl are high enough to keep the feed inside.

 

[spookyevilone]

I keep mine in pairs in 3x2x2 stacking parrot cages I got on CraigsList for $200. There's a wire floor and drop pan. First week I had them, I was worried about them walking on the wire so I filled the drop pan totally full of chips and covered the wire with them. Realized my mistake three days later when the smell was bad and I couldn't get the trays back out without getting poo and chips all over the floor.

Now, I let them walk on the wire and only put a thin layer of woodchips on the bottom of the tray. During the week, I toss in more chips through the wire bottom and it keeps the smell away. I use chick feeders and have very little wasted feed, with mason jar waterers that I have to do something about because they get gross fast and have to be rinsed every day. I think I'm going with the hanging pop bottle waterers.

The birds don't smell unless I'm lazy and don't clean out their cages every week. Even then, it stinks less than our cockatiel cage used to.

I have shoeboxes with one side cut down in there as nest boxes. When I toss new chips in, I put a few handfulls in there and let them go to town fluffing and dusting.

-Spooky

 

[monarc23]

I must have a good nose like my mom then lol I have to clean my indoor pen once a day to keep up with the smell. only 6 birds in the house.

My mom stil has the bloodhound nose though

 

[Bettacreek]

I have a terrible nose. My dad always had a bloodhound nose. You could squirt body spray in their bathroom HOURS before he came home, and he'd walk in the door (on the other side of the house) and IMMEDIATELY smell it. My nose I think is ruined by hubby's stinky feet, lol. But, I love the idea of sifting sawdust, to help cut down on any smell, plus I don't like seeing little poop piles everywhere, lol. I REALLY hate seeing the buttons poop, then a pile of them go running to peck at it and try to eat it.