Has anyone kept coturnix indoors?

[100chihuahuas]

Coturnix are so much more congenial than other breeds of quail! Even more so than budgies and other small parrot-y birds.

I will be moving to a small apartment where I could get permission for some small birds. I'm thinking about some coturnix!

Has anyone kept a few coturnix inside before? If I had, say, three or four, what would the smell be like? Anything like a chicken? (lol, they can get pretty odorous) How many eggs would I get a day? Are they loud?

Lol, do you think this is a good idea?

 

[Ironsun]

Hi,

When I first started keeping quail again, it was in the middle of a bad winter and I had no suitable out door pens to keep the 6 quails I had just been given.

There was an area in my house that could hold a 4' x 2' x 18" rabbit hutch which was idea for the quails they soon settled in.

With in a few weeks there started to appear the eggs, as the hutch was in the living room, the house lights supplied the extra light they needed to lay.I was getting 6 eggs nearly every day.

Like any other pets people keep, they do leave a mess but regular cleaning this was not a problem in our household. The birds became very tame and used to be let out of the cage daily some even sat on your knee and appeared to watch TV.

The only problem we came across was a very thin layer of white dust around the floor area near the cage but this was easy cleaned away daily.

Keeping only females, the birds were quite and make plesent sounds and layed every day even when moved out doors in late spring.

Ironsun.

 

[monarc23]

I kept about 3-4 coturnix indoors last winter I did it because I wanted to keep breeding some through the winter to get a head start on spring/summer breedings

it worked well. They did have a scent and i kept a roo so the crowing was a bit loud but we all didn't mind it

They lay as well indoors as they would outside as long as they are supplimented with light for 14 hours a day

 

[laputa]

Ironsun, Niki, What kind of house light do you use to keep them lay through winter? Does the light has to be really close to the cage so they got enough intensity?

 

[Ironsun]

Hi,

Mine were simply housed in a wooden rabbit hutch, picked up at any pet store. The hutch was place on a cupboard so was easy to clean out or collect eggs to save bending down.

The only lights we use is the normal 60 watt light bulbs in the living room.

Ironsun.

 

[monarc23]

I used a normal indoor rabbit cage on the ground and just my room light

 

[laputa]

Sounds pretty easy to have them fooled about the daylight lol!

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
yeppers the "hard part" is remembering it's got to be atleast 14 hours on a day

 

[Crazy4Chicks]

I keep my quail indoors all year around - our winters can produce some really nasty lows into the neg. numbers and we have a few snow falls and ice -- our summers are up into the triple numbers we had a few days of 103 in a row
plus there are a ton of cats - dogs - and kids in my neighborhood so I figured my quail were safer inside

mine are kept in my DH's Nascar/computer room LOL

I have an old kitchen table in there and have 2 cages side by side - both cages are 24x24 and on top of them I have a huge plastic tote that I have modified to have a big " picture window " on the front that my button quail stay in
the other cages are for my coturnix's

this setup works fine - except it makes the room abit dusty

 

[laputa]

I remember someone told me about the poop dust, and thought it is not good for health. Would it be possible to install a gentle fan and filter in this case close to the cage to suck in all the poop dust and recirculate the air back into the room (or even better outside, but that could be more costly task)?