House Quail - Good Idea or not?

[Country Heart]

Was just reading about a pair of house quail birds and it got me thinking...

- How many folks out there actually have house quail?
- Do you keep a pair or more?
- Which breed would work best for this?
- Is it even a good idea?
- Would it be possible to tame them to the point that you could give them "flight time" within the house?

So many questions...what do you think, quail folk?

 

[stephanie1992]

Quote:
i have a quail my silkie hatched from an egg, shes a pharoah quail, held everyday from hatching, 3 years old now, very tame, loves attention, she lives im my house, but has a cage, i let her out time to time so she gets excersise, shell run around the house and she dnt run at all when i go to pick hur up to put her back. I dnt mind hur living in the house, shes quiet, tame, and dnt stink

 

[chrishel]

I've got house quail (Coturnix). Sort of.

I let them out of their cage (all 7 of them, 6 from one hatch, 1 from another hatch) and they have free run of the bird room for 1-3 hours a day. The room is about 10x10 and has all sealed, prefinished hardwood flooring. I close the door so they can't leave the room to the carpeted hallway and other parts of the house. The whole room is bird proofed for my budgies and lovebird which are in the same room.

They poop all over, they smear it around, and I have a big clean up session after they go back "home."

I check on everyone periodically to make sure there's no issues. I have found one sitting on the table in the room looking at me like, "How did I get here?"

They are tame enough (or maybe the word is "bird brained?") that they don't really care what I'm doing in the room with them. I've come up behind one of them with the broom and had to shoo her so I could sweep. Good thing I'm not a predator or she'd be dinner really quickly. I've had them come up to me or walk past me to get to somewhere in the room. I haven't worked with them very much on taming, but I would think that if I had a treat, they would all come running.

I spend about an hour a day with them. They do recognize me because if one of the kids or my husband goes in the room instead, they don't act nearly the same.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i hatched some quail, buttons and coturnix. i kept them inside in a cool multi-level aviary. They were soooooooo messy! And no matter how much time i spent trying to be nice to the buttons, they always ran from me like i was a monster. The coturnix were a little friendlier, but not by much. i finally rehomed everyone and sold the aviary after getting tired of cleaning up the huge mess every day. Maybe i'm just not a very good quail mom.

 

[chrishel]

No arguments here that they are messy!

And they can be smelly. 7 quail in one room is my limit. I change the paper every day (sometimes twice) but the by the end of the week, the garbage smells and my husband definitely doesn't forget to take the garbage out of that room!

 

[Country Heart]

Quote:
Enchanted - Thanks so much for your honesty and please don't be hard on yourself.

I'm sure there are definately some tricks involved in raising them successfully indoors. I am having trouble visualizing it - hence all the questions.

 

[animal8]

I am thinking about getting a pair of button quail and keeping them in a glass tank

I don't really have anywhere that I can let them out to fly around, though, and I don't know if I would want to risk it. It depends on how tame they get

 

[stephanie1992]

my house quail

 

[Chikndinner]

Nice hen. The Cats are saying... That darn quail gets all of the attention. One of these days....

 

[TheRealTimShady]

button quail or chinese blue breasted quail, are the best ones for indoors, they don't stink that much, best kept in pairs.

i actually keep 1 coturnix in a 10gal tank in my kitchen b/c she doesn't get along with other birds, she seems fine in there alone