How do i tame a quail?

[TwoCrows]

Im thinking of raising them in my room by my window. Any ideas on the size i should use for the cage?
Its either Courtnix or im getting 4 Pheasants

Pheasants are quite large, at least compared to quail, and I do not believe keeping them inside the house would be practical.

 

[James the Bald]

Pheasants are quite large, at least compared to quail, and I do not believe keeping them inside the house would be practical.

xX,
if your room was about 30' x 50'.... maybe.

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote:

 

[wishful suburbanite]

Im thinking of raising them in my room by my window. Any ideas on the size i should use for the cage?
Its either Courtnix or im getting 4 Pheasants

Are you sure you want coturnix in your room, even?

I'm brooding chicks in my sister's old bedroom, but she doesn't even know about it. lol But it does smell and I change the bedding about every day.

It doesn't smell that bad. Not so bad that it would bother me if they were, say, on a balcony or right outside my house. I wouldn't want that in a room I use routinely, though.

You could think about buttons if you want house quail, but ask someone and they might tell you that they smell too.

 

[bugglesmommy]

Have you considered button quail? They seem closer to want you are looking for.

http://www.cyberquail.com/homepage.html

 

[SavageChick]

Nagasaki, it looks like you have a great deal of experience raising the different varieties of chickens you have. This will help you once you begin your latest endeavor into quail (or pheasant?). Yet, before you begin, keep in mind that these birds have their own unique differences and challenges when compared with chickens. If you are thinking of raising them as pets, they are similar to chickens in that the younger the chicks are, the more easily tamed you can get them. There is an imprinting period shortly after a chick hatches - if they see you as their mother hen, they will become quite easily tame for you - just as a chicken would. Yet, they are also inherently more of a nervous and jumpy bird compared to chickens, so they can be startled more easily than what you may be used to. Also, as TwoCrows mentioned, they are going to need more leg room than a standard bird cage if you are wanting to keep them indoors. Actually, I have never seen anyone keep Coturnix indoors, other than inside a pen that is kept in their garage. If you are looking for a small breed of quail that you can house in an indoor cage or pen in your bedroom, you might want to consider button quail as a great starter bird. Yet, even with button quail, you want them to have a longer cage (some folks use rabbit or ferret cages with less than a 1/2" wire opening/others use larger terrariums) in order for them to have plenty of room to roam around on the bottom. There is also the "boink factor" to consider with these birds. If you keep them in a wire cage, you'll either want some kind of netting at the top, or go with a height that is less than two feet so that they don't build up enough momentum to hurt themselves. Since you are just starting out, I would suggest doing a search using the navigation bar embedded in this forum. There, you will find a great deal of information from previous postings that have covered many of the same questions you may have. Also, there is a great "Sticky" up there under the navigation bar that links you to a "Basics of Coturnix" page that you may find helpful to you.

 

[Sycamore27]

Im thinking of raising them in my room by my window. Any ideas on the size i should use for the cage?
Its either Courtnix or im getting 4 Pheasants

I would be very watchful of temperature changes in direct sunlight through glass, you can easily overheat or chill your birds. The changes can be very rapid in front of a window so I would watch in the middle of a hot day to see how much they climb and how quickly. If they were outdoors they would generally get a slow enough change to adjust to it. If you can have them a foot or two away from the window that might be better.

I keep coturnix quail indoors. We brooded in glass tanks and keep adults in rabbit cages. Ours are about three feet from a window across a room and are fine there. You stated you wanted 10 birds so for coturnix you will need at least 10 square feet of cage, I would suggest two 24x36 rabbit cages. If you want breeding groups then 4 hens and 1 roo a cage, if not then 5 hens per cage. Mainly I suggest this size cage because it's easy to find stacking cages in that size and it would allow a little extra room for each group to not feel crowded so they won't attack each other.
We keep our quail in a room where we don't sleep so our roo crowing doesn't disturb us at first light each morning, we give them ACV in their water and I have noticed a reduction in smell since we started that. We also kept small animal pets (rats, ferrets, rabbits, etc) before we got them, so we are probably more used to some animal smell in our home then most people, your mileage may vary.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[xXNagasakiXx]

Nagasaki, it looks like you have a great deal of experience raising the different varieties of chickens you have. This will help you once you begin your latest endeavor into quail (or pheasant?). Yet, before you begin, keep in mind that these birds have their own unique differences and challenges when compared with chickens. If you are thinking of raising them as pets, they are similar to chickens in that the younger the chicks are, the more easily tamed you can get them. There is an imprinting period shortly after a chick hatches - if they see you as their mother hen, they will become quite easily tame for you - just as a chicken would. Yet, they are also inherently more of a nervous and jumpy bird compared to chickens, so they can be startled more easily than what you may be used to. Also, as TwoCrows mentioned, they are going to need more leg room than a standard bird cage if you are wanting to keep them indoors. Actually, I have never seen anyone keep Coturnix indoors, other than inside a pen that is kept in their garage. If you are looking for a small breed of quail that you can house in an indoor cage or pen in your bedroom, you might want to consider button quail as a great starter bird. Yet, even with button quail, you want them to have a longer cage (some folks use rabbit or ferret cages with less than a 1/2" wire opening/others use larger terrariums) in order for them to have plenty of room to roam around on the bottom. There is also the "boink factor" to consider with these birds. If you keep them in a wire cage, you'll either want some kind of netting at the top, or go with a height that is less than two feet so that they don't build up enough momentum to hurt themselves. Since you are just starting out, I would suggest doing a search using the navigation bar embedded in this forum. There, you will find a great deal of information from previous postings that have covered many of the same questions you may have. Also, there is a great "Sticky" up there under the navigation bar that links you to a "Basics of Coturnix" page that you may find helpful to you.

Savage, I want to thank you quite alot. I also have a large space outdoors for them thats quite large (7 foot by 9 foot by 6 foot) that i was also thinking of raising them in.
thank you!

 

[xXNagasakiXx]

I would be very watchful of temperature changes in direct sunlight through glass, you can easily overheat or chill your birds. The changes can be very rapid in front of a window so I would watch in the middle of a hot day to see how much they climb and how quickly. If they were outdoors they would generally get a slow enough change to adjust to it. If you can have them a foot or two away from the window that might be better.

I keep coturnix quail indoors. We brooded in glass tanks and keep adults in rabbit cages. Ours are about three feet from a window across a room and are fine there. You stated you wanted 10 birds so for coturnix you will need at least 10 square feet of cage, I would suggest two 24x36 rabbit cages. If you want breeding groups then 4 hens and 1 roo a cage, if not then 5 hens per cage. Mainly I suggest this size cage because it's easy to find stacking cages in that size and it would allow a little extra room for each group to not feel crowded so they won't attack each other.
We keep our quail in a room where we don't sleep so our roo crowing doesn't disturb us at first light each morning, we give them ACV in their water and I have noticed a reduction in smell since we started that. We also kept small animal pets (rats, ferrets, rabbits, etc) before we got them, so we are probably more used to some animal smell in our home then most people, your mileage may vary.

Cheers,
Jessie

I have a few rabbit cages, would they actually work?

 

[veggiecanner]

I keep 1 roo and 5 hens in 24x32 inch rabbit cages. But you need to supply things for them to do and watch them close.