How long can coturnix quails go without food?

[coturnixxx8]

I am an idiot. When I was cleaning out my quail's hutch on Sunday, I forgot to put their food container back. They were without food for 2 days! Thankfully today before I fell asleep I had the urge to check on the quails, maybe my unconsciousness detected something was off.. When I checked on them, they didn't seem to get skinny or weak but they were eating non-stop after if put their food bowel in, as expected. I feel really bad.. I only have three quails. Will they be alright???

 

[pinoyathletics]

without food maybe 2 or 3 days. If they are in a hutch. If they are like mine in an enclosure and i dont give them food they find grass and other things to nibble on. Its more of a concern if they dont have access to water. As they cant go as long without that as food.

 

[Acre4Me]

I am an idiot. When I was cleaning out my quail's hutch on Sunday, I forgot to put their food container back. They were without food for 2 days! Thankfully today before I fell asleep I had the urge to check on the quails, maybe my unconsciousness detected something was off.. When I checked on them, they didn't seem to get skinny or weak but they were eating non-stop after if put their food bowel in, as expected. I feel really bad.. I only have three quails. Will they be alright???

They will be fine as they were still alive, moving around, and eating when you gave them food. However, you may see egg production decrease for a short bit. Lack of food is a stressor to them, BUT lack of water is a much more serious situation and 2-3 days without water quite possibly would lead to you finding dead birds.

My child was the caretaker of the quail (with adult oversight), and there were days that some quail were without water for maybe 12 hours at most (again - adult oversight caught the missing water)...and the longer periods without water resulted in fewer eggs for 1-2 days from the cage that was without water. Same with feed - sometimes one container was missed, and not filled...no food for up to 12 hours a couple of times, but no reduction in egg production and quail didn't seem too stressed. So, never let them run out of water if you can help it. A couple of times, the lack of water was due to the water container falling off the cage - so we had to adjust our method to better secure it to that particular style cage.

 

[JaeG]

Don't worry - I just did this to my 4 spare males. I'd tipped the old food from the feeder out into their cage as they'd filled it with bedding, then got distracted and forgot to refill and replace. I just realised today so I think they've been without their feeder for 4 days! There must've been enough in the cage still as they ignored the feeder when I hurriedly returned it to the cage. I felt terrible though.

 

[DK newbie]

I'm horrible at forgetting things like that, so I'm careful to make the important parts of keeping a routine - I check food and water in (almost) all cages twice a day. Then I have a few cages where it's a bit difficult to check - a cage inside an aviary for instance - where I basically just rely on the birds to tell me when I need to refill the feeder. They become a lot more noisy and active when they are hungry and this goes for almost all of my birds - cockatiels, budgies, chickens and cots.
I would like to have a quarantine room for new birds, and I have room for it, but I'm actually afraid I'll forget to feed them if I have to go to a room I don't usually go to, to care for them. So for now, cages with new birds are just put a bit away from old birds.