How to keep quail indoors

[Quailz]

Don't use a rabbit cage! The best cage design is to connect wire storage cubes together with zip ties. It's easy to clean, and you can customize it to whatever size and height you want your cage to be. If you ever get more birds you can also expand the cage. Each cube is also the perfect size for one bird if you don't want to have to connect the cubes.

 

[James the Bald]

Don't use a rabbit cage! The best cage design is to connect wire storage cubes together with zip ties. It's easy to clean, and you can customize it to whatever size and height you want your cage to be. If you ever get more birds you can also expand the cage. Each cube is also the perfect size for one bird if you don't want to have to connect the cubes.

Um.... you do realize you are responding to a thread that has been dormant for 2 years?

As for your "best cage design", unless you are refering to a single button, if quail are being kept inside, once they mature, it won't be too long before they are moved outside. When my A&M's were 3 weeks old, we had one male that would crow darn near around the clock.
James

 

[mcw1906]

That is more space than what I have seen when I have gone to buy quail. It looks comfortable. Valley Quail needs more space ideally. With my quail, i have dirt as a foundation so that grass can grow. I rotate them between two cages. When they eat the grass in one, I move them to the other. They are very happy.

 

[akendrum]

I'm considering keeping a breeding stock inside my basement for the winter. I am used to keeping reptiles and have had great luck with bioactive substrates. I'm sure that the birds, like the reptiles, would eat many of the bugs who keep the tank clean, although, I doubt they'd be able to keep the numbers low enough to negate the bio-activity. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this. I'm concerned with the smell, but in the past, I've used bioactive substrates for monitor lizards, and literally never cleaned the cage. There was an odor, but not an unpleasant one.

 

[JaeG]

I'm considering keeping a breeding stock inside my basement for the winter. I am used to keeping reptiles and have had great luck with bioactive substrates. I'm sure that the birds, like the reptiles, would eat many of the bugs who keep the tank clean, although, I doubt they'd be able to keep the numbers low enough to negate the bio-activity. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this. I'm concerned with the smell, but in the past, I've used bioactive substrates for monitor lizards, and literally never cleaned the cage. There was an odor, but not an unpleasant one.

They are dusty birds so be prepared for that. Fermenting their food cuts down hugely on their smell. It's a bit more work but worth it. Your bioactive substrates sound very interesting. Surely if it's deep enough the quail won't decimate the bug population but I'm sure they will love hunting for them and appreciate the extra, natural protein source. If you experiment with this do let us know how it goes. I do miss having our quail inside, as do the kids, but we have a few too many now!

 

[Binki]

That sounds really cool! I'm using wood shavings on newspaper right now but considering all sand for the group in the house to help with the smell and cleaning, kind of like a litter box idea lol but they love the shavings and they have a sand box which they go crazy for.

I wonder if the quail would hunt down all the bugs? They are like mini chickens, with a touch of derp

 

[wingedshade]

Well this thread woke up at a good for me!

Somebody on Facebook is selling A&M quail chicks. I'm considering getting a few. My coop is full but I was thinking of having like 3 indoors. In the past when I was a teen I got to keep an injured (chicken)hen indoors for the winter. I remember she would try to dust bathe in the straw she was sitting on and kick it onto the floor. My mom bought chicken cages to keep hens indoors in winter. She put a layer of cat litter in the poop tray to make cleanup easier. Would I be able to do the same with quails? Mom's setup for chickens looks like this, although I don't think she got them from Murray. https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/poultry_layer_cage.html

 

[yook2000]

I don't use bedding for my quail. I got a free old dresser from craigslist and replaced the bottom by Galvanized Hardware Cloth Fence. Quail's waste is much more smelly than chicken, and you need to clean them often if raising indoor.

 

[Binki]

I would think bedding would be more beneficial for smell and cleaning as the hardware cloth would become coated with poop and the stuff that got through would be smelly until it dried which bedding helps to absorb and speed up that process.

I'd rather have a bunch of dry turds tumbled around in wood shavings than a platter of wet poop and dirty wire I have to scrape off. Quail poop is like cement, ugh, lol

I can clean my indoor quail cage pretty quickly too - just dump it in a yard waste bag/compost it, slap down some newspaper and pour on some shavings.

I take some more time by cleaning their sand, nest and food boxes

Sand goes through the strainer, nest "igloo" is filled with hay and food boxes are dumped once a week.

 

[nikirushka]

Mine are indoors. I keep them on woodshavings, I've found the softer and finer the better. Cleaned regularly, poo balls on the toes aren't a problem - if it's becoming one, you need to clean them out more. The shavings help considerably with the smell too. Mine have been being cleaned out once a fortnight but, that's with 6 birds to a 8.5x4.5' area - I now have 16 birds who will be sharing that space soon so they'll be on weekly cleanouts with deeper bedding. The newbies will be on twice weekly cleans as they're in a much smaller space while I do intros.

What the shavings don't help with is the ridiculous amount of dust the birds shed! Mine have my spare room - I've sectioned off most of it for them - and everything in that room is coated in dust. Thankfully I'll have a big aviary next year for them to live in outside!