How to keep your quail's feet clean?

[Dakota14breyer]

Here's some clarification on my setup and the quail-cleaninator-5000 as I'll call it from now on.

 

[Dakota14breyer]

needless to say, the spa day also included the hairdryer!!

Hahah absolutely! Nothing but the best spa treatment!

 

[Ebony Rose]

...so forgive me for asking, but why do you all keep your quail in such small cages?

I keep my quail on a fully screened (secure) back porch. I tried keeping them in cages in the carport but the neighbor's cat can climb chain link fencing, and would do so nightly to terrorize my birds. Little terror also figured out how to open the door to the cages. I moved them onto the back porch immediately after discovering the problem, absolutely no way that anything is getting onto the patio without coming through the house first! Everything that eats meat, has quail on their menu. Quail, as timid as they are, can literally die of fright (heart attack) at the sight of predators, so it's best to put as much security between them and those that would eat them.

 

[Dakota14breyer]

Sounds like a good solution to me. I'm not a quail owner, so forgive me for asking, but why do you all keep your quail in such small cages? Why not give them space like you would your chickens? I think if I had quail, I'd set up a small coop for them, maybe even using a rabbit cage, but then give them a secure run to run around in. Why confine them? Is it bad for them to have too much space or something.

It's a combination of me still living with my parents, therefore, the space I can devote to quail is limited to my room, and when I looked online, the space requirements were 1 square foot per bird, so the 20 gal tanks seemed like a good idea. They seem to have been happy in them so far, but I live by Chicago and in a town where chickens are not allowed, so keeping them outside would be waaay too cold and also illegal. I have thought about turning an old tv cabinet we have into a small aviary for one of the pairs, but that's more vertical than horizontal, so perhaps not.

 

[FloorCandy]

Thanks for such a thoughtful and thorough response! That makes a lot of sense to me now. There is a member who raises only exotic quail and he has a few that got loose and are now completely wild and free range. They visit him from time to time, but apparently there is no way to catch them at this point.

I’m lucky, when mine escape they usually call when they realize they’re alone. They don’t see me as a threat so much, so they don’t usually try to fly away, they just waddle quickly the other way haha. If they get into the woods, aka tick city, they will be on their own, they will live there until they come out or get eaten by a cat or hawk lol.
I haven’t lost any yet tho, but I clipped everyone’s wings when they went outside

 

[muddy75]

Here's some clarification on my setup and the quail-cleaninator-5000 as I'll call it from now on.

Thanks for adding pics!! We just completed a “foot spa” day yesterday with my buttons and I didn’t have a way to put them on wire.....needless to say, the spa day also included the hairdryer!!

 

[FloorCandy]

Sounds like a good solution to me. I'm not a quail owner, so forgive me for asking, but why do you all keep your quail in such small cages? Why not give them space like you would your chickens? I think if I had quail, I'd set up a small coop for them, maybe even using a rabbit cage, but then give them a secure run to run around in. Why confine them? Is it bad for them to have too much space or something.

I find with my quail, I have 15 in 24 sq ft coop/run outdoors, they feel safer when more confined. I like them to be able to run and play and hide, but found they didn’t like to cross large open spaces, I put a cinder block in the middle of the open area and now they use it as safe stopping area. Also they can and will fly, and even with a short clip can bumble out of the run, because you need a short ceiling or they can build up momentum when they get scared and flush up into the air, if they hit too hard they can break their necks.

I don’t like keeping animals on wire so much, but I understand how difficult quail can be. Mine are slowly Shawshanking their way under the side of the pen! I have patio blocks around it so they aren’t getting anywhere, but I see it could be a problem for people. They also poop soooooooo much, they killed the lawn in their pen in a week, I use chips now in the run part and they turn and mix them and it needs a bit thrown on top every few days, but again that adds cost, and many people keep poultry as livestock, and an extra $50 per year of chips is a lot for small birds.

also you can’t free range them, if your quail get out you probably won’t see them again if you don’t catch them quick. Hawks will snatch them up, cats, dogs, rodents etc plus they are great at hiding! Mine fly out, flop over the side, and run thru the fence, straight for my neighbors bushes every chance they get.

 

[TERMINATORATIS]

Buttons are infamous for poop balls. I have some that never get poop balls, and some that I have to remove every week when I clean cages. At this point, I'm sure it has something to do with the structure of their toes/nails. It doesn't seem to matter what substrate I use or how big the cages are. I use needle nose pliers, lined up so their toes are not between the pliers and squeeze from a couple different angles. The ball will either crack apart or crumble and you can remove the remainder with your fingers.

I have the same opinion. Some birds incline to get popped toe nails, and some not, what creating them discomfort. I had couple birds with the hardened feces on the ends of their tiny feet, I read that some Folks tried to soak them or similar. This balls have big amount of Calcium and they have consistency of dried mortar! As you mentioned you can use small size nose pliers. I used hemostats and applied carefully pressure from different angles. until ball get crushed and bird relieved. I also had ready styptic powder with benzocaine(local anesthetic) ready, because tiny amount of bleeding can occur. With Q-tips presoaked in peroxide (to improve adhesion of styptic powder) I applied small amount of powder to the bleeding spot. I will not recommend this procedure to to someone who is not comfortable doing it. Too much pressure on the same spot and you will have injured animal. After the sturdy ball removal, I put treated bird in separate cage with fresh water and food for couple days to help the healing process. I think that this will help other members to resolve this issue same way as we did. Thanks for nice contribution. Enjoy your birds.

 

[ValerieJ]

Sounds like a good solution to me. I'm not a quail owner, so forgive me for asking, but why do you all keep your quail in such small cages? Why not give them space like you would your chickens? I think if I had quail, I'd set up a small coop for them, maybe even using a rabbit cage, but then give them a secure run to run around in. Why confine them? Is it bad for them to have too much space or something.

 

[Ravenlover]

I've never had a poop ball footed quail.
I keep my cages clean and dry.

I keep my birds on dirt.

Outside ? Or dirt in cage ?? Im new ^^/ currently incubating so planning ahead on cage care