How to keep your quail's feet clean?

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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!!

 

[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.

 

[BloomBunny]

quail in such small cages

Keeping two 4 ounce buttons in that home is (conservatively) like keeping two 7lb Faverolles in a 20'x50'. Size matters.

 

[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

 

[Green Bean Quail]

I also keep my birds on dirt, and the only one I had problems with in terms of poop balls is Pip, who was extremely unstable and paced manically when she was being oversexed. Now she doesn’t have them anymore as she doesn’t pace the same corner as much, and they use the stones to scrape it off for the most part. She accidentally ripped off a toenail trying to climb one of the nesting setups but it healed quick. Moisture is a big indicator of whether they’ll get poop balls or not. I try to have as varied of a cage layer as possible. (Mulch, Dirt, Pebbles, Sand, Hay, Towels lining the nest area) and that seemed to do the trick.

 

[Green Bean Quail]

I

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

I keep my quail outside in a 16 square foot hutch, I currently only have 4 coturnix birds due to a couple deaths, but they do well outside as long as you are very careful on tarping/covering during rainstorms. We had a severe thunderstorm taht caused hail and I had to yank them out of their hutch and put them in my bathroom downstairs because the hail was denting the cage wire! Make sure for outside life they have a shadowy area, plenty of boxes to hide in as they will be more flighty the first few weeks due to exposure, especially if they hatched and brooded indoors (mine had been indoors for 3 months as they hatched in winter). Outside is nice because they love to catch bugs and it’s easy to get them grass and clover if you live in the woods like I do, be careful of predators though.

 

[Ravenlover]

I

I keep my quail outside in a 16 square foot hutch, I currently only have 4 coturnix birds due to a couple deaths, but they do well outside as long as you are very careful on tarping/covering during rainstorms. We had a severe thunderstorm taht caused hail and I had to yank them out of their hutch and put them in my bathroom downstairs because the hail was denting the cage wire! Make sure for outside life they have a shadowy area, plenty of boxes to hide in as they will be more flighty the first few weeks due to exposure, especially if they hatched and brooded indoors (mine had been indoors for 3 months as they hatched in winter). Outside is nice because they love to catch bugs and it’s easy to get them grass and clover if you live in the woods like I do, be careful of predators though.

Ty ty vm