My buttons are incubation eggs!

[Red Squirrel]

Hi,

I recently got a pair of Button Quail from a breeder. Put them in my indoor aviary and after laying eggs everywhere, the female has made a nest and is sitting on them. Since I am new to keeping quails I have some questions. The female seems to get off the eggs every few hours-eats, drinks and mates with the male then goes back to her eggs. Is this what they usually do when incubating their eggs? The male will also go and sit on the eggs when she is off them and sometimes they sit on them together. I have looked up sites on button quail and no one talks of this behavior. I am just worried that she will not sit on them the whole 17 days as they are young birds. Hopefully they are not just practicing lol. I am feeding them game food and greens, some seed and scrambled eggs. Oh and the male is always making some weird noise when the female is on the nest-is that normal? Thanks for your help

 

[buttonquailtx]

It is perfectly normal. Mom needs to keep her energy up in order to create body heat. Males often help the females during incubation. Be cautious when they hatch. Males sometimes mistake baby quail for prey. And sometimes they help raise the chicks. Watch him closely starting on day 15. If he shows any aggression towards the chicks, quickly remove him or the chicks. Congrats

 

[Majd]

Ohh... congratzzz. ..I heard that a broody quail is so rare.. glad you had this lone one being a good mom... what she's doing is perfectly fine..... but I will ask buttonquailtx do quail pair up and raise chicks together??? I thought that a male quail is like chickens and mate with several hens... etc.... pics are needed pleaseeeee.....

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh great! Well they are still going strong and today is day 3 of them sitting on eggs. I think there are 5 eggs. The weird thing is-I had been putting their random eggs in the purple house so my other birds in the aviary would not break them, I carefully changed out the newspaper on the floor - and kept their half hearted nest that was under the the little wood awning in the picture. I thought-maybe they would like some straw that I use for my chickens. Just dumped a pile in one corner. Well they went nuts over it! and started making the nest right away. I have tried different houses and bedding-moss was one of them, and they would not go in the houses and ignored the bedding. I had one cockatiel that kept bothering them. He would barge into their house and pull apart their nests. So he is in jail in a smaller cage lol. Maybe a few things set them off to feel like nesting. I have had a light in the aviary on for 10 hrs a day to stimulate them. Fingers crossed that they make it through the whole process and the daddy gets to stay with them. He likes to feed her. Yikes-they seem to be staring each other down today-maybe she is tired of him wanting to still mate every few hrs with her lol. If he bothers her too much or she seems upset with him around I will take him out. But I would like to see if they can co-exist during this. Now lets see if I can upload some pics on here-sry they are not the greatest and all that dusty stuff is from the chi-dust stuff that they bathe in.


Sorry for bad images-they move so much and I was trying not to disturb them too much. The male was not happy about me taking them. lol

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh-was kind is the male? Tuxedo?

I know the female is a silver.

Thanks

 

[buttonquailtx]

Ohh... congratzzz. ..I heard that a broody quail is so rare.. glad you had this lone one being a good mom... what she's doing is perfectly fine..... but I will ask buttonquailtx do quail pair up and raise chicks together??? I thought that a male quail is like chickens and mate with several hens... etc.... pics are needed pleaseeeee.....

If kept in pairs, then yes they will pair bond. If given the choice of several hens, most males will be as randy as a rooster. The pair bond in buttons is not as strong as the bond in birds like cockatiels. It can easily be broken by the addition of new quail, or even cage cleaning. If I have a pair setting, I cut back on cage cleaning and only spot clean the dirty areas until the chicks hatch. Minimizing the time spent inside the birds enclosure helps insure that they won't abandon their nest.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Thanks for the good advise. Yes, i will keep the cleaning to a min.

 

[Majd]

Mmm... intresting.. so they have some bonds... the pics are soo cool and the nest is no perfect... as said I would stop cleaning too... it's not gonna hurt in that period and leave them alone only for food and drinks... best of wishes and keep us updated!!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Well mama Quail and papa are doing a wonderful job sitting on the eggs and watching over them. Should have some babies in about 10 days. Fingers crossed.

 

[buttonquailtx]

Congrats! There is nothing cuter than a mommy and daddy with their chicks! Take lots of pics for us!