My First Quail :-)

[Ayripht]

Hello. I'm new to this forum site and new to owning quail. Within the next 2 weeks I will be receiving 2 quail. I believe they are like Chinese Painted Quail. A person my Grandfather knows has many he gave away as eggs and now the ones he has are hatched and so my Grandfather got me 2 and I'm super excited. I grew up around quail as a little girl and they have a special place in my heart because of my Great Grandfather.

Anyways, I want to be sure I have everything I need and everything in order before they come to live with us. I have seen so many options online when I searched through Google that I got a bit overwhelmed I think. Just too many ideas. LoL So, can you help me with the basics for right now? I know I will need an enclosure first. What should I do? I looked at all of our extras in storage and don't believe I have anything that will work for these young quail. I have some 10 gallon aquariums and a ferret/rabbit cage. These quail will be approximately 2-3 weeks of age when I get them by the way (I dunno if this will help in the enclosure ideas or not). What do I get for bedding, feeding, etc.... What do I do about water? Do they use a water dish (meaning small bowl) or what? What do I do about decorations in the enclosure? I don't mean for just looks, I mean for the quail. Do they like plants, rocks, wood planks, etc...? What about lighting, humidity, shelter? Do they like a small house or just a nesting area? When I say nesting area I don't mean for actual nesting. I have no intentions of breeding these quail. I believe the guy will be sexing them so I can be sure not to breed on accident.

I'm not sure if I covered everything or not, but please let me know!! Any and all input will be well taken and much appreciated. I hope to make these quail healthy and happy quail.

Thanks so much!!

 

[dt1958]

First of all

. I'm fairly new to quail myself, you might want to check out the sticky right above this forum, there is some great information in it.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

HOWDY. welcome to our little addiction. yes, they are Chinese blue breasted quails, or button quails, they won't get much bigger then maybe...baseball size. a fish tank can work for a pair of buttons easily. tho i had mine in there and had issues, so i still believe that wire cages are the best. anything will work, you might have to wrap it in 1/2" hardware cloth if the wire is to large as they will fly right out. good thing with wire cages is you can clip the feeder and the water er on the outside so it doesn't make the space smaller. a normal rabbit/gerbil/hamster water feeder will work, they can figure that out easy enough.

feed. you want to get a game bird starter 24% protein or higher, you can ask any feed store if they have this. i would work on this one right away, as its sometimes hard to find depending on where you are.

Bedding. easy, i use aspen wood shavings, you can almost use anything tho. just no cedar, kitty litter. any wood shaving works, paper shavings and the like. i personally like wood, helps with the smell. as far as decorating. natural setting is always nice.



that is mine with my 2 birds. fake plants work the best, anything will suffice, kinda give them something to play around in/behind.

nest...well i put that little house in there for mine. they never use it, they sit in their red feed container most of the times. or the sandbox so...any enclosure would probably work.

you might want to think about having 2 of the same sex. might not work out, each bird is different. button quails are monogamous and work best in pairs. you could always sell the eggs, or just boil them up, mash them down to nothing and give it back to the birds as a treat(yea i know it sounds aweful but they love it)


and yes, do check out the sticky at the top of the quail forum, there is a post specifically for buttons, hope this helps

 

[Ayripht]

Thanks so much!! And the picture really helped. I'm super excited and really looking forward to start setting up their enclosure. I'll also ask about the sexing. I didn't think about boiling up the eggs. I grew up eating quail eggs all the time, but they were a different quail. Can you eat these eggs? I know it's a weird question but I was just curious. I absolutely love quail eggs and go to a specialty store to buy them every now and then, but I wasn't sure if you could only eat certain quail eggs. lol

Again, thank you!! I'm calling my Grandfather right now and asking about a pair (male and female) instead of 2 of the same sex.

Awesome response, super helpful.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

np, yea you can eat them, its just tiny. JJ always compares it to pealing an M&M lol. they are about peanut m&m size, i got some more photos that might help



same cage.

this is the first one that i had for them