My first quails, confused.

[AltF4er]

So im new here mostly because these little guys are so different than my other animals. First of all, i want to say that i got these quails because they were selling them on the road, in the sun in a small cage and it was filled. They were plucking each others feathers and it wasnt a pretty sight(if any are wondering, i live in central america, so people dont really respect animals here). I couldnt stand it so i decided to get three. Honestly, i know nothing about these guys, i got chickens, geese, turkeys, and guineas but never have i even seen a quail lol. What i am noticing is that 2 of them are always together and look alike and obviously ones male and one female (male was crowing? when i got it) and the other one is never with them. He does look different though, im thinking he is coturnix? but the other 2 i got no clue and idk if they can stay together. I dont mind buying another coturnix just wondering. Then today one of them layed an egg! Dont know which, but if its the coturnix then i know its a female so i can go out and get a male. The other 2 are dark in color, like a dark brown. Also, i put them in my old chicken coop. Its got a nesting area, roof and its got chicken wire so they cant go anywhere, 6ft wide 12ft long is the size of the coop. Already they seem better, and they are ok to be handled, really nice animals already liking them alot. I'll post pictures of them and of the egg. All the help would be appreciated, thanks



(Btw, the pics of them might be bad, its raining outside lol. And they dont look...good.)

 

[gabrielle1976]

The first looks like a cortunix but i dont know about the others I am new to. Thank you for saveing them.

 

[Peacerose]

#1 is a Pharoah coturnix rooster. #2 and #3 are Tibetan -- a dark brown colored coturnix. These must be vent sexed or you can watch to see who crows and who lays an egg. One or both of the Tibetans must be a hen.

The Pharaoh and the Tibetans are just different colors of the same bird, commonly called Japanese Quail or coturnix.

Get them some gamebird feed if you can. Supplement with some hardboiled eggs and greens. They will soon be pretty birds.

 

[Livi]

Cuties! Gongrats and good luck with quail keeping!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Little_Bigfoot]

if you have a male pharroh and a male tibetan and a female tibetan your ratio is going to be way off and the female will likley end up dead. with coturnix you need at the very least two females per male or else the female is going to get beat up i would suggest housing the female in a seperate cage until you can even out the ratios or else your quail raising experiance may be short lived.

 

[Livi]

Maybe you need to be a saving angel for a few more of them?

 

[AltF4er]

Lol maybe i should have read this before i went out today! I got another one definitely a hen, i brought her and she just layed an egg right there lol. makes 2 males, 2 females which im guessing is still not good. I've been giving them game bird feed as well. I will see if i can get more females tomorrow, but i dont have money! :O I will figure something out though lol. Btw, these little guys are great, people say that they like to run away and you cant catch them(and these people dont know much about them, reason why im here lol) but they are just too nice. I let them out(something about leaving any animal in a cage/coop just gets to me) and they followed me around! I let them walk around for about an hour and when i went ahead to pick them up and put them back inside they didnt even move! Also, can 2 males be together if they have enough females? Thanks guys for all the information, hope they grow to be healthy.

 

[Little_Bigfoot]

they are a pretty simple bird just follow this rule three hens per rooster. and you will be fine and honestly you may be able to get away with less just pay close attention to them and if the female starts getting too beat up pull a male out. also this varies but in my experiance i found the tibetans to be more agressive where the pharrohs and italians seemed to be the most docile. again just what i found. also i will just throw it out there because you said you are new to quail, the coturnix lays year round so you want the female to have a lot of protien and calcium in her diet, the incubation cycle is 17-19 days at 100 degrees (f) i keep my humidity at 45% for the first 15 days then bump it up at or above 60% during lockdown, always remember you can house as many males together as you want but once there are hens involved there will be pecking and scalping if you dont follow the correct ratios and it can happen in a matter of minutes.

 

[Livi]

Yeah, no prob to keep many males in same cage if there is enough females for them.

Good luck with your quails!