My new Buttons are comming Today!!

[Sumatra503]

I'm getting my new buttons today. I'm so excited. I have been looking for quite some time now for them and it turns out there is a breeder less than 20 minutes from here. I am getting five females and one male. I found a bit of a score at 5.00 a piece for adults. I am also getting a few Button and coturnix quail eggs to incubate.

Is there anything that is special about keeping buttons or is their care the same as coturnix quail?

I have a dove and quail seed mix for my dove. Can they have this or should I feed them a game bird ration like I did for the coturnix?

I'm so excited. The breeder sent me a surprise e-mail saying she was coming today.

So excited!!

 

[Stellar]

Button quail should have the gamebird ration just like the Coturnix, a nice high protein diet. You can mix in some seeds and oyster shells if you like

 

[jack & mommy's duckies]

yes higher protein for sure. And when then get nervous they seem to pile on top of each other.....my buddy has lost a few this way, they get too hot and well pass on.

Just wait till you hear their noises...........they have a case of the hehehehehehe's for sure. So cute.

 

[Sumatra503]

Won't be long now. I'm waiting quite impatiently here. I can't wait to see them.

I figured about the game bird ration. The breeder feeds the seed ration, so I thought I'd get other opinions as well.

 

[Hamptons06]

 

[shelleyd2008]

Surprising that quaillady didn't jump on you. Buttons should be kept in pairs, so looks like you need 4 more males. I've got a bunch of extra boys if you're interested

 

[Sumatra503]

i've never heard about keeping them in pairs. Pretty much everyone I've talked to breeds in groups. That's how they live in the wild.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I don't know where you got your info from, but buttons do not breed in colonies in the wild. They pair for life if in the wild.

 

[Stellar]

Oh my goodness...I can't believe I didn't read the post right. Shelleyd is 100% correct!

Button quail are monogamous in the wild, that is they MUST be housed in pairs in captivity for the best lives possible. I recommend purchasing the most informative book there is called A Closer Look at Button Quail by Jodi McDonald. There is so much WRONG information out there, this book is the way to go

 

[Sumatra503]

I guess mine are living in a group. These were the last quail the breeder had for sale, so I'm kind of stuck with these numbers.

I'm afraid I'll have to decline on your offer for the extra males. I can't afford the shipping for them.

I don't understand. Hers live in a large aviary in a pretty large group and her fertility is pretty high and they seem to be happy living all together. Maybe they just seem happy.

Anyway, I've seen other people with large groups of buttons pictured on here before. No one told them anything, so you should maybe let them know too.

I'm not quite as excited now as before. It's kind of a bummer really. I was hoping for some babies next spring.

Would the females be fine if I separated out a pair and kept the extras together?

Thanks for the advice.

I looked up the book and it was a little bit more expensive than I would preffer, so I guess I'll just browse the forum a bit and google some info.