New Quail Questions

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Looks like I might be getting a pair of Coturnix.

I have no idea how to take care of them...

Pen?

Food?

Anything else I should know... I've been looking around here, but didn't really see anything on such newbie questions.


Thanks in advance!

 

[Stellar]

Are you planning to house them outside or indoors...you mentioned a couple but sometimes with us addicts can be more than just 2

You can house them in rabbit hutches, bird cages, pens with rabbit hutches...I don't know about the predators in your area

Feed: Unmedicated Gamebird crumbles...you can get it at a feedstore (petstores don't have it) Manna Pro is an excellent brand ....Showbird Gamebird is a great feed

I would post in a lot of detail but my time is limited at the moment. I am sure someone will add in

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Thank you for responding.

I have a 30' x 30' chicken yard, and a 30' x 30' "rabbit yard" where I keep all the rabbits in their cages. I was just going to put them in there and use extra rabbit cages. I just didn't know if they were small enough to have to worry about getting through the wire.

I'm pretty sure my feed store will have that kind of food as well... I just wasn't sure what they needed... like nesting boxes? How much room do they need? What they need to breed? etc....

 

[Stellar]

Coturnix like an area to chill but they will lay their eggs wherever they want. There has been cases for them to be broody so provide them with a bedding and some brush to hide in. A rabbit cage seems sufficient for housing. You can add kitty litter trays and add some sand or pine bedding for them to dust bathe in

THey are great birds. They aren't small like the Chinese Blue Breasted Quail (button quail) and be quite chubby, the females especially.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:

 

[mhwc56]

from my experience , i would say watch out for predators! i had quail in a hutch with 1/2" chicken wire on the front and something pulled my fav. bird's head right thru the wire and bit it off. i live in a small city and had no idea i needed to worry about something like that.... i tore off all the "chicken "wire and put on 1/4" hardware cloth. No more troubles...
Coturnix are great little guys a bit bigger than softballs for the standard sized birds. they need about 1 sq.ft. of space each (tho i give mine about double that.....)

 

[lagpmgdsls]

check out the sticky at the top of the page....tons of information for you about Quail.

 

[Stellar]

Yeah...but that sticky needs updating..and I am still working on it

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

As I mentioned, I was thinking of just using the rabbit cages and nesting boxes, but I was worried if the female goes broody and has babies they would be able to fit out the wire but not the adult birds, then what?



I think I will house them like this for a while and see how it goes... If I decide I like them and want to keep them and get more (which is a big probably

) I will build them a larger cage with 2 x 4's and 1/2" welded wire. So my other question was do they like to fly? Like up for roosting? I was thinking I would make the cage 4'deep x 6'long and 6' tall... But if they don't go up I wouldn't need to make it as high...



So far

I've had good luck with predators not bothering any of my animals. I have two large dogs that sleep right outside the aforementioned pens... so they pretty much chase anything away.

 

[Stellar]

You can add hardware cloth (the tiny holes) around the the hutch so if the mamas hatch out any babies that should be safer.