Newbie pickling them up tomorrow

[bbzoee]

Hi everyone,
I'm getting 7 pairs of 8 mth old quail, 3 pharoah girls and 4 golden girls, likely will be paired with golden and white males. I'm just wondering how will they live together? Should I separate them? It is my understanding they've been living together a this time with the one breeder.

Thanks for all the helpful advice on here, so glad I came across such a great site!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and a very warm welcome to BYC

Sorry, i know nothing about quail but i am sure that an experienced member will chime in soon and help you out.

Good luck

CT

 

[DK newbie]

Coturnix quail are - as far as I have read on this forum, never had them myself - best kept one male to 3-7 females, not in pairs, as the males are likely to overbreed a single female. So I would get ~2 males for 7 females.
And the males are almost guaranteed to fight if kept in the same cage, so one cage for each male you get.

 

[dc3085]

Most of the time you cant get away with having two roosters in the same cage with hobby sozed cages. One rooster can maintain a 95%+ fertility rate over 7 seven hens. Once bred each hen remains fertile for seven days so having more than one roo per group is a waste of feed and a good source of unnecessary stress. Stress is the number one cause of low thrift in coturnix.

If you put them in pairs kiss them goodbye first. Like DK said they breed very aggressively. To the point they damage or kill a single hen or even a pair of them.

 

[bbzoee]

Lol I meant ***picking them up

 

[bbzoee]

The guy selling to me is giving in pairs. Ok if I separate the males, how will I chose which are the best 2 to keep in the with the girls?
Are the cot girls ok to stay with golden girls?

 

[dc3085]

Theyre all coturnix just different colors. Separating them would require some work so its really your call but i personally would pull all the females and work on integrating them together. I would not try to put two males in one cage on your first experience with quail. There really is no situation where it is necessary or even really beneficial to put two roosters in a cage with less than 12-15 hens, even then it raises stress levels. Alternately you could do a group of 3 and a group of 4 in separate cages and still keep two roos, i just wouldnt put them together.

To integrate quail without them fighting you leave them caged side by side for a week or so the put them all together, ideally in a cage none have ever been in. You can also do this with upside down milk crates and rocks on top if you dont have extra cages.

In your case, since you have so many, first id try to mix the hens into the groups you want them in and see if some will just get along, then integrate the rest.

Eta: white x golden=golden tuxedo
Pharaoh x golden= golden italian
White x pharaoh=recessive white pharaoh (meaning if you bred two recessive whites the babies would be white)

 

[bbzoee]

They're currently living all together at the bottom of a big budgie Avery?

But I will do the crate separation like you said