Forgot to add a question for the quail people here,
How do I care for the baby button quail? OR the adults for that matter? I don't have quail and it looks like these will hatch out smaller than cotton balls! Luckily I have small wire cages that I had finches in. Could I put them in my aviary? It is rather big and I am also building an outside aviary. There are finches and parakeets in there now. I am adding diamond doves soon. Will they get along with the others? I believe button quail are more of a pet quail am I right?
Thanks for the help!
Shellie
Hey Shellie, sorry didn't get to meet you there. Were the button quail in plastic cartons from Stoney Creek? If so, those were the ones I brought. The incubation instructions are in the "fine print" on the label.
When they hatch, the babies are so tiny...and can become "splay legged" very easily. Equine pine pellets are perfect bedding, gives them purchase to stand on, holds heat and smells well. (Others might say, "oh, just put down paper towels"...you can try it, but speaking from experience, bad idea.) The brooder needs to be at 95*F for the first week, drop 5*F per week until your reach the inside ambient temps. ( I say inside because buttons do much better inside than out. They can not handle the extreme temps cold or hot...but deal with heat better they are a tropical bird)
On food, Game bird starter or GBS. It comes in crumbles, but even then, the crumbles are too large. I find putting a handful in a zip lock bag and crushing to the consistency of very fine sand, power fine is bad. At 6 weeks old you can switch to the normal crumble and feed them that for life.
Button quail are monogamous and mate for life. Some folks will try the colony style life, but they will do much better in pairs.
Buttons are more pets...but are still spazy, they won't sit on your finger or anything. A lot of folks will get them to put in the bottoms of their inside aviaries for clean-up maintenance birds, eating all the dropped seeds and such from the perching birds...but they still need the 26%-28% protein...they will die on seeds alone.
My email was on the carton as well, feel free to email any questions you may have or run into.
Good luck!
Bill
edited for the PS, how are those other chicks doing? The Ameraucanas and d'Anvers?
