Peepers!

[eksulli]

I've gotten some Jumbo Brown Coturnix Quail, 16, to be exact. Right now they are in my living room under a heat lamp in a long plastic tote. Soon they'll need something different, boy can they jump! lol! Nothing prepared me for how stinkin cute these "fellas" are. Holy wow! It's like spring, the peepers, and they do this cute little bow and jump dance that is adorable.

I ordered some game bird feed, that will arrive today, right now they are eating "chick starter/grower" from the local feed store, ground down. I gave them a couple Earth worms (from my personal farm (I keep them for our fish)) and oh my word, they were too funny! Any thoughts on giving them freeze dried blood worms (also kept for the fish): crude protein: 55% / crude fat 3% / crude fiber 5% / Max moisture 5 %.



Also, I ordered some proper bedding, also arriving today, the local feed store didn't have what I needed, so the newspaper was a quick easy fix

edit:

Ok so looking ahead, I have no idea how many males/females I may end up with. I may end up with all females or males... lol. Anyway, the males will get culled once they've reached their adult weight (about 6 weeks if what I've read is correct) and the females and a male will be put in the pen. I'd like some room for growth. But I don't want an insane amount of quail. So I'm still looking into cage/pen ideas. I considered a pen that was 7' x 4' which would give me 28sqft. That should be enough to fit 28 quail correct?

 

[Wil SC]

Great looking little guy, for a cage just remember they lay eggs everywhere, so you need to be able to reach all parts of the cage to collect them. 4' deep might be a bit of a stretch depending on how long your arms are and how many access doors you plan to have.

 

[eksulli]

Good call! I was hoping to be able to access it from all sides and have multiple access points, maybe just have the whole roof open. Good food for thought!

 

[red golden]

Open roof means quail out of jail free card. Stick with doors at alternate spots ( stagger ) them.

 

[eksulli]

No no no, that was miss read. Have the whole roof open, like a door, on hinges.

 

[red golden]

Lol nope i read it right. Go to utube and search pheasant flushing. A quail will do the same unless you smash em with the roof. Trust me not a good idea.

 

[bingrancher]

I have a pen where the roof is the access to the cage and yes on occasion they flutter out but its usually one or 2 and they arent the best flyers so they usually fly just enough to get over the edge and to the ground. They do like to flutter at my face and early mornings when its dark and im not fully awake its not pleasant lmao. One thing I learned the hard way THEN read about was to build your cages in equal lenghts. If you build your cage 8x4 you wont have wasted lumber and you gained a couple quail. Dont forget that waterers, feeders, and dust baths take up room that means less floor space for the quail. So you may want to consider hanging waterers. I also put my dust bath near a door because mine tend to lay eggs in it 9 out of 10 times. Good luck though and keep us posted.

 

[animalsrock123]

Aww so cute! I know what you mean by how they can jump, I have a chick that's jumped out of his brooder three or four times when I've had to take the lid off to clean it, even though the brooder is much taller than him! Lol!

 

[eksulli]

Chicks are growing like MAD! They're doing fantastic, and other than one getting out and running a muck during dog duty in the morning (it "chased"/follow the dogs) resulting in my husband and I belly laughing, life is good! I've been making them an apple/chick feed mash that they adore. They're getting feathers and I found some plans for a coop I would LOVE to build:

Here are some pictures of the quail peepers:



I've read that they are very difficult to sex until close to a month, but I think this one may be female. Maybe.


Is this the golden coloring to look for in a male? Or is it too spotty? I know they're young yet, just curious!


edit:
I think I found a post that explains the sexing better, I see the males are pretty spotless, but they've got another 2 or 3 weeks before I really tell.