Pet quail entertainments

[Roomi the quail]

So i've been keeping my female coturnix quail for over a year now, and I put some effort in bringing her toys because she lives by herself and I dont want her to feel lonely and bored. I thought I could share things that you can do to get your quails entertained.

First, things that did not work:
1. Small dog toys with tinkling sounds(quail got scared)
2. Catgrass and oat sprouts in a pot(they must have stuck in her crop cause she vomited for some days. Plus she started eating human hairs from the floor afterwards and they started appearing in her poo)
3. Laser points(quail ran away so fast she bumped her head and lost some feathers)

And there are things that did work.
1. Blankets(quails will get into the folds and get busy building their nests-so cute! Or they may enjoy having a dust bath if the blanket is soft enough)
2. Newspaper folds in her cage(picking on newspaper edges is a great hobby for quail)
3. Cat Alone application(quails are indeed getting smarter. Mine likes catching ladybugs in the screen)
4. Cuddling(mine jumps on any of my families lap, wanting to be held. She does this more frequently in cold weather so I guess its all about human heat)

Below are the pictures of my quail enjoying herself.

 

[TashaFrancois]

So cute!

@BirdLady14

 

[Roomi the quail]

More for cuteness: its the footprints of my quail on my blanket after she had some fun!

 

[Fishkeeper]

The best thing you can do is get her a couple of friends. Coturnix are social and really shouldn't be kept alone. 3 quail isn't any harder to keep than 1, aside from needing to clean a bit more often and needing more food. There also isn't really a toy you can get that replaces social interaction from other quail.

If she doesn't already have one, she needs a sandbox to dustbathe in.

You can give her about a cubic-foot container with straw or hay placed loosely inside to fill it, and she'll probably burrow down into it. Quail like to burrow in hay.

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

The best thing you can do is get her a couple of friends. Coturnix are social and really shouldn't be kept alone. 3 quail isn't any harder to keep than 1, aside from needing to clean a bit more often and needing more food. There also isn't really a toy you can get that replaces social interaction from other quail.

If she doesn't already have one, she needs a sandbox to dustbathe in.

You can give her about a cubic-foot container with straw or hay placed loosely inside to fill it, and she'll probably burrow down into it. Quail like to burrow in hay.

I second this, especially the sand part , perhaps thats why she couldn't digest the grasses?
Also when you add her a few friends, and please please do!! she'll do better integrating if they are younger. I had a lone quail last month who did very good getting added to a group of three 5-week old quail. They were her size but hadnt started laying eggs yet so weren't hormonal.
They were young enough not to want to fight with her, and she was outnumbered enough not to want to beat them up. Now they are very happy together and all lay their eggs in a little pile. (Half the time scattered of course)

You could finely chop the grasses, oats or whatever for her, she might digest that better than long strands, Mine say their favorite green treats are parsley and lemon balm from my garden, and it is soft enough they make little bites in the leaves.
they love several other herbs and are crazy for mangos and strawberries!
They love mealworms so much they will deign to eat that out of my hand, tho they are far from tame.

Their absolute favorite thing to do in life is to dust bathe in a big pile of fresh sand. They live on sand for their floor yet everytime I add a couple cups of fresh they go crazy bathing

I too have tried several toys for rhem but they never have had any interest and are happiest with friends, sand and treats.

Those footprints on the blanket are the CUTEST thing!!