A couple weeks ago, I picked up six button quail. I was told, 3 males, 3 females. After a bit of shuffling around, I always wound up with one that was horribly picked on. Turns out, I had four males and two females. Sigh. The single male is now separate and I'm going through the fun of trying to find someone in MN that has a single hen for sale. Anyone happen to know someone?
I put an ad on CList and called some game bird places but no dice. Is there anywhere to post a quails singles ad? "Loud, obnoxious brown and gold Cortunix male seeks quiet, docile female for companionship. Likes long walks on the carpet, tiny nuggets of Feta cheese artfully stolen from Mom's pita, and destroying enriched mealworms with gusto. If interested, contact Houdini, your pic gets ine."?
Anyway. The lone roo is named Houdini, with good reason. The quail are housed indoors, in my livingroom, in Havahart 36"x30"x18" wire cages. I bought the plastic trays, filled the tray with aspen horse bedding, put the wire cage on the tray, then put more bedding over the wire. There are three stacked cages and one off to the side with my lone roo. The door latches closed. The wire is not far enough apart for the quail to get out. The roofs are covered with crappy plastic chain "vines" from the craft store to reduce the boink factor and more crappy fake silk plants have been shoved into the floor - all that packed bedding makes a wonderful base for them.
Houdini got out the first day, and I came home and almost stepped on him. He bounced and tried to get out the door and I caught him mid-lift. Back in the cage he went. Two days later, he escaped again. I found him in the bathtub, contentedly curled up in a towel he'd somehow managed to pull down from the shower curtain rod.
Having an escaped quail is something that gives me minor heart failure. I have two cats who absolutely love the "cat tv" of the quail cages. The quail utterly ignore them. I always figured the cats were looking at the birds thinking "Yum! Snacks!" Turned out not to be true.
After the second escape, I started bungie-cording the door shut as well as latching it. Then I curled up on the couch all day last Sunday with a book to watch. I was determined to find out how Houdini was escaping.
The answer became apparent a few hours after he'd given his normal morning round of Velociraptor-wannabe crows. He walked up to the door and started making a loud churring noise. Kind of like the rev-up to the crow, only much louder. My oldest cat walked over to the cage and started purring back at Houdini. Then the cat started pawing at the door, and the little stinker managed to undo both the bungie AND the latch, and Houdini used his beak and head to wiggle his way under the door and escape! I jumped up, convinced Houie was about to die, caught him, and stuffed him back in his cage, but this time I bungied the door shut both widthwise and lengthwise.
Today I came home from work, and he wasn't in his cage. My cats jumped down from the LoveSac giant beanbag couch thing, and there was a little puddle of brown and gold feathers. I shrieked.. and straight up in the air the feathers went!
Houdini had been asleep on the couch with both my cats! The cats were very confused why I was yelling at them, and kept looking between me and the bird, who was strutting back and forth on the couch, very proud of himself. I caught him and stuffed him back in the cage.
This time, I tied it shut with a double knot!
Thankfully, the cats don't seem to have a clue that 'bird' = 'food' or 'toy'. The bird is either that lonely or he got used to barn cats before I got him and thinks they're his friends.
I'm thinking of changing his name to DumbA**.
Anyway. The lone roo is named Houdini, with good reason. The quail are housed indoors, in my livingroom, in Havahart 36"x30"x18" wire cages. I bought the plastic trays, filled the tray with aspen horse bedding, put the wire cage on the tray, then put more bedding over the wire. There are three stacked cages and one off to the side with my lone roo. The door latches closed. The wire is not far enough apart for the quail to get out. The roofs are covered with crappy plastic chain "vines" from the craft store to reduce the boink factor and more crappy fake silk plants have been shoved into the floor - all that packed bedding makes a wonderful base for them.
Houdini got out the first day, and I came home and almost stepped on him. He bounced and tried to get out the door and I caught him mid-lift. Back in the cage he went. Two days later, he escaped again. I found him in the bathtub, contentedly curled up in a towel he'd somehow managed to pull down from the shower curtain rod.
Having an escaped quail is something that gives me minor heart failure. I have two cats who absolutely love the "cat tv" of the quail cages. The quail utterly ignore them. I always figured the cats were looking at the birds thinking "Yum! Snacks!" Turned out not to be true.
After the second escape, I started bungie-cording the door shut as well as latching it. Then I curled up on the couch all day last Sunday with a book to watch. I was determined to find out how Houdini was escaping.
The answer became apparent a few hours after he'd given his normal morning round of Velociraptor-wannabe crows. He walked up to the door and started making a loud churring noise. Kind of like the rev-up to the crow, only much louder. My oldest cat walked over to the cage and started purring back at Houdini. Then the cat started pawing at the door, and the little stinker managed to undo both the bungie AND the latch, and Houdini used his beak and head to wiggle his way under the door and escape! I jumped up, convinced Houie was about to die, caught him, and stuffed him back in his cage, but this time I bungied the door shut both widthwise and lengthwise.
Today I came home from work, and he wasn't in his cage. My cats jumped down from the LoveSac giant beanbag couch thing, and there was a little puddle of brown and gold feathers. I shrieked.. and straight up in the air the feathers went!
Houdini had been asleep on the couch with both my cats! The cats were very confused why I was yelling at them, and kept looking between me and the bird, who was strutting back and forth on the couch, very proud of himself. I caught him and stuffed him back in the cage.
This time, I tied it shut with a double knot!
Thankfully, the cats don't seem to have a clue that 'bird' = 'food' or 'toy'. The bird is either that lonely or he got used to barn cats before I got him and thinks they're his friends.
I'm thinking of changing his name to DumbA**.
