Hi everyone, I was at my local pet shop and found they now supply little button quail so I came home and started to do some research. I found that quail carry many diseases that are fatal to chickens. Could someone please tell me if the diseases etc carried by quail are airborne? Or can they be spread by human contact (feeding my quail then chickens or vice versa)? I would like to keep some quail but I have some very expensive roosters and hens that are show quality that I don't want to risk. Thankyou, Jesse
It's actually the other way around - chickens carry diseases that are often fatal to quail and other gamebirds, as well as turkeys. As far as I know, pretty much all of these diseases aren't airborne, so as long as you are careful to keep the birds completely separate, this shouldn't be too much of an issue. That's not to say that putting the quail in an area where the chicken's poop, snot, saliva, etc. could come into contact with them would DEFINITELY kill the quail, but there's a risk, one some people are willing to take and some are not. However, as I understand it, buttons are considered more of an indoor pet anyways - I've heard of a lot of people keeping them in large fish tanks indoors. As long as you wash your hands in between handling the two species, you should be fine.
