Quail are being rather noisy...

[drewskimac]

I've been raising quail for about two years now, and all of the adults have ate the same egg pellets i've fed to my chickens. Now, i know some people are going to try to beat me up for feeding them egg pellets because "thats too big for them to digest" but i never had any problems while feeding them egg pellets for two years, and i know several people who have done the same without issues. So, i recently switched to egg crumbles just as an experiment, and what i have noticed is that (yes, the waste is astronomical compared to egg pellets) my quail (Coturnix) seem to be VERY noisy compared to how they used to be. I remember a few months back, every now and then the birds would run out of food for an hour or two and when i was walking through the yard to fill their feeder they would make a God awful amount of noise at me. Since i've been feeding them egg crumbles they make the same noise, but EVERY TIME I'M NEAR THEM. Why would this be? The only rational explanation i can come up with is this... About the same time i switched to egg crumbles, i gave my quail a handful of mealworms for the first time, and they went NUTS over them. Ever since then, i bring a few mealworms every now and then, so could the reason they are so noisy be that they are wanting the mealworms? Or is it that they are hungry and are too stupid to know that their food is what they are scattering all over the ground?

Thanks for any and all replies!

 

[TwoCrows]

It is nearly impossible to know exactly why the sudden change in their behavior after a feed change. Maybe they are healthier being able to eat more, maybe they are eating less and more hungry, maybe they sense spring is coming and they are more active, maybe they are aging and are full of more hormones, maybe they are cold, hot, happier, frustrated, uncomfortable in some way.

I think you will need to do some research of your own and watch them more closely to see if anything is effecting their behavior. Sometimes changes in personalities are hard to pin point but usually with investigation and a lot of observation you can figure things out.

Good luck!

 

[drewskimac]

It is nearly impossible to know exactly why the sudden change in their behavior after a feed change. Maybe they are healthier being able to eat more, maybe they are eating less and more hungry, maybe they sense spring is coming and they are more active, maybe they are aging and are full of more hormones, maybe they are cold, hot, happier, frustrated, uncomfortable in some way.

I think you will need to do some research of your own and watch them more closely to see if anything is effecting their behavior. Sometimes changes in personalities are hard to pin point but usually with investigation and a lot of observation you can figure things out.

Good luck!

thanks for your input!