Button quails are great pets for anyone who loves watching a little society of critters skuttle about without interfering with them too much, and or someone who enjoys genetics...because button quails surely are like "a box of chocolates" you seriously don't know what you'll get color wise (well unless you bred generation to generation of the same colors THEN you may get lucky to get some of the same colors other wise be prepaired for some awesome colors and variations)!
I feed mine game bird chick crumbles (i will until they lay), as well as ground up kitty kibble (and when I think about it wet canned cat food boy do they love that)! I also feed millet bird seed as a treat, boiled egg, bugs, grass clippings, and i havent fed them apple sauce yet (just blended up apples) but i am planning on it soon.
Ofcourse and grit, and oystershell.
I have right now a breeding trio in a 10 gallon tank with 1/2 inch foam taped to the top to keep them from hurting themselves when they play bonk or get scared and bonk. I also have two mcdonalds (yes mcdonalds) cup holders leaning on the back side of the tank, they hide in this and stick thier wee heads through the holes to eat and drink their food which is in the front of the tank. They occationally come out from behind there to walk around but mostly they are happy and safe in the back.
I plan on getting them a bigger cage for the winter then putting them outside once spring warms up this already chilly place.
I heard one of my buttons growl for the first time today...i had thought i heard their growl before but nope this growl is very distint. It almost sounds like someone pressing a very quiet game show buzzer lol!!! Very cute! Or that game where you pull the fake bones and such out of that guy and if you hit the sides he buzzes and his nose lights up that kinda noise but very faint.
My trio consists of one deffinate hen, she's a wild colored pied (white wing feathers), my male is a silver, and my other bird that i *think* is a hen is a cinnamon.
If she turns out to be a he i'll be removing the cinnamon.
I'd post pictures but i've already posted pictures several times on here hehe, but if ya wanna see em just let me know.
you can also check out my website i have a good bit of info on care and my own personal experiences with them on there.
By the way an adult pharoah coturnix is about the size of the american robin...and looks strikingly simliar from a distance! What i think it so neat is in the male american robin his breast is rusty red, in the coturnix it too is rusty red, in the american robin hen, the breast is speckled, in the coturnix hen, the breast is speckled! neat huh! LOL! I have a picture compairson of this too if anyone is interested let me know.
The jumbos are very hard to hold in one hand, so they're like a double sized pharoah.
They eat all the same bascialy that the buttons do but in a bigger amt...and the care is basically the same as well.
by the way noise wise, both buttons and coturnix are not loud at all. Both do quiet "pee pee pee" noises...people say it's Peeping, but it sounds more like they're litterally saying "pee pee pee". It's pretty much like they're whispering. As for the call, it is a whistle...whistle and you'l know about how loud that is. Both the male and female whistle, but the male sounds better at it.
They don't whistle all the time though only when they're happy i've noticed.
Or if you take one of their budies away from their tank...then one of the others will call "Hey where'd ya go!?"
Word of caution....clip their wings.....it will save you from dramatic escapes....they ARE escape artists...even with their wings clipped, i probably have one hop out once every two weeks! LOL! I always get them (they hop out when i open it up) but i've had some close calls. If they had their fligth feathers, they'd be crashing into my ceiling...not good.
Niki
. MAybe next year I will try pharoahs if I have some new cages built. Are they loud?
