Quail interactions

[TheQuailKid]

Hello! I am new to this forum but currently own a male and female coturnix quail. Since we have an aggressive neighbors dog, we keep the quail in a rabbit hutch in our garage. I am very interested in playing/interacting with them, but I'm worried that if I bring them inside our house they will poop everywhere! Does anyone have solutions to bird diapers or possibly a wood spray to remove the poop? I also would like to play with them outside however they are very good flyers and we are inexperienced at trimming wings.

Thank you so much!

 

[Nabiki]

How long have you had them? Normally coturnix don't do well in pairs. The ideal ratio is one male to five females. Sometimes you get lucky and get a pair that do okay, however.

If they are adults, you're not going to have a lot of luck playing with them. They are prey animals and birds, so they're not going to be friendly and your attempts are likely to stress them out. Your best interactions with them will be feeding them occasional treats (10% or less of their diet) and watching them play.

You could give them a lot of enrichment by providing branches for hiding places.

 

[TheQuailKid]

I got them when they were a day old and have interacted with them daily. They do not mind me picking them up and petting them, but I see everyone post pics of them with their quail inside and I was wondering how they clean up the poop.

 

[TheQuailKid]

Also, any methods on trying to get them into harnesses? I know you gotta give them treats but I have not been able to find any for them. They ignored any mealworms I gave them.

 

[Nabiki]

I'm guessing that the people who have their quail inside clean up after them as soon as they poop. It doesn't stain as long as you clean it up immediately. When I bring birds inside to film them, I have a rag handy to clean up after them.

I'm probably not the right person to give you advice on how to treat them like a cat or dog because, in my opinion, they are birds. They are not cats, they are not dogs, and they should not be treated like them. I do have some pretty tame quail that will come up to me when it's feeding time and tolerate me petting them, but that's as far as it goes.