Quail questions

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Northern_Bobwhite said:
Hi! Welcome to BYC. I’ve been raising Northern Bobwhites and coturnix quail for a few years, so I might be able to answer a few questions. Like Sean said, feed with 24% protein is best for starting quail and other game birds. I’d recommend Manna Pro’s Gamebird Showbird Starter Grower. It has 24% protein and I’ve found it to work perfectly. The only problem is that the crumbs are too big for newly hatched quail chicks to eat because of their size, but you can easily put it through a blender until the crumbs are small enough for baby quail. For the first week I usually blend the food till its a fine, gritty size and I blend it less and less as the quail get bigger.
Mealworms should only be a treat for quail and not a big part of their diet. They can’t get all the necessary nutrients and vitamins from insects, although they are a good source of protein and fats.
I keep a heat lamp on for my babies until they are either fully feathered and able to keep their own warmth in, or until you’ve lowered the temp by 5 degrees each week and the temp of the heat lamp is the same temperature of the quail’s habitat.
As for sexing your quail, I’ve only ever waited until they were fully feathered to feather sex them, or waited even longer until the males crowed and the females layed. I’ve never tried to sex quail as chicks, I’m not sure if you even can. The only problem with feather sexing is that not all Coturnix colors are able to be feather sexed. I own around 30 coturnix and they are all different colors. Only a handful of mine are feather sexable, although I wish all of them were because that would make everything a lot easier! Do you know what color your jumbos are? Typically jumbos are either brown or white, but I’m not sure what type you were getting. Brown jumbo males seem to have a red breast, and females have a light cream colored breast with black speckles. Jumbo whites cannot be feather sexed, both sexes look the same.
As for differences in care with other breeds, the only other quail I have experience with are Northern Bobwhites although they are actually a whole different species. The biggest difference between the two is that bobwhites are much more skittish and flighty, and they are actually capable of flying unlike coturnix who are too heavy for their wings to carry them anywhere but downhill. I actually got rid of most of my bobwhites after I found out coturnix were a lot easier to handle although I kept a male and a couple hens. One of my bobwhite hens is perfectly capable of living with my coturnix and receives the same care and feed as the rest of the quail. However the other two prefer to live by themselves, and will become aggressive to any bird that’s near them.
To answer your question if you should leave feed out or feed them multiple times a day, either one would work. I’ve always left their food out, we don’t have any mice or insect problems at all any more and the feeders I have now can hold enough food for all my birds for a day or two which makes feeding less of a hassle. Whatever works for you is fine, but I think giving them constant access to food is easiest. I don’t have much of a problem with them scraping or kicking their food out and wasting it because they can only access their food through a small hole. That was a problem with my previous feeder but we replaced that one after beetles started infesting the ground where the quail dumped out all their food. We haven‘t had a problem like that since. I don’t know how much you would feed your quail if you decided not to give them constant access, which is another reason why I don‘t do that.
Sorry for writing a whole book here! Hopefully this helps a little! Let us know if you have any more questions :)
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I'm looking for a male northern bobwhite for my two surviving females I got as chicks last March. Most were dead at the post office but I took them anyway to save the ones that were still alive. I didn't add any honey to the water and only two survived. Haven't gotten one egg yet. But I would like to incubate some eggs to re-coup my loss from last year. Any idea of a closer place to get them close to Bonney Lake WA?
 
Jugee Bee said:
I'm looking for a male northern bobwhite for my two surviving females I got as chicks last March. Most were dead at the post office but I took them anyway to save the ones that were still alive. I didn't add any honey to the water and only two survived. Haven't gotten one egg yet. But I would like to incubate some eggs to re-coup my loss from last year. Any idea of a closer place to get them close to Bonney Lake WA?
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Where did you get yours from? I have gotten all my eggs from Southwest Game Birds. They’re located in Arizona which is 20+ hours from where I am. All of my batches have either been a hit or a miss, I’ve gotten as low as 15% hatch rates and as high as 90%. I don’t know of any hatcheries close to you, but I would recommend Southwest!
 

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