Quail sure are flighty little things aren't they?

[CARS]

I went down to the barn after the timer shut the lights down (14 hours, 365 days a year), needed to turn the main lights on to see what I was doing and you would have thought I was beating on their cages! They just went nuts.

I am over crowding them at the moment. I have 5 in a 16x16 cage but for now, I have no choice. I am out of feeders and waters. Cages would be no big deal to make but I don't want to keep 70 A&M's anyway. The plan was to keep the best of the best and eat the rest. I just need a couple weeks to see who the "best" is.

Is it normal for them to freek out or is it the over population? It isn't like they have to do anything other than sit there, lay eggs, and get big enough to eat

.

 

[Crazy4Chicks]

I had 15 of those buggers in my house in 2 seperate 24X24 cages and they were not flighty at all - out of the 15 I keep 1 male and 3 females the rest of the crew went to live at the zoo in the flight pen.

the ones I have left are not flighty and jumpy in way - I wonder if that is because I have mine in the house and they are used to us walking around them and lights going on off ? they even seem fine with my dogs


now my button quail on the other hand -- those are the most flighty crazy birds I have ever had !!! and they are in the house too all were hatched here you would think they would calm down !!

 

[al6517]

Mine are very skiddish and flighty, they freak out over anything. But when the storm blew their hutch into the pasture a few hundred yards and a bunch got out. I found a few every day for a week hanging around the old hutch site, and you could then walk up and pick them up, wierd huh.

AL

 

[monarc23]

The quick change of lights scared them I am almost betting...and yes in crowded situations if one freaks it scares them all

When they arent as crowded the ones that arent scared basically ignore the spazzes. A & Ms and Tibetans and tuxedos do seem to be very spazzy of the varieties LOL.

 

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

I have browns and A&Ms and my A&Ms freak out much more than the browns. I can reach into the browns' pen, move things around and then pet them before leaving. If I so much as blink rapidly around my A&Ms they go off. And I've had the A&Ms a month longer than the browns! Spaztastic freeloaders. *grumbling*

 

[Akane]

Try button quail. My coturnix are extremely calm in comparison. Having them get upset over a rapid light change is just normal. If it were buttons they might have killed themselves on the top of the pen. I have light strips over them specifically for that reason and I have to be careful when I turn on the room light after their strips have gone off or they may injure themselves. The coturnix I flip the light on all the time in the house and just get a flurry of feathers before they settle. I also go out to the coop with a flashlight all the time and am surprised my coturnix just greet me and ask if I have their food for the night. The buttons would go ballistic over a flashlight and someone moving around in the dark and I'd never manage to feed and water them with the large top opening lids that I have on my coturnix pen out there.

 

[Fudgie]

my Coturnix are mellow! I can reach in the pen at any time and pick up any of the 4 I have housed with the small chickens. I am not sure if it is because of the chickens being so calm and used to me sticking my hands in there or what. The button YES are horribly flighty! Scared of everything! But WOW are they pretty!

 

[shelleyd2008]

A&M's are similar to buttons in regard to flightiness. Mine, however, are so calm they will peck my arm if I have it in the cage too long

I guess it just depends on how they were raised and their breeding. The first A&M I had lived with a button quail, so they were all flighty. The ones I have now were raised with some jumbo browns, and seem to have taken the personalities of the jumbos.

But I'm sure it was the sudden light, when they are used to it being dark at that time. You are so mean to surprise them like that!!