- Jul 26, 2009
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I have questions regarding the behavior, specifically the "flightyness" or "shyness" or "fear level" of various species of quail in captivity.
This is based on my really limited experience of the past month now with the 7 little button quail I hatched out.
They are much, much LESS flighty and wild acting than I thought they would be. And, I didn't give them a particularly high level of human interaction beyond the amount required to care for, clean, feed, water, them. Of course, I spoke to them and so on. But, I really don't have the time between work, family, and home to spend hours trying to "domesticate" them.
Yet, they surprise me at how "un-flighty" they are overall. Not a whole lot bothers them, not the dog watching them through the cage, not the vacuum cleaner, not me cleaning their cage, tending to their food and water. They move out of the way and kind of huddle just a bit together in the corner if they feel threatened, but they don't go into a wild panic like I thought they might.
And, I have read many comments that Coturnix are like "little chickens" in their level of domesticity. My coturnix babies are only 5 days old, so it's hard to tell yet.
So these are my questions:
1) Has years of breeding in captivity for buttons and coturnix made them more docile, more "domesticated" than their wild ancestors would be?
2) How do some of the other species, like bobwhites, mountain quail, Gambel's quail compare in their behavior to buttons and coturnix? Are they more wild and flighty because they are not as highly bred in captivity?
I apparently have the quail bug bad, bad, bad. I am seeing the posts about some of these other species on here. I did have a bobwhite once that was very tame, but I am intrigued by the moutain, Gambels, California quail and am wondering about their "pet potential".
This is based on my really limited experience of the past month now with the 7 little button quail I hatched out.
They are much, much LESS flighty and wild acting than I thought they would be. And, I didn't give them a particularly high level of human interaction beyond the amount required to care for, clean, feed, water, them. Of course, I spoke to them and so on. But, I really don't have the time between work, family, and home to spend hours trying to "domesticate" them.
Yet, they surprise me at how "un-flighty" they are overall. Not a whole lot bothers them, not the dog watching them through the cage, not the vacuum cleaner, not me cleaning their cage, tending to their food and water. They move out of the way and kind of huddle just a bit together in the corner if they feel threatened, but they don't go into a wild panic like I thought they might.
And, I have read many comments that Coturnix are like "little chickens" in their level of domesticity. My coturnix babies are only 5 days old, so it's hard to tell yet.
So these are my questions:
1) Has years of breeding in captivity for buttons and coturnix made them more docile, more "domesticated" than their wild ancestors would be?
2) How do some of the other species, like bobwhites, mountain quail, Gambel's quail compare in their behavior to buttons and coturnix? Are they more wild and flighty because they are not as highly bred in captivity?
I apparently have the quail bug bad, bad, bad. I am seeing the posts about some of these other species on here. I did have a bobwhite once that was very tame, but I am intrigued by the moutain, Gambels, California quail and am wondering about their "pet potential".
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