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".
so far my gambels are fightier then my bobs my bobs are flightier then my corts my corts if when they get out they kina just walk on top of my feet in between my feet if I don,t rush them or panic and move fast they just let me pick them back up this would never happen with the bobs or gambels I have lost one bob so far! she ai,nt coming back I lost one and caught her with a call back pen the one that did not return ...I am covered in preds here and trapping season is 2-3 months away prime pelts are 3-4 months away
Your Buttons May Well Get More Spazzy With Adulthood... Coturnix Kind Of Go Through Stages.... Calm At 1st, Then A Lil Flighty As Adolescents And Early Adulthood, Then "just Leave The Food And Go" Once Estabolished Adults. Valley And Gambels Make Crazed Swer Rats Look Calm And Sane, As Well As Like Someone That Should Work For Nasa Bobs Mellow A Tad With Age, But Remain Spazzy, Especially When Handled Or Attempting Capture (they Bite Too! ) Now There Are Always Exceptions, But As A General Rule Coturnix Are The Most Mellow And By Far Have Been The Most Domesticated Quail (old Or New World) Of All, So Maybe There's Hope For Bobs, Valleys, Gambels In Another 3 Or 4 Hundred Yrs
I Should Clarify That My Butlers Are Too Fat And Lazy To Spaz.... They Stand Their Ground And Wait Til You Get Close Enough..... Then They Latch On Like Lil 2 Pound Feathered Snapping Turtles.... Hard Enough To Make You Get Religion A Bob White "coming To Jesus Lesson" If You Will?
My Bobs are not domesticated at all!! Little buggers are crazy wild. Can't get near the breeder cages or even the flight pens without the shooting up all over the place. Then again I don't handle my birds except to move them from the brooder to flight pens or to breeder cages. Anything below 2 ft is blocked by solid walls in the flight pens so that they don't acclimate to dogs, cats or other critters that are around here.
