Raising a Bobwhite with Coturnix??

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Quail4Fun

Chirping
Apr 20, 2020
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Hi! I have a new batch of baby corturnix, mixed colors about 2 weeks old in the brooder box. I picked them up about 48 hrs ago from a farm. There are 12. The woman said one was a runt so she threw in an extra to have 13 incase the runt didn't do well. But after close inspection and watching, pretty sure the "runt" is a bobwhite chick. The woman said with her kids home from school right now, they have been helping and maybe mixed them up coming out of the incubator, as she raises both. The farm is about 2 hours away so I really don't want to drive back there to swap or return 1 chick who otherwise seems healthy. I haven't ever raised bobwhite but hear they are flighty and can be aggressive. But most of what I've seen is people trying to raise mixed flocks. What I have is an "Ugly Duckling" situation. I am wondering if I raise them from the brooder up and there is only one, if I might get away with having one oddball bobwhite or should I plan to separate him/or her to their own cage eventually? Right now he is the smallest but snuggles right in the middle of the pack and runs around with the group as if he too were a coturnix. Anyone else tries to raise these 2 together from the brooder stage?
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The 1 in the middle is definitely a bobwhite. The coturnix should grow a lot faster than him. I don't know how well they'll do growing up together. At the end of the day, you'll have 1 lonely adult bobwhite, I would think, unless he binds well with the coturnix. Hopefully someone else will chime in that has actually raised them together.
 
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If you hand raise the bobwhite chick it can grow up to be very tame. I had a male bobwhite whose mate died. We couldn't get him another mate, but he did fine in an aviary with golden pheasants, california quails and japanese quails. He didn't like them much when he had his mate, but he got along well with the japanese quails after his mate died. However, it's generally not advised to keep the two species together because bobwhites are usually aggressive and territorial. Like many situations, it depends on the individual birds.

Japanese quails take 6-8 weeks to mature, whereas bobwhites mature at 16 weeks but don't start laying until later. If you are planning to raise them together, they will grow at different rates, meaning heat needs will probably need to be different too.

Somebody else with more experience in raising bobwhites may be able to give you more advice.
 
Thanks! I have a couple mixed thoughts on this little guy (or girl)...
1. Try to keep Bob with these guys as long as possible and when they start to get too big and need significantly different environments, separate out into his own cage then attempt to reintroduce Bob when s/he can hold their own if s/he turns out to be a lady. I have a 2 cage system currently, our mature egg laying ladies in one, the brooder in the other that will convert to a grow out pen. We cull the extra roos. Because we live in the city we dont keep the roos past butcher age.
2. Separate Bob completely and raise as a true pet. S/he will have very different needs than our coturnix it seems. And s/he already survived the fate of being a hunting dog training tool. Maybe try to find a friend when we know if Bob is male or female.
3. My husband wants to throw Bob in the grow out pen when old enough and just see what happens and put it at the top of the cull list, male or female. We usually keep our ladies about 2 years from each batch.

I should also note that my husband is currently deployed so whatever I decide is what "we" decide to do with Bob... even if there is a difference of opinion 😉
 
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UPDATE: We are at about 5 weeks. The coturnix are almost mature (some are crowing and almost all their yellow baby feathers are gone). I have not yet separated out the extra males from the pack but not a lot of fighting yet. I did put one in a cat cage in the bathroom over night for being mean but by morning he seemed to have learned his lesson and no issues since. Little Bob is still catching up but has doubled in size this week. I have been worried about him/her getting picked on for being so tiny compared to the others but haven't witnessed any mean behavior towards him/her. Because of the attempt to see if they can be kept together and get along from the brooder, I moved them to a 'half way house' which is a two story rabbit hutch. I can still have the heat lamp at a distance on one corner of one level for Little Bob and the others can get away from it (though most of the time they still enjoy basking in it). As you can see Little Bob isn't ostracized for being different, yet and they prefer to be in a gaggle rather than enjoying the space they now have. So far it seems to have been ok. Wondering how this will change as Little Bob hits maturity.
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