What’s the perfect companion for a lone male quail?

[QuailEnvy24]

I have a male stubble quail that is 11 weeks old, he is the only quail I have. I’m worried about him being lonely, especially when I’m away at work most of the day.

He’s kept inside in his own large cage (as we live in an area that is prone to snakes, mice and sometimes even rats ) with plenty of food, water, some bird toys (mirrors, bells ect.) and nest box of sorts with old shirts that I know he seems to like the texture of. (I change these out every 1-2 days to wash). When I am home from work and on the weekends his cage door is left wide open and he is free to roam the house as he pleases, mostly sticking to the living room and comes to cuddle with me on a blanket or sometimes goes into the hallway, but that’s about as far as he wants to go. But we always return him to his cage at bedtime.

I was wondering, what would be the best companion for him? I originally tried him with some stuffed toys which he liked to snuggle up to under his heat lamp when he was less than six weeks old but from then on he’s had no interest in them. I’ve seen a lot of posts and stuff saying some hens would be perfect but I don’t have the capacity for that many birds and although they’re so cute I don’t want to run the risk of babies. (Edit: If I get one hen, I also don’t want the poor girl to get overbred ) I have also seen some posts about maybe another male? But I also don’t want to run the risk of them not liking each other and fighting, SA’ing each other or even killing each other?

I live in Australia if that helps also. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you so much!

 

[CliftonQuail]

I'm not sure what the proper rooster to hen ratio might be for stubble quail, but found some indication that they pair up, so you might just need one hen to keep him company. To avoid unwanted chicks, you'd just have to collect any eggs before the hen decided to try to sit on them.

 

[QuailEnvy24]

I'm not sure what the proper rooster to hen ratio might be for stubble quail, but found some indication that they pair up, so you might just need one hen to keep him company. To avoid unwanted chicks, you'd just have to collect any eggs before the hen decided to try to sit on them.

I forgot to add in my initial post that I’ve now edited in. The information I’ve seen is minimum of three hens so the poor girls don’t get overbred but this information has been for other quail breeds.

 

[CliftonQuail]

I forgot to add in my initial post that I’ve now edited in. The information I’ve seen is minimum of three hens so the poor girls don’t get overbred but this information has been for other quail breeds.

The recommendation for Japanese coturnix is usually 4 hens or more per rooster. Stubble quail are another variety of coturnix, but may be fine with fewer hens. Hopefully someone from Australia will weigh in on proper ratios.

 

[Nabiki]

Per wikipedia, they pair up. The best companion for him would be another stubble quail.

Breeding​

In Victoria the stubble quail breed between August and December, [8] but breeding season can vary due to environmental conditions.[13] Breeding pairs may stay together for all year and if a pair is separated when flushed, they will call to each other in order to locate each other.[9] The female stubble quail lays about seven or eight yellow eggs which are incubated solely by her for 18 days.[2] Often stubble quail nest in crops that are about to be harvested so their nests get destroyed.[4] Both parents guard the chicks until they are almost full-sized birds, [9] but once the chicks reach six weeks and have a full plume of feathers, their parents remove the chicks from their own breeding grounds.[8] Males call at dawn and dusk as a territorial display.[9]