What do you feed your quail?

[The Quail Guru]

I feed my quail a finch/canary mix and it's perfectly fine for them, they lay plenty of eggs and are very happy. I also feed them cucumber and salad leaves now and then, they don't seem to like any other treat than that. They do enjoy small bugs from our compost though, now every time they see this certain green bucket they always run up to the edge of the pen where I feed them the bugs.

 

[Jacqdiva]

Can you feed them fermented grain? Do they sit their own eggs?

 

[The Quail Guru]

Can you feed them fermented grain? Do they sit their own eggs?

Sit on their own eggs? If that's what you was asking then yes they do sit on their own eggs after they have a clutch and then hatch out the chicks. I have button quail and the male and female take turns sitting on them or they both sit on them at the same time.

 

[Jacqdiva]

Sit on their own eggs? If that's what you was asking then yes they do sit on their own eggs after they have a clutch and then hatch out the chicks. I have button quail and the male and female take turns sitting on them or they both sit on them at the same time.

Thanks for your reply. Yes I guess I just want to know what would make more of themselves fairly easily. What would be good as a beginner's breed, so to say?

 

[The Quail Guru]

No problem. A lot of people say that coturnix/japanese quail are good beginner breeds, they lay fairly large eggs so if your looking for a good egg producer I'de go for the coturnix. I don't eat my quails eggs though. Personally, my favourite breed are button quail. They're very cute and are good breeders and egg layers but the eggs are too small to eat.

 

[IreneJewelryGir]

for those who mentioned corn on the cob, do they get the whole cob or just the scraps?
Thanks from a Newbie!

 

[dc3085]

Sit on their own eggs? If that's what you was asking then yes they do sit on their own eggs after they have a clutch and then hatch out the chicks. I have button quail and the male and female take turns sitting on them or they both sit on them at the same time.

No quail regularly brood eggs. Button do occasionally but there is no domestic species of quail that can be relied upon to hatch its eggs. Coturnix, bobs, etc brood eggs literally about once in a million.

 

[DK newbie]

No quail regularly brood eggs. Button do occasionally but there is no domestic species of quail that can be relied upon to hatch its eggs. Coturnix, bobs, etc brood eggs literally about once in a million.

Tell my buttons that

I think brooding might be contagious. Two of my 3 hens were incubating eggs in the same cage. When the first one hatched its chicks, the second one left the nest to help caring for them. 6 chicks survived and I removed them when they were about 6 weeks old. That's about 4 weeks ago now, and right now all 3 hens are incubating 9 or more eggs each. My poor roo is used to having 3 ladies to entertain him, now all they do is lying on their nests all day

That's more reliable than chickens, in my experience!

 

[The Quail Guru]

Tell my buttons that

I think brooding might be contagious. Two of my 3 hens were incubating eggs in the same cage. When the first one hatched its chicks, the second one left the nest to help caring for them. 6 chicks survived and I removed them when they were about 6 weeks old. That's about 4 weeks ago now, and right now all 3 hens are incubating 9 or more eggs each. My poor roo is used to having 3 ladies to entertain him, now all they do is lying on their nests all day

That's more reliable than chickens, in my experience!

I bought a button pair from the pet shop and they have hatched out three sets of chicks! So I think that they've cared for about 9 chicks, their first set they only hatched about 2 chicks. Unfortunately most of them were males but the pet shop were happy to take them.

 

[dc3085]

I've only raised a couple hundred buttons, what do I know?