what do you keep your quail in?

[688peterl]

im still not sure if i want to get quail, what do you keep yours in? an indoor cage or outside? can they be kept outside? how much room do they need? do they perch on things like other birds do, basically i know nothing about them!

 

[Byrdj]

The sticky which is the first topic in this forum has very good information.

 

[smallbluejellybean]

I keep mine in an aviary with my canaries. Mine are buttons. They don't perch, but they use ramps and jump to different levels I have in there. I have some eggs in a homemade incubator at the moment. When they hatch I will move them to a 3 foot aquarium with a lid. I made my own wire light boxes and will line it with wood shavings. I will keep them there until they are old enough to join the adults, but I have heard that alot of people keep these small quail in aquariums all the time as their permanent home with no problems.
Larger quail of course need more room. So its up to you what breed, indoor or outdoor.

 

[Bettacreek]

Indoor/outdoor would depend on location and species really. Button quail won't survive winters in Northern climates. Coturnix can be kept indoors, but, they make a better outdoor bird if you have that option.
I personally plan to build my quail cages. I'll be keeping buttons and coturnix. Coturnix will be outdoors year-round (with exception to the very young), and the buttons indoors during the cold months. I'll be building rabbit hutch type cages for the coturnix, and I'm still debating on caging for the buttons. I have two old pack'n'play cribs that I plan on using for quail, though I'm not sure exactly how they will be used just yet.

 

[shelleyd2008]

My buttons are inside right now, along with about 30 young coturnix. The buttons will go back out on the porch once temps are 60+, and the coturnix will go out with the others once we get a few decent days. The other coturnix are in the barn in cages. The barn has 3 solid walls, and the other is completely open. Each of the cages has a box for them to go in to snuggle, plus there is plastic along the back and side (facing the doorway).

Coturnix and buttons are ground dwellers, they don't perch. I believe bobwhites do perch, but I'm not sure. Coturnix and buttons need about 1 sq. ft. per bird. You can get away with less for coturnix, but buttons really do need that (or more). Coturnix need to be kept in groups of at least 3 females to one male. If you have a large group, you should have the ratio more like 5 females to 1 male. Buttons do better in pairs, male-female, female-female, male-male, doesn't matter, though you can keep them in larger groups (I do). All mine that are in each group were hatched together though, so they are used to each other.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
VACUUME BAGS IN THE FREEZER!------------------- LOL! SORRY I COULDNT RESIST.....

 

[zaylinda]

Quote:
VACUUME BAGS IN THE FREEZER!------------------- LOL! SORRY I COULDNT RESIST.....

haha! Mine are currently marinating in the fridge!

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
VACUUME BAGS IN THE FREEZER!------------------- LOL! SORRY I COULDNT RESIST.....

haha! Mine are currently marinating in the fridge!

AT LEAST THEY ARENT CROWING ANYMORE.....

 

[zaylinda]

Quote:
haha! Mine are currently marinating in the fridge!

AT LEAST THEY ARENT CROWING ANYMORE.....

Thank goodness for that!