Good [insert time of day here] everyone!
I, after about seven weeks (or six years I suppose), have not yet gotten over my Quail obsession. If you know you know. So finding myself unable to let go of this obsession, and getting to a kind of milestone with my quails, I've made the decision to start a quail blog, modeled after someone else's hatching blog. The major reason is because I would like to post updates about my Quail (hopefully others find this as interesting as I find their updates) and I don't want to constantly make new threads in the Quail forum, while other threads may be more urgent.
Now, the milestone my quails have gotten to today? Not really any, other than being 5.5 weeks old, which is the most common youngest age of laying (mine have let this come and go with a great deal of satisfaction). A week or so ago one of my Quail, the obvious boy, had started crowing. I've decided to name him Gustavus Adolphus, the lion of the north. Every time anything gets near the cage (me and my cat occasionally sneaking her way through), he will start crowing and pecking at whatever is there. The other three are all huddled up away, and I've even seen Gus herd them away from the intruder (me). I have two definite girls, they have defined speckles and Gus is interested in them. One is a little smaller than any other Quails, even though the girls are supposed to be bigger than the guys. There is one final Quail, could be a girl or a boy. I vent checked her (fingers crossed that it IS a her) but didn't see anything, although I know she's plenty young so I might have to check her again later. The last one is by far the largest quail, and even picking her up I can tell she's a bit more hefty than the others. I've named the fee Catherine II of Russia and the pharaoh Cleopatra. The grey bird doesn't get a name yet, as I don't know her gender.
I've found that keeping the water bowl (a DIY water bowl that I made as my procrastination told me I didn't need to buy the hamster water bottle) away from the food allows it to get about eighty percent less stuff in it. I think when they kick at the ground while they eat, they send the pine pellet stuff into the water, so I'm glad I decided to move it. Moreover, they like things to peck at. A lot
I've taken out their heater (a week or two ago actually), added three cardboard boxes with two holes cut in them (thanks Nabiki!), changed their sandbox to be bigger, added in some leaves from outside (they keep carrying them all over the cage), and put a little bowl with some calcium bicarbonate that I had laying around for my aquatic snails. I've seen that they've done SOMETHING with it, and I am truly hoping that it's because they will be laying soon. I've also put a lamp above the cage so I don't have to keep the lights on all day.
I realize that they are pretty young, so I'm not necessarily expecting eggs quite yet (and anyway I'm a newbie so there's that) but you can be sure I do my best to discreetly look around the cage to see if any happened along. It's actually lent for us, so no eggs for me until Christmas, but I'm hoping they will lay during this time so I can hatch a couple as a test run for my incubator. I'm kinda scared that if I keep doing things with their cage (to feed and water them I have to put my hands inside and lift the cage a bit, and to get the un-gendered one I have to open it all the way and walk inside which is probably a big shock) they'll wait to lay eggs. Also every now and then the cat gets in because the door is opened by someone, and they're probably freaked out about that too.
Anyway, to end this post I'd like to say that I'll add pictures a little bit later since I've already written quite an essay. Also I'm completely open to any suggestions for keeping these little guys!
Hope you have a great day!
Myst
I, after about seven weeks (or six years I suppose), have not yet gotten over my Quail obsession. If you know you know. So finding myself unable to let go of this obsession, and getting to a kind of milestone with my quails, I've made the decision to start a quail blog, modeled after someone else's hatching blog. The major reason is because I would like to post updates about my Quail (hopefully others find this as interesting as I find their updates) and I don't want to constantly make new threads in the Quail forum, while other threads may be more urgent.
Now, the milestone my quails have gotten to today? Not really any, other than being 5.5 weeks old, which is the most common youngest age of laying (mine have let this come and go with a great deal of satisfaction). A week or so ago one of my Quail, the obvious boy, had started crowing. I've decided to name him Gustavus Adolphus, the lion of the north. Every time anything gets near the cage (me and my cat occasionally sneaking her way through), he will start crowing and pecking at whatever is there. The other three are all huddled up away, and I've even seen Gus herd them away from the intruder (me). I have two definite girls, they have defined speckles and Gus is interested in them. One is a little smaller than any other Quails, even though the girls are supposed to be bigger than the guys. There is one final Quail, could be a girl or a boy. I vent checked her (fingers crossed that it IS a her) but didn't see anything, although I know she's plenty young so I might have to check her again later. The last one is by far the largest quail, and even picking her up I can tell she's a bit more hefty than the others. I've named the fee Catherine II of Russia and the pharaoh Cleopatra. The grey bird doesn't get a name yet, as I don't know her gender.
I've found that keeping the water bowl (a DIY water bowl that I made as my procrastination told me I didn't need to buy the hamster water bottle) away from the food allows it to get about eighty percent less stuff in it. I think when they kick at the ground while they eat, they send the pine pellet stuff into the water, so I'm glad I decided to move it. Moreover, they like things to peck at. A lot
I've taken out their heater (a week or two ago actually), added three cardboard boxes with two holes cut in them (thanks Nabiki!), changed their sandbox to be bigger, added in some leaves from outside (they keep carrying them all over the cage), and put a little bowl with some calcium bicarbonate that I had laying around for my aquatic snails. I've seen that they've done SOMETHING with it, and I am truly hoping that it's because they will be laying soon. I've also put a lamp above the cage so I don't have to keep the lights on all day.
I realize that they are pretty young, so I'm not necessarily expecting eggs quite yet (and anyway I'm a newbie so there's that) but you can be sure I do my best to discreetly look around the cage to see if any happened along. It's actually lent for us, so no eggs for me until Christmas, but I'm hoping they will lay during this time so I can hatch a couple as a test run for my incubator. I'm kinda scared that if I keep doing things with their cage (to feed and water them I have to put my hands inside and lift the cage a bit, and to get the un-gendered one I have to open it all the way and walk inside which is probably a big shock) they'll wait to lay eggs. Also every now and then the cat gets in because the door is opened by someone, and they're probably freaked out about that too.
Anyway, to end this post I'd like to say that I'll add pictures a little bit later since I've already written quite an essay. Also I'm completely open to any suggestions for keeping these little guys!
Hope you have a great day!
Myst
