I've probably already asked this previously in other ways, and I apologize if I'm being redundant or just plain stupid. I'm just fascinated watching and interacting with the quail I've hatched out in the past month. They surprise me, though, because they just don't seem to be as "wild" or "flighty" as I believed they would be based upon other comments. With the buttons, I've read a lot of comments about them "startling" and "boinking" -- well, mine have yet to fly up. They had a pretty good scare this morning, because the vaccuum gave way suddenly as I was sweeping, wasn't latched into the upright, and it hit their cage and knocked it partially off the end table it's on. They didn't try to flush or fly, just ran a bit. With the Coturnix babies, that are 10 days old now, I've been taking them out of their brooder every other day to swap them to another one, and they aren't very hard to catch -- they don't even resist as much as the buttons do. What do you think?
I have seven corturnix that I keep as pets, and they're pretty tame, really! They come up to me when I approach their pen, probably because they know I feed them, and they allow me to hold them with minimal struggling. They're fairly calm when held. They're maybe a little less tame than my bantams, but they definitely are tame to a degree where I can handle them regularly without them minding much.
Compared to Button Quail, Coturnix can get quite tame. I consider them mini chickens I have about 200 adult coturnix and I reach my hand in each pen and the birds come to me, even if I have that many birds! They are easy to catch and have interesting little behaviors. Love them, and the buttons! <3
My coturnix are pretty tame considering they came from a place where there were a bunch of them and they were raised in cages and kept in the basement. When I go out to their pen one comes up to me to beg. She will climb in my hand to check for treats (Cricket). 2 others just ignore me (Romeo and Lucy Lu). One runs and hides (Keiko), but when they were caged, she was picked on by the other quail. If I am out there for a while she calms down and comes out to visit. If they had been hand raised I imagine they would be much tamer.
Some of my roosters will run off into a corner and crow at me, but my hens will come to me and watch me fill their feeder.
I have 5 buttons, 3 of which I reared from babies. I handled 1 button from a chick and he is really friendly!
We only have Coturnix, not Buttons. For the most part, I think the Coturnix are the sweetest little birds. Very docile, easy to catch. They come right over at chore time, check out what we're doing. They'll take clover or other green treats from our hands if offered. And since all of our birds (quail, chickens, meat chickens) are livestock and not pets, they're not handled all that much. I also think our chickens are friendly and almost 'dog like' - but the quail make the chickens look like little monsters. We have a couple females that are on the aggressive side. DH calls them "the guards" and says they're "violent". He's right. They come right over to the door of their pens at chore time, waiting. As soon as you reach in for feeder/waterer/egg collecting, they start pecking your hand VERY aggressively. And the little witches never quit throughout the chores! Like guard dogs...attacking with peck, peck, peck every time you reach in. LOL I laugh at them and say "leave me alone, silly little girl". Afterall, their pecking doesn't hurt, it's more of a minor nuisance than anything. I don't know what makes those couple females like they are. They have the same amount of space/bird as the other 8 pens. If they start picking on the other birds in the pens, they'll have to go.
Coturnix are much, much friendlier! My buttons are still easily startled, but the coturnix come running to me. I never handled the coturnix when they were little, either. A couple of them told my husband off when he was reroofing their house, hough. They are also doing well at being around chickens and rabbits, too. The buttons wear themselves out being startled at everything, but the c.s learn not to worry. I had bobwhites for a while and they were even flightier than the buttons. They would pile up every single day when I fed them. They eventually killed each other off. I can understand why a button would be so worried, being so little and all, but the bobwhites were just plain stupid! So, IMO, coturnix are the best quail there are.
I have raised, hatched and bred buttons for several years now and my opinion of them is they are not holding pets,.. I have built different cages and kept them in different environments.. they are fine as long as a hand is not reaching for them... they are not mindless creatures that simply pop up... my 2 cents
Not So - 2 of my 3 baby buttons turned out to be males. Yesterday while we were in town we found a nice little plastic mouse cage for Buddy to live in. This morning I cleaned it out and put Buddy in there. I let him out in my room for playtime. He loves it! He has two spots were he will run to and then stop and wait to be picked up again! He is so adorable! If you handle Baby Buttons when they're small and if you handle them enough they can be quiet tame.
