Friday, July 31, 2009

Button Quail Help!?

I have a pair of button Quail and have had them for 2 or 3 months. At first they were really skiddish and whenever someone came in the room, they'd run in their house.
Now they have adapted well and dont get so scared when someone enters the room, but they are not tame.I gave up on trying to tame them a long time ago. My problem now is that they dont have ANY eggs, they hade one a long time ago, after that not one egg has been seen.
What can I do to encourage them to lay eggs, I am sure they are mail and female. They get about 7 hours of direct sunlight through glass. This is probably not enough huh? I read that they need 14 hours of sun to lay eggs, is this 14 hours of direct sun rays, or just 14 hours of lighting?
Thanks for your assistance
Answers:
It's 13-14 hours of lighting. It doesn't need to be direct sunlight - and actually you wouldn't want it to be, because they'd probably overheat and die :)
Are they indoor birds or outdoor birds? There isn't much incentive to reproduce if there's only 2 feet of room to begin with.
Are you entirely sure they're male and female? Do you have any pictures? What color variety are they? With normals (and really, most varieties besides the pale colors) it's pretty easy to distinguish the two.
Are they related? If they are - whatever you do don't breed them. And if they are, this could be part of the reason they're not readily humping.
Make sure that whatever enclosure you have them in has lots and lots of cover. When I had Button Quail I bought a whole assortment of fake/real potted plants to put in the pen (a friend's father constructed a coop, of sorts, for all of them) for them to seek shelter under.
If the bottom of the enclosure is solid - make sure you have it covered with mulch or something similar - if it's wire bottomed - you need to put something inside that has mulch/bedding of some sort.
I found that with mine, they would most often lay their eggs in a small depression scooped out by the female inside of a small cat crate I'd placed inside with shavings on the inside of it.
The only thing was my birds were very young and not really 'breeding,' they were just laying as a product of being hens.. so they would sometimes also just lay a random egg here and there.
It could be that your birds are just too young, in combination with not being exposed to proper conditions suitable for breeding.
Also make sure they have a constant supply of fresh food and water. NOT JUST PELLET FOOD.
Offer them vegetables, mealworms, etc.etc. The more variety in their diet, the healthier they'll be, the more willing they'll be to try to bring more birds into the environment.
Do you want to trade? :)
I can't get my Button Quail to STOP laying eggs. She's been laying one almost every day and is up to 19 so far.
How big is their cage and what kind of cage is it?
Mine is in a 20 gallon long fish tank with a cloth cover (held on by velcro) to prevent injury when she 'boinks'...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p2gvd63a...

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