I am thinking of buying a pair of baby button quails. First off, could you please provide me with as much information on these birds as possible and also is it possible to breed without an incubator?
Thanks :)
Answers:
I currently have 7 chinese painted quail ("button quail") and have owned quails for 9 years.
They are adorable birds, I couldn't live without them. They are very social creatures, and it's fun watching them communicate and live with each other.
However, I've owned many different species of birds, and quails are the most vicious (to each other that is). If you have females with more than one male then watch out! Sometimes they will live peacefully, but it may be just a matter of time and the males will turn on each other. They are brutal and sometimes will fight to the death. So if your males start getting aggressive, separate them right away. I've had females that have also turned aggressive at certain times of the year but it's rarer.
What I really love about quails is building the inside of their enclosure! They love to climb and find hiding spots. I use bits of funny shaped wood, planks, concrete, bricks, etc and build their environment. Plus the more hiding places they have, the more likely they will feel comfortable about nesting.
Mine live at the bottom of my aviaries, but there are people who keep them in aquariums or indoor cages. If you are keeping them in indoor cages, you need to make sure that the roof of the cage is soft. When scared, quails fly straight up and could injure themselves if the roof is hard.
As for breeding... quails are well known for laying eggs all over the place and taking no interest in them. It is luck of the draw if you happen to get a female interested in breeding. Quails don't pair for life like some birds, so if you have lots of females and one male, he will breed with all of them (be careful if you have only one female - sometimes the male might pester her and never give her a break).
They will build a small nest out of dry grass, nesting material, etc, and lay a nest - about 5-14 eggs (I've had one sit on 14 and one still managed to hatch).
While most females will not want to breed, once you get one that does, she won't stop! So make sure she doesn't exhaust herself. And also watch that they don't inbreed. Also, the babies are tiny and can fit through most cage bars, so you will need a barrier. Baby quails are the cutest things in existance, especially the silver mutation which is all yellow as a baby. Nnnawww. But by the end of the week they have already started growing adult feathers. They also eat on their own from birth, the parents just guide them. Watch out for the father, some are good parents, while some will fling the babies around. Remove the father if he is harming the babies.
As for food, personally I feed mine 1/2 seed, 1/2 pellet mixture (small sized seeds and pellets). I also feed grated vegetables, fruit, etc. They love dandelion leaves and grass. They also like egg and biscuit mix bought at pet stores or supermarkets. And they love live food, such as mealworms, which are more as a treat. They also require grit because they swallow seeds whole. And a dish of dirt or sand so they can take dust baths.
Here is a terrific website and forum about keeping quails. A lot of people keep them inside, so it does cover that. http://www.cyberquail.com/
They're disgusting.
They're cute as babies, but they're stinky, messy, and flighty as adults. You need to make sure you have them in a cage that is tall enough so that when they spook at EVERYTHING and fly straight up into the air they don't knock themselves out (or kill themselves) by hitting the ceiling of whatever you're keeping them in.
They can be possible - but sometimes difficult - to successfully breed.
And I think you'll find after dealing with 2 you'll never want any again.
I've had up to 8 at one time and I was happier with my bantam cochin. More cuddly, less stinky, less messy, less flighty.
I loved my buttons!!
I had a big room in which I kept my parrots in their big breeder cages. They would, as parrots do, drop a lot of their food. So this naturally drew rodents. I left my buttons to "free range" on the floor of the room except for when I washing the floor about every other day (because they do still poop) so the buttons not only ate some of what the parrots threw but would hassle any rodents that tried to get into the room. It was a great system and worked beautifully!
I always just used an incubator for hatching out the eggs since it was easier and then you can hand tame them, too, so they aren't so spooky.
The one answer was definitely right they pop up and rip open their heads, give themselves brain damage, and break their necks hitting the top of their cage. What they are trying to is get away from predators since they can't really fly. One friend always padded the top of her cages for them.
As for giving you info on them there are tons and tons of great web sites out that that you can find with google.com or yahoo and there are so many I couldn't possibly get them all in here.
OH!! And fun with buttons: if you have a handful of them (two might be enough) give them one fairly round grape. As they try and get hold of this round grape they look like they are playing soccer!
Good luck and enjoy them!! I loved mine!
I have button quail as my bottom feeders. I have finches that throw their seed and the buttons feed off the dropped seed so I have no waste.
I have never "tried" to breed mine and have never used an incubator. They just do it naturally. They are usually about 1 1/2 - 2 years old before they have a successful nest. They do breed at a younger age but for some reason fail to nest properly and we lose allot of eggs. I have 6 babies running around the bottom right now... very easy to maintain.
They are so cute! babies and adults. And they make this wonderful crowing noise! They do jump in the air when frightened or trying to escape from you catching them but this is not a usual behavior so you don't have to have them in a tall cage, just give them enough room to run around and scratch the dirt. They love to roll around in the warm sand.
You will enjoy them.
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