# Quails.



## Patmufc (Dec 10, 2008)

Hi all.

I am a snake guy so bare with me.
Basically went to a rreptile meet tonight and someone had a pair of small quails and I think they are quality so just after a bit of info on these guys really.

Prices?
Setups?
Diet?
Requirements?
Pics?
Breeders and Availability?

Just some stuff like that as I would love to keep a pair of these. Another question, may be stupid, can you get them out and let them perch on your finger etc?

Cheers.
Pat. : victory:


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

Patmufc said:


> Hi all.
> 
> I am a snake guy so bare with me.
> Basically went to a rreptile meet tonight and someone had a pair of small quails and I think they are quality so just after a bit of info on these guys really.
> ...


These all depend on the species of Quail. Japanese, Jumbo ect are all the same Coturnix quail which are the basic egg and meat type. There are also Chinese Pained Quail which are tiny, also known as button Quail. There are others, Californian for example, but the chances are you mean one of the first two.
If so you cannot just keep a pair of either species, the male will literally shag her to death, they can be brutal, and whilst many will maintain they won't there are bald female quails all over the place so a group or two females, 3 is always better as due to their short lifespan (18 monthsish, some times a little longer) there will be a time when one is on it's own which is extremely cruel. Either species will never get what you would call hand tame but are easily handled. The Coturnix can be kept outside, hutch and run style or in an avairy whilst I would recommend Chinese are kept indoors. Both species when frightened have a habit of boinging straight upwards, up to 6 feet at times which means you need to make sure that they cannot damage their heads on a low or hard ceiling.
As for diet you can get specialised quail food or many feed chicken layers pellets/mash and/or miced corn. Both are easy to find and are pretty cheap, cheaper to hatch and you have a source of disposing spare males being a reptile keeper or they are very good eating if you have a couple per person.
Set ups range from indoor/outdoor rabbit hutches, to vivs, to aquariums to aviaries.

If you ever decide to hatch, seeing as you're in Manchester I'll always dispose of any spare males for you as I've not got mine yet. Yum.


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

Weve got Bobwhites,Japanese and one lone Chinese at the sanctuary. The chinese is already 2 years old and her friends have died off, she seems really happy as she lives in an aviary with the resident guinea pigs and finches and cuddles up to the pigs at bedtime.


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

chinese are really nervous and jumpy, and some of the colour morphs are hard to sex so its easy to get stuffed and sold a load of males that them take a couple of weeks to massacre each other.........

japanese/coturnix are a bit bigger and much steadiers, and proble 0best to start off with.
i have mine in 5x2 rabbit hutchs on shavings and chopped straw, and they have water in a rabbit bottle and get a handful of layers pellets once a day, and mixed corn/wilde bird seed for a treat.
oh and a pot of budgie grit.

they lay like theres no tomorrow in the summer, and are great fun to hatch


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

japanese are prob the best to start of with (there the bigger, calmer ones), i love the look of chinese quail but after looking after some for a week i think il stick with my japs :lol2: in terms of keeping them hight isnt as important as floor space, just be aware that they fly upwards when there frightened so make sure the roof of the housing isnt something that could hurt them. in terms of diet we feed ours a mix of layers pellets, seed and grit, though if you can manage it ours really appreciate going in a covered run on the lawn and pecking at grass. price wise it can vary, but i paid £1 each for my females and got my male free (can give you directions to where i got mine from if you like).

and as has been said they lay like crazy come summer so brush up on your quail egg based recipies :2thumb:


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## mtboas (Nov 30, 2010)

Was he breeding these to feed his reptiles? How do the snakes do on these?


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

I've got female Japanese in my aviary, they are quite big compared to the smaller species, they are easy to catch and move around but I dont think they would ever perch, or sit still if you got them out - they are always on the move, and can be very easily startled, the roof of the aviary is 8 foot and they can hit it if startled! They're quiet and pretty easy to care for but they are very active so I dont know how well they would do in a small enclosure. They do lay a lot of eggs even without a male which go to my skinks/monitors  I dont know if it's just mine but my two really like jumping onto ledges and will spend all day hopping 1-2 foot in the air trying to reach the top of a box just to see what's there then they jump back down again.

I was strongly advised not to get a male if I didn't specifically want to hatch out eggs, and the place that I got them all the females that were in with males did have plucked patches and bald heads and looked quite harrassed. My two females have never squabbled though and always sleep together and seem to stick together so I think they're happy enough.

Price wise I think most species of quail are pretty cheap, the problem if you dont have an outdoor aviary or rabbit/hutch/run would probably be space as they are very active and do need a lot of floor space.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

miss_ferret said:


> japanese are prob the best to start of with (there the bigger, calmer ones), i love the look of chinese quail but after looking after some for a week i think il stick with my japs :lol2: in terms of keeping them hight isnt as important as floor space, just be aware that they fly upwards when there frightened so make sure the roof of the housing isnt something that could hurt them. in terms of diet we feed ours a mix of layers pellets, seed and grit, though if you can manage it ours really appreciate going in a covered run on the lawn and pecking at grass. price wise it can vary, but i paid £1 each for my females and got my male free (can give you directions to where i got mine from if you like).
> 
> and as has been said they lay like crazy come summer so brush up on your quail egg based recipies :2thumb:


Can you please tell me where you got yours a £1 a piece? Thanks, Liam.


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

LiamRatSnake said:


> Can you please tell me where you got yours a £1 a piece? Thanks, Liam.


sure, how well do you know the saddleworth area? cos i can describe where they are pretty easily but i have no idea what the place is officially called (i go to buxton a lot and going that way is the pretty route) :blush:


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

miss_ferret said:


> sure, how well do you know the saddleworth area? cos i can describe where they are pretty easily but i have no idea what the place is officially called (i go to buxton a lot and going that way is the pretty route) :blush:


No don't know Saddleworth well but the Oldham area well enough as a whole. Maybe you could find it on Google Maps?


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## Postcard (Aug 29, 2010)

My male english white quail calls every night at about 1am. Drives me bloody bonkers. Wouldn't keep the big ones again - we had chinese painted quails which were GORGEOUS and hand tame but a cat broke into their enclosure and killed them all, so we got big ones and they're just nowhere near as charming imo.

Lovely pets, quails, but the cocks are really more for meat than for pets as they are a blinking pain.


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## Devi (Jan 9, 2011)

I bred Chinese Painted for a while. It's a myth that you can't keep pairs, pairs do fine with enough space and hiding spots. I've even kept groups of only males perfectly well. They can be totally hand tame if they are handled from day 1, but to do this you'll need to breed or at least hatch them yourself. 
As far as the basics, an aviary is best, but a small rabbit hutch is fine for 2-4 cpq, they eat chick crumb, game crumb, and veg with the odd boiled egg as a treat. Seeds should be a rare treat and not a main diet, although many pet shops will tell you to feed them a seed mix, this is really bad for them.
Garry Landry - This guy is considered the expert, its a badly laid out site but a lot of good info on there


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

Devi said:


> I bred Chinese Painted for a while. It's a myth that you can't keep pairs, pairs do fine with enough space and hiding spots.


Quails enjoy companionship. It isn't companionship if the female is forced to hide all the time to avoid being raped to death by the male. I knew someone with a trio kept in a hutch and the male killed both females. Not only did he make them both bald he actually scalped one of them. They were stressed and frightened the whole time.


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## Devi (Jan 9, 2011)

LiamRatSnake said:


> Quails enjoy companionship. It isn't companionship if the female is forced to hide all the time to avoid being raped to death by the male. I knew someone with a trio kept in a hutch and the male killed both females. Not only did he make them both bald he actually scalped one of them. They were stressed and frightened the whole time.


With all respect to your friend, if that happened then something else was going on. I don't have enough info to comment but a trio should not have that kind of dynamic at all.

Image Link that I can't embed

If that works, it's my blue face pair who I raised from egg and hatched a fair few eggs from too, you can see the females neck clearly and there's not a feather out of place. I believe he actually died before her.


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

i`ve had cpr with 1 male to 4+ females and still they got their heads ripped open.
its perfectly `normal` quail behaviour.

my japs i hatched myself and have handled from day one. they are in quads in long rabbit pens and will eat from my hand, are not skittish at all.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

Devi said:


> With all respect to your friend, if that happened then something else was going on. I don't have enough info to comment but a trio should not have that kind of dynamic at all.
> 
> Image Link that I can't embed
> 
> If that works, it's my blue face pair who I raised from egg and hatched a fair few eggs from too, you can see the females neck clearly and there's not a feather out of place. I believe he actually died before her.


It sounds as if you've been lucky or have a very very laid back male, there will always be exceptions. I personally will not be keeping them in groups any less than one male to 6 females.
And you may disrespect my friend. My warnings to him landed on deaf ears and resulted in 2 dead quails.


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## Postcard (Aug 29, 2010)

Due to the natural passing away of the other quails we now have just two remaining - a cock and a hen. They're doing fine though had I been able to find a good home for the cock when I put an advert up a few months ago I think he'd have gone.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

annabel said:


> Due to the natural passing away of the other quails we now have just two remaining - a cock and a hen. They're doing fine though had I been able to find a good home for the cock when I put an advert up a few months ago I think he'd have gone.


They will be fine now he's too old to do much damage.
I really like quail. Copious amounts of eggs and lovely meat. Now if they'd brood naturally they would be the perfect bird.


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

we`ve ruined them and bred it out of them.

i did have some cpq given to me once, the parents had made a nest and reared the bubbas themselves in the bottom of a canary aviary.
never heard it happen before or since.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

pigglywiggly said:


> we`ve ruined them and bred it out of them.
> 
> i did have some cpq given to me once, the parents had made a nest and reared the bubbas themselves in the bottom of a canary aviary.
> never heard it happen before or since.


I don't know anyone who's ever had natural brooding. It bet it's nice to see, like watching a hybrid chicken rearing her own young.


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## gazz (Dec 9, 2006)

pigglywiggly said:


> we`ve ruined them and bred it out of them.
> 
> i did have some cpq given to me once, the parents had made a nest and reared the bubbas themselves in the bottom of a canary aviary.
> never heard it happen before or since.


It's japanese quails that very, very rarely self brood, Asian blue quails self brood easy, Given the right houseing, All they ask for is well planted with long grass's and over hangs, One male 3 female natral day hours and in spring they'll start getting into it.

How cute is this:2thumb:.
YouTube - The most harmonic family

YouTube - Baby Chinese Painted Quails and Adult Chinese Painted Quails


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

hybrid chickens make great moms, most of them dont live long enough to go broody though!


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## wildlifewarrior (Jun 26, 2008)

a few days old this thread is, but it made me giggle.

They were my Chinese painted quail you saw. I brought them along to show people how i produced food for my egg eating snakes. I keep 47 of them in total in purpose built outdoor enclosures.

They are awesome little birds and so tame its ridiculous.


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## richie.b (Oct 27, 2008)

Ive got a group of chinese painted quail in my aviary they lay eggs all the time put some in the incubater last year and the chicks when hatched are little yellow fluffy things about the size of a bumble bee. These are great little quail in my opinion :2thumb:


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## Postcard (Aug 29, 2010)

richie.b said:


> Ive got a group of chinese painted quail in my aviary they lay eggs all the time put some in the incubater last year and the chicks when hatched are little yellow fluffy things about the size of a bumble bee. These are great little quail in my opinion :2thumb:


I held some two day old ones when I got our cpq quailies and they were so strong for their size, absolutely amazing little things. Ah you're making me really miss having them! They made such good chirping noises too and would all come to the door when it was feed time.


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## graeme77 (Sep 7, 2010)

if you want tame quial i would try hatching your own i hatch some last year and mine are friendly as any thing they get under you feet wanting petting


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## AZUK (Jul 9, 2007)

The little Chinese Painted Quails are awesome the males can be surprisingly loud tough and sound like a kids trumpet. Quail can be very messy though and prone to Bumble foot.


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