Going to get quails...HELP!

[kquail]

Okay, I am going to get king quail , but I really want some advice on things first.
Number one, are Cinnamon splash coloured quails hard to get, or expensive?
Two, can quail be trained enough to come to their name (if food is offered) or like their owner enough to want to be with them and/or follow them? ;D
I know quails lay tons of eggs, but I heard you need to remove some, keep others, for the hens health. How does this work?
And last, can you keep them indoors and if so, does it freek them out if you have cats somewhere else in the house (Don't worry, id never put cats in the same room as them. Like, can they sence cats are in the house? Thanks,
Hatti

[robert]

Kquail, you might be interested in these
www.cyberquail.com/homepage.html
www.cyberquail.com/bunny.html
from Robert and Precious

[lyrebird]

Hi kquail and welcome.

I love King Quail and there still one of my favorite birds. I have 1 pair of Silver King Quail, they just raised 2 chicks and my female is already sitting on more eggs! King Quails are usually very shy but with some patience they can be tamed easily. One way to tame them is to try to hand feed them meal worms (my Quails love meal worms!). As it comes to eggs, King Quail hens lay eggs all the time If you don't want to breed them you should remove the eggs. I would not reccomend keeping Quails in side because as I said before there very shy. King Quails will never come if they are called. And also I don't know how common Cinnoman splash King Quail are.

Good luck on getting your King Quail(s?), there great birds.

[vankarhi]

I have no experience with these birds so I can't offer any advise. But I am sure others can.

[lilfaery]

Hi Hatti, and welcome to the forum,
I keep two pairs of King quails in my aviaries. One pair are the normal wild colour and the other pair are the silver mutation.

I would not advise keeping quail indoors for long. I kept mine inside during their quarantine, but they were clearly wanting to be in a larger environment. Somce they are basically ground scavengers by nature, they like to be able to roam over large areas. Also bugs and natural ground are a large part of what is necessary to keep them healthy and happy. They do not bathe in water but in sand, so they need either a sandy floor or a large sandtray to keep them happy.

I've not heard of the mutation you speak of at all. The normal colour hens are kind of a rusty brown, the cocks are brown and blue-grey with blue and/or red breasts. The males are identified by the throat markings beneath their chin/beak area in a striped pattern.

They could probably be encouraged to eat out of your hand if you were incredibly patient with them, because the slightest movement will have them flying up into the air and they can hurt themselves on the roof of the aviary, or when they land with a thump. They fly real good straight up, but they land real bad, and they take fright easily. Having said that, I can stand still in my aviaries and the quails will often come wandering around near my shoes, even pecking at my shoelaces at times.

I have three babies at the moment with my normal coloured pair and they will come running up to see what I have to eat when I take their greens in for the day. You can enjoy them interacting with you at times like that.

As mentioned, quails do lay almost continuously. They tend to sit on piles of eggs and you never know which ones are fertile. My hen will eventually kick the ones she doesn't want away from her nesting area. Then I pick them up and throw them away, as they are usually light and probably infertile. I don't remove any at all until she has moved them away from her brooding area.

Finally, since they are so little, they sense predators around very easily and get frightened quickly, so it would not be wise to have them near your cats. The natural cat instinct would be to chase them as they run fast and act like something that needs to be chased (like mice). They are beautiful little birds and very rewarding when placed in an aviary where they bring the eye down to ground level. Oh, yes and mine are named Sully and Cindy (the normal pair) and Sylvie and Simon (the silvers). ;D

Cheers, Shauna

[vankarhi]

Well your reply Shauna was very informative and I learned a lot from that.......thankyou shauna. Quails are one bird I have considered putting into my aviaries.......just not sure my alex's or my ekkies would approve.

[lilfaery]

My pleasure Vankarhi,
glad I can be of some assistance.

I don't think the addition of King qails to the floor of your aviaries would upset your birds at all. They are generally a very quiet and happy little bird, and don't make any trouble. They chase all the bugs and keep the disgarded seeds down to a minimum, and like to roam the whole floor.

I have one pair in with all my canaries and finches, and another pair in with my tiels, Bourkes parakeets, Java sparrows and budgies, and I never have any problems with them at all. Even with birds that like to spend time foraging, the quails are generally ok as long as there is room for them to go. They are incredibly sweet and they have some funny little antics that make you smile. I just love when my little boys stand on tippy toes and crow. Like they are king of the world. Sooooo cute. ;D

Cheers, Shauna ;D