Help! Quails and water..

[Wolf-Kim]

Alright everyone, now what do you use for feeders?

-Kim

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Feed Hopper. The pens are previously used rabbit pens and there are feed hoppers installed so I just toss the feed in. It's nice since it filters out the dust. I use jar feeders for chicks.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
There is a rabbit feeder on our pen. Our quail are fed crumble and the rabbit feeder has holes in it. I know I could line the bottom to cover the holes, so the hopper would accomade feed.

Do your quail kick the feed out of their rabbit feeder? I hate wasting feed, even just a little bit. LOL

Right now, my quail are eating out of the lid to a printer-paper box.

The depth of the cardboard lid keeps them from kicking it out too bad. But they also find the lid(and food) very comfortable to sleep in(and of course crap in).

Birds...

-Kim

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

I feed crumbles as well and I haven't fit anything on the hopper I just toss it in and not worry over what gets screened out. Mostly the cats eat what goes on the ground. At first the quail knocked a lot out but they have seemed to calm down a bit and eat more than they play at the hopper.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Alrighty, thanks Ace. I'll give it a try! I had to put a piece of a brick into the hopper today. LOL I heard noises coming from a part of the pen that didn't have any quail(that I could see). After fearing it several times I begin to look for this "invisible" quail. Lift the lid of the hopper up, and a little white half-grown Coturnix looks up at me.

He had crawled in but because of the slant of the floor and size of the opening, he got "stuck" inside the hopper. Silly lil' bird.

I put him back where he should have been and he immediately stuffed his face. So I guess he wasn't in there for just a few minutes.. Poor guy, good thing it was overcast today, or he would have cooked(prematurely) in that metal hopper..

-Kim

 

[Mrs MIA]

I'm laughing my butt off here!!

My first hatch of coturnix, I used a round chick feeder with a glass jar on it. I came out one morning to "quail under glass"... one had crawled in through the hole while it was almost empty and was peering out of the jar like a mime in an invisible box.

I totally forgot about that! LOL!

The waterers have a little spring loaded "tongue" in them that when the bird puts its beak in ther it sprays out water. When I was training them to use it, I'd just use my finger to push the little lever and fill the cup with water. There's usually a little bit of water in the bottom, and they hit the lever trying to get to it, which sprays a little more water. It's nice... no mess, no waste.

I'll try to take some detailed photos tomorrow, ok? Time for you to GO TO BED!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

LOL That's cute about the "quail under glass".. I can picture it now!

Thanks for planning on snapping a few pictures! I was trying to tell Adam about the cup waterers and explaining how they work with the buckets. LOL I told him "I'll just show you if I get pics!" LOL

That's cool about the waterers. I had heard that the nipple waterers were wasteful, but I didn't know how true that was. I was trying to use the rabbit waterers, but they have a slow leak and the leak lands perfectly on the wooden frame of the cage. What better way to rot out a cage than a slow leak, huh?

We'll probably give the cup waterers and the rabbit feed hopper a try and see if that lessens the work load a little bit. If they quail kick the feed out of the hopper too bad, I'll just have to rig up a hardwire cover to keep feet out and feed in.


Thanks again everyone! We really needed other opinions on this area. The quail set-up right now is just too high-maintenance, but I think these are going to work very well for us!

Oh I know I need to go to bed, but I'm just not tired.. and then after reading Sam's thread about the quail, I'm now not tired AND I am very hungry..

-Kim

 

[Wolf-Kim]

**Updated**

I duct-taped the bottom of the rabbit feeder, so the crumbles wouldn't fall out of the bottom and then we filled it up with feed. It worked well for about 3 seconds and then a couple of those half-grown quail climbed in and began kicking out those precious crumbles. LOL

So I needed to fix that. So I took the mini hay-rack looking thing and hung it on the inside of the cage so it would hang over the feed tray of the hopper. It worked like a charm and kept the quail from standing in the hopper and kicking feed out.

Thanks Ace for the rabbit feeder idea!

Now I just have to get the waterers set up and we'll be good to go.

**On an off topic, I took the box I was using for feed and filled it with dirt and put in back in the cage. They loved it. All the quail crammed into the dirt-filled box, and all simultaniously took a nap. It was quite funny. I also added just a couple of small roosts, just in case they wanted to play a little.

-Kim

 

[Mrs MIA]

OK... I finally got the photos put together for you and Miss P, and posted them in my Breeders coop thread .
Hope that helps!

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

No problem! There are a few other things I still need to rig on my pens but so far I got most things worked out. I love this place I can get tips I haven't thought of and use it.

LOL Tori that is a cute story with your quail!