My quail are here and I am SO EXCITED

[Kiki]

Welcome.
I don't actually pick my quail up and hold them but I do put my hands in their space daily starting on day one.

After a few weeks they have NO issues with me doing so.

The first few weeks they are skittish but that goes away with age and with the daily messing with them. They get used to it.

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

As long as there's no fertilizer in the sand, it should be fine.

3 weeks old is old enough for a sand bath. You'll love watching them play in it.

I would wait until 6 weeks before giving them treats. Treats should never be more than 10% of their diet.

Awesome. Thank you!! I'm so impatient to watch them play. They try bathing in their aspen shavings all the time and I've been dying to give them some sand but wanted to make sure it was OK first. No additives in the sand, so I think I will go for it! Thank you for all your help

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

White heart sunflower seeds will have them running to you! Mine go crazy over them....some will eat from my hand but they still do not want to be picked up!....it's like a predator/prey instinct.

Makes perfect sense. Thank you!! White heart sunflower seeds... noted

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

Welcome.
I don't actually pick my quail up and hold them but I do put my hands in their space daily starting on day one.

After a few weeks they have NO issues with me doing so.

The first few weeks they are skittish but that goes away with age and with the daily messing with them. They get used to it.

This is very encouraging! Thanks for that. I've only had them for 6 days now and I can already tell they've calmed a bit.

 

[sleepycat]

There's so much information on this forum, I love it! And these little things are the CUTEST!! I love the way they turn into little muffins when they sleep (my fiancé coined the term "quail muffin" and I think it's the perfect terminology. It's like a "cat loaf" but, you know, smaller). As a bit of background, I got mine as pets mainly, the eggs will be a bonus for us. We are open to shifting our mindset/plan to include breeding/butchering for meat, but that would be down the road if at all. I want to raise California Valley Quail eventually, but we're starting with coturnix to get the basics of husbandry and aviary-building down first.

I've got three 16-day-old jumbo brown coturnix chicks that I purchased from a neighbor, brought them home Tuesday night, and I think all are female but we'll know for sure in a week or two. We're going to share a batch of celadon hatching eggs in about a month, and I'll take a few from that clutch as well, bringing my total starting flock size to 6-8 hens. Since our natural-type aviary (or, quaviary as I've been calling it ) will be 4'x8' (and 7' tall), with plenty of hiding spots, I figure we could fit 10-12 birds in there if we wanted to, maybe more, but I don't want to crowd it. There are so many sizes & colors I'd like to have in the flock though!

Right now, the chicks are in a homemade tub brooder in our spare bedroom, and we'll start construction on their ground pen/aviary in a week or so. It should be ready by the time they're 5-6 weeks old and ready to go outside (we're in northern CA and it should be plenty warm enough by then). I'm feeling fairly confident about most aspects of their husbandry (was a veterinary technician for many years at an avian hospital) but still have lots to learn and will keep reading here! I've seriously been reading this forum for, like, 2-3 hours a day for the last month Huge thanks to everyone who contributed/contributes to the informative articles here, they've been lifesavers!

Anyway, here are a couple pics of the babies! I just love them so much I am weighing them daily right now (I know, I'm a little neurotic but it's mostly just an excuse to hold/handle them ) and I am shocked at how much weight they gained just in the first day! They each gained 9-14 grams overnight!! But they're still not very used to being handled so I'm trying to get them used to it slowly and gently without stressing them out too much (3rd chick not pictured because she's still very jumpy/flighty and I didn't want to stress her with too much handling)

congrats! good luck on your new quail adventure. although i will say, you have no reason to worry about overcrowding a 4'x8' aviary if you only plan on keeping 8 hens inside, imo you could fit around 15 hens happily at that size. also regarding getting them more comfortable around you, quail in general are very skittish around people they dont know or trust, even my friendliest hen doesnt want me to handle or really touch her at all. so definitely not a you thing if you're struggling with it, mostly an instinctual thing for them. imo, limit the handling to only necessary situations like brooder cleanings or health checkups

 

[Dreamers Nook]

Something that may help rather than handling (speaking of experience with past with wild birds and animals) is voice. Talking to them or singing, perhaps putting your hand down with some food in it, let them come to you. That is if you wanted them as pets.

I've dealt with a lot of rescues in my life of all animals, that always seemed to work.