Recent content by scyllarus

Ooo. I considered finches, but I'm just not as excited about birds I can't really interact with. I might go back through and see if there's maybe a larger or more sociable (with humans) species. We had considered setting up a water feature, but it's been sort of difficult to plan since I'd like...

The Husband and I will be moving in the next few months and we've been discussing what will happen to our 20-30ish quail. We're planning on keeping them - I'm rather attached to about a dozen birds out of the covey - but we're thinking either constructing another cage vs an aviary. A cage is...

It sounds like you want her to raise chicks. I would block off her area - obviously make sure she's got access to food and water, preferably water that new chicks can't manage to drown in - and remove most of the eggs around her, leaving just her nest. The constant change in eggs means she's...

From experience, it's always a bit stressful for everyone involved to bring quail anywhere. Chances are that your quail will not enjoy the change in scenery and probably be stressed from people poking at it, so you may want to consider the impact on your birds - a hen might stop laying...

I haven't really seen that be a factor since, well, he'll be getting the same kind of birds whether you bought them or raised them.

Whereabouts are you located? That might be a factor in price. I've typically spent about $5 per bird, but I'm also a huge cheapskate and prefer hatching eggs as they're cheaper. I've seen people selling them for up to $15 per hen, usually for celadon layers.

We lost a bird to a little juvenile possum. Not a cage security issue, exactly - we left the door open. It luckily got only one bird, and sort of luckily it was one of the younger birds that I was still trying to figure out as to whether it's a male and/or a more permanent covey member. The...

Consider snakes as well for 1". Most colubrids that get big enough to consider quail as possible prey can slip through 1", and the infuriating thing with snakes is that they likely can't actually swallow an adult quail. One of the members on here had a snake come in and kill several quail...

Yep. The Husband mentioned how they just kinda went about their business despite the whole "possum wandering around their home" situation. I pointed out that "predator awareness" and "being afraid of giant hairless primates" is the same thing, and we prefer birds who don't panic and run at the...

Welp...I don't really need advice for this, just sharing my stupidity and getting things off my chest. We left the cage door open overnight. Not a single bird tried to escape, but a little juvenile opossum clambered in at 5:30AM and caught one of the birds. Luckily it wasn't a favorite bird -...

I would agree with Nabiki. It looks like it could be an Autumn Amber (Italian + Roux) but we'll know more when it feathers in.

Not yet part of that club, but between needing to jam my face into the cage to find eggs and the quails' very strong belief that all parts of a human are harboring treats, I'm just thankful I wear glasses.

I'm just going to rant for a moment about Tidbit and quail roo in general: I get why chicken keepers want to keep a rooster. There's something rather touching about the way a good rooster cares for his flock - he so obviously looks out for danger, calls his hens for food, and seems to even seek...

It's getting close to time to name the new covey members. We're still paring down (I think we have 23 birds in 24 sqft) and honestly? I'm surprised they haven't started murdering each other from being crowded. I think having it super cluttered but with a lot of usable space has been helpful -...

The bird on the very right...I think might be a hen. If it's not, then it might be a contender for one of the roo spots - it's been super friendly and sweet. No roo specific behaviors, though, so maybe it's just a sweet hen. It's also a decent picture of what the cage looks like from the inside.