Can you stop quail roosting in their drinking cups?

[flickerfarkle]

For a couple of weeks I've been having excessive water consumption in both my breeding pens. It normally takes three days to go through the entire jug of water but for three nights straight it mysteriously ran empty overnight.

And the poop pans beneath the cages (autozone drip pans) have had water collecting in them, even though there was no rain. Which is the bigger problem because when the poop gets wet it stinks to high heaven and attracts flies by the gazillions. Plus it about triples the weight of the waste I'm collecting and throwing out.

I thought it might be defective cups so I replaced them and still had the water collecting in the poop pans.

I originally mounted the drinking cups in the fourth hole from the floor in 1/2" hardware cloth, about 2" from the floor at the top of the cup. I built these cages before my first eggs had hatched so I was guessing how high the birds could reach for a drink, and I underestimated how tall the cups could be and they could still reach them.

I've seen birds standing with one foot on the floor and the other in the cup, which I reckoned could lead to overflowing, so I re-mounted the cups and inch (two holes) higher, but now I see birds sitting perched with both feet in the cup.

So what's next? Move the cups again, mounting them higher still, or just live with the birds sabotaging their own drinking water?

 

[Nabiki]

Quail aren't the brightest birds on earth. If it's low enough for them to drink out of, they will stand in them.

 

[CliftonQuail]

For a couple of weeks I've been having excessive water consumption in both my breeding pens. It normally takes three days to go through the entire jug of water but for three nights straight it mysteriously ran empty overnight.

And the poop pans beneath the cages (autozone drip pans) have had water collecting in them, even though there was no rain. Which is the bigger problem because when the poop gets wet it stinks to high heaven and attracts flies by the gazillions. Plus it about triples the weight of the waste I'm collecting and throwing out.

I thought it might be defective cups so I replaced them and still had the water collecting in the poop pans.

I originally mounted the drinking cups in the fourth hole from the floor in 1/2" hardware cloth, about 2" from the floor at the top of the cup. I built these cages before my first eggs had hatched so I was guessing how high the birds could reach for a drink, and I underestimated how tall the cups could be and they could still reach them.

I've seen birds standing with one foot on the floor and the other in the cup, which I reckoned could lead to overflowing, so I re-mounted the cups and inch (two holes) higher, but now I see birds sitting perched with both feet in the cup.

So what's next? Move the cups again, mounting them higher still, or just live with the birds sabotaging their own drinking water?

I bought the Wynola Ranch 3 tier cage system. It came with gravity fed water cups that I initially installed on the inside back of the cages. After a few days of finding the waste trays full of water, I moved the cups to the outside of the cage. Since they use 1"x2" welded wire, there's plenty of room for the birds to stick their heads out and reach the cup. Since they're in my garage, I don't have much in the way of predator pressure so I'm not worried about them sticking their heads out, but that might not work for your setup.
Have you considered using nipples instead of cups? Something like this might work, too: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F92CRKV/ref=twister_B095J2Z6MS?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

 

[Pipsnchicks]

I agree with using the nipples instead of cups - they can't stand in them that way! I tried cups but found they froze quickly when it got cold. Have you checked any of the mounts themselves to see if any of the little rubber gaskets are cracked? Can you see any water overflowing with them standing on it? I don't know if them standing on it would really cause it to lose that much water, but it's definitely possible.

 

[flickerfarkle]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This is my first attempt at fabricating an anti-roost device from scrap materials. It's heavier-gauge hardware cloth fastened to the wall of the cage. It sticks out three inches from the wall, just a skosh farther than the cups are long. And it's about 1-1/2" above the cup so it doesn't interfere with drinking, just roosting.

This is the only cup in this cage I've seen them perching on (but that doesn't mean they weren't perching on others while I wasn't looking), and it might only be the one hen (but that's a guess). Anyway, no sooner had I attached it than one of the hens tested it. First she tried to climb on the cup and found she couldn't squeeze under he guard, then she tried to climb over it and found that also was a no-go. Then she immediately turned and walked away like, "okay, enough of that for now, let's go find something else to destroy..."

Unless I see evidence that one isn't working as advertised, in the next few days I'll make more for all the other cups.