Keeping a quail indoors possible?

[bridgetchicken]

For people who have a single and tame coturnix quail, what do you use as a habitat for them? Would an empty 20 gallon long aquarium tank with a mesh lid work out? Or should you use a 4ft long rabbit cage? And can a male coturnix be okay by itself if it is tamed to sit on your shoulder? Or should the quail have a flock?

 

[bridgetchicken]

 

[Nabiki]

A 20 gallon tank is pretty small for a quail. Quail are social and don't do very well by themselves. If you have a male, he should have 3-5 hens. If you can only keep two, they should both be the same sex.

Another disadvantage of a tank is that they're hard to clean. If you want something like that, you can take a 50 gallon plastic bin and cut holes in it that you can cover with hardware cloth. Much lighter and easier to clean.

 

[Huntmaster]

Or should you use a 4ft long rabbit cage?

I would use this if its available especially if you could get him another male friend.

 

[bridgetchicken]

If I want to tame an adult coturnix quail, how would I go about it? Would removing food (but leaving the waterer in the habitat) for 24 hours and putting food on my hand make the quail tamer? Would the quail be less scared of me when I handfeed it?

 

[007Sean]

If I want to tame an adult coturnix quail, how would I go about it? Would removing food (but leaving the waterer in the habitat) for 24 hours and putting food on my hand make the quail tamer? Would the quail be less scared of me when I handfeed it?

No, that method will not work. It's hard to tame any gamebird but especially if it's an adult. They literally need to be worked with everyday, all day, from the day they hatch, to become tame....and even then, some won't ever tame.
But as to you're original question: "Keeping a quail indoors possible?" ....yes, it is possible!

 

[CloneFly]

I keep button quail and some Coturnix as indoor pets. A 20gal would work fine, though it is a bit small. I would suggest the rabbit cage instead. Do NOT withold food from the quail, that won't work for taming. If it's an adult, taming will be quite difficult, but they still make great pets as they are very entertaining to watch (and listen to!)
Your best bet at "taming" would be holding him daily, it can calm him down a bit, but it's a stretch to say that he'll one day be 100% tame. You never know though- each quail is different!

 

[CloneFly]

I would use this if its available especially if you could get him another male friend.

I'd kinda suggest against putting male with male... it'd be better to get him a couple lady friends instead. (You also get the added benefit of eggs!)
The reason why I'm against male+male is because... well... they don't have any proper mates and do with what they have. While it won't necessarily harm them (that I know of) it can cause a decrease of fertility after extended periods of time..

 

[bridgetchicken]

Should my indoor quail cage have a 1 x 1/2" wire flooring instead of pine shavings as bedding? I am seriously thinking of making my cage have a wire flooring for easy cleanup. I just need to be reassured that having pet quails walking on top of wire is not an act of cruelty. (I am referring to the whole concept that wire flooring is bad for rabbits feet, so it must be bad for other animals too)

 

[Huntmaster]

I'd kinda suggest against putting male with male... it'd be better to get him a couple lady friends instead. (You also get the added benefit of eggs!)
The reason why I'm against male+male is because... well... they don't have any proper mates and do with what they have. While it won't necessarily harm them (that I know of) it can cause a decrease of fertility after extended periods of time..

I agree it's not best-case scenario to have just males, but Op was asking about male coturnix is why I stated male friend sounded to me like they were trying to keep it to a min. number of birds. And only 1 or 2 hens would not be a good situation for the hens. even 3 is pushing it for a sex driven male. I like to keep 6 per male even going to 4 or 5 the hens can start looking a bit ragged. If you want eggs and only want a few indoor birds a few hens would be best case scenario.