Northwest_Wannabe
Songster
Hello! It's still a long while until I'll be getting Coturnix Quail but I tend to hyperfocus and I love planning. Plus since a coop/cage is something an animal spends a lot of it's life in, I want to make sure it's something that works for them as well as me! 
First of all, I read in a forum on here someone had success using organic soil with worms in it (I believe red wrigglers?) As a substrate. I'd imagine I'd be scooping most poop but some gets incorporated into the soil? I have heard of quail getting sore feet from wire so I thought this may work instead.
1. Would the worms potentially be okay? I know the quail would probably eat any who surface but I'd imagine they'd need fed? (I can't imagine they would just want poop and the occasional spilled crumble, would additional leaf litter help? I haven't kept works in a long time, sorry ^^")
2. If not worms what about sand mixed with diatomaceous earth? Scooping it sort of like a cat litter box? (we have this in trays under our chickens night time roosts, would it work for their substrate though?)
---
Has anyone put any live plants in their quail cages? In the perfect world I would love to provide a sort of 'hide' for them as well as a plant (either in soil or in a pot in the enclosure) for them to use as extra cover or just to decorate the tank? I imagine a branch, some leaves from the fall, and maybe a plant plus a hide could be used as enrichment? What other kinds of enrichment could I provide? (My crude example of what I was sort of thinking)
---
Lastly, a cage. This is a super rough idea I crudely mocked up, but I was curious your opinions, criticism, and such on it! Again, this isn't something I'm gonna build tomorrow, or need built next week, just me mocking something up in really early preparations. Here's the drawings first, then I'll try to explain my madness-
The enclosure is for 5-6 Coturnix Quail, it is 3' wide and 2' deep, and 10-12" tall. Two large doors to give my short arms the best chance of catching any quail who don't want to be caught.
The 8" below it is an area I added in was for substrate (in case if soil if I wanted to add worms and/or a plant) or sand, but if something like shavings would work better that section can be ignored
The area below is where I have a question. I had originally made it as a sort of grow out area for young quail, OR if this is an outside structure (in which case I'll be sure to predator proof it!) I was thinking it could be used as a grassy area for quail to graze. But I remembered half way through drawing it, that quail either needed a REALLY short roof (10-12") or a really tall one... How tall though? Would 3.5' be enough for them to not hurt themselves? Or should I just plan on using this area as storage for things like feed, bedding and buckets?
My plan was to have this sort enclosure either in a barn or building somewhere or outside and secured appropriately, but more than one (like in the drawing above) with the area below that I'd planned for quail to free roam (unlike the top which would be closed off for breeding groups, sort of like hutches on top of a short aviary?) (So in the example on top it is 4 cages wide but the area on the bottom would the open bottom area, besides structural support, would be an open 2' by 12'. Or if I had 8 cages back to back, the bottom area would be 4' by 12' or so?)
I was thinking of adding a doorway type thing on the side so I could easily just go into there, feed, water, catch quail etc. But if this area would be too dangerous for them then I'll scratch it off instantly!
If an open area down below wouldn't work, could I possibly add a second layer of more cages/hutches? (Maybe larger ones?) I guess that would depend on the substrate used though?
---
Structural support and building it is of course going to differ from this drawing, I'll run it by my dad whose been building for poultry for over 10 years on the little details and such about it, but I am curious moreso about the details on the theory of this all like substrate, a second layer, the 'free range' area below, decoration/enrichment etc, it's been a while since I've kept quail and I don't want to get some and possibly hurt them by testing ideas on them, so I'd love to have ideas more set in stone before hand Thank you for reading this huge block of text and sorry if I wasn't clear or wrote something wrong! I hope these rough pictures get across my idea!
-Cas
First of all, I read in a forum on here someone had success using organic soil with worms in it (I believe red wrigglers?) As a substrate. I'd imagine I'd be scooping most poop but some gets incorporated into the soil? I have heard of quail getting sore feet from wire so I thought this may work instead.
1. Would the worms potentially be okay? I know the quail would probably eat any who surface but I'd imagine they'd need fed? (I can't imagine they would just want poop and the occasional spilled crumble, would additional leaf litter help? I haven't kept works in a long time, sorry ^^")
2. If not worms what about sand mixed with diatomaceous earth? Scooping it sort of like a cat litter box? (we have this in trays under our chickens night time roosts, would it work for their substrate though?)
---
Has anyone put any live plants in their quail cages? In the perfect world I would love to provide a sort of 'hide' for them as well as a plant (either in soil or in a pot in the enclosure) for them to use as extra cover or just to decorate the tank? I imagine a branch, some leaves from the fall, and maybe a plant plus a hide could be used as enrichment? What other kinds of enrichment could I provide? (My crude example of what I was sort of thinking)
---
Lastly, a cage. This is a super rough idea I crudely mocked up, but I was curious your opinions, criticism, and such on it! Again, this isn't something I'm gonna build tomorrow, or need built next week, just me mocking something up in really early preparations.
Here's the drawings first, then I'll try to explain my madness-The enclosure is for 5-6 Coturnix Quail, it is 3' wide and 2' deep, and 10-12" tall. Two large doors to give my short arms the best chance of catching any quail who don't want to be caught.
The 8" below it is an area I added in was for substrate (in case if soil if I wanted to add worms and/or a plant) or sand, but if something like shavings would work better that section can be ignored
The area below is where I have a question. I had originally made it as a sort of grow out area for young quail, OR if this is an outside structure (in which case I'll be sure to predator proof it!) I was thinking it could be used as a grassy area for quail to graze. But I remembered half way through drawing it, that quail either needed a REALLY short roof (10-12") or a really tall one... How tall though? Would 3.5' be enough for them to not hurt themselves? Or should I just plan on using this area as storage for things like feed, bedding and buckets?
My plan was to have this sort enclosure either in a barn or building somewhere or outside and secured appropriately, but more than one (like in the drawing above) with the area below that I'd planned for quail to free roam (unlike the top which would be closed off for breeding groups, sort of like hutches on top of a short aviary?) (So in the example on top it is 4 cages wide but the area on the bottom would the open bottom area, besides structural support, would be an open 2' by 12'. Or if I had 8 cages back to back, the bottom area would be 4' by 12' or so?)
I was thinking of adding a doorway type thing on the side so I could easily just go into there, feed, water, catch quail etc. But if this area would be too dangerous for them then I'll scratch it off instantly!
If an open area down below wouldn't work, could I possibly add a second layer of more cages/hutches? (Maybe larger ones?) I guess that would depend on the substrate used though?
---
Structural support and building it is of course going to differ from this drawing, I'll run it by my dad whose been building for poultry for over 10 years on the little details and such about it, but I am curious moreso about the details on the theory of this all like substrate, a second layer, the 'free range' area below, decoration/enrichment etc, it's been a while since I've kept quail and I don't want to get some and possibly hurt them by testing ideas on them, so I'd love to have ideas more set in stone before hand
Thank you for reading this huge block of text and sorry if I wasn't clear or wrote something wrong! I hope these rough pictures get across my idea! -Cas
Definitely add boxes and tons of hiding spaces, because they do not always get along, and if you have a male, he might chase the females around all day. I like terra cotta pots with a part broken off so it is like a cave when turned upside-down.
