# Show your quail setups



## Dukz13 (Jun 8, 2009)

Hey people just wanna check out some peoples setups, (things they like dislike) so i can get an idea on the best setup for me any help would be tops cheers dukz...


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## Jay84 (Jun 8, 2009)

i just keep mine in conventional style aviaries. are you going to be keeping european quails (the bigger ones)? or king quail (the sall ones)?

if keeping the king quail, i would advise you only keep in pairs. males will attack and fight to the death,i have also had this happen with females wen kept in trios! they are very very spiteful to an outsider. they prefer a nice planted aviary where they can forage around for food, and insects. if you are keeping them in a concreted floor aviary then ensure there are some hiding places. 

feed small parrot mix or budgie mix. they love live food, but this is not essential. put some dry grass in one corner of the aviary in which they can make their nest. They usually lay around 6-8 eggs per clutch, and will have many clutches during the warmer months. they are great parents and both male and female will care for the cicks. the chicks are precocious, meaning they hatch able to walk and feed on their own. the mum just brooding them keeping them warm.

The eurpoean quail on the other hand are much more social, however i only recommend one male per aviary. these quail rarely rear their own young and will just lay eggs sporadically around the aviary floor! you will have to get an incubator and brooder if wanting to breed these guys.

hope this helps!


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## Dukz13 (Jun 8, 2009)

thanx very much for the help top info thanx...


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## sarah_m (Jun 8, 2009)

If you are going to breed them make sure that you remove any deep water dishes before eggs hatch, as the babies have a habit of drowning in anything deeper than a cm or so of water.

Also once the chicks get their adult plumage or just before, remove the babies to seperate cage as i had one of mine peck a chick to death once it had its adult feathers.


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## Dukz13 (Jun 8, 2009)

thanku


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## Vixen (Jun 8, 2009)

I would go with the Japanese quail rather than Kings. Japanese are bigger, so theres a wider range of what they can be used to feed. King quails are tiny even fully grown.

Only thing with the Japs you have to incubate the eggs yourself. When they hatch they have to go in a brooder for 4 weeks with a heater (35'C, then you lower it by a few degrees every week), after that they can be stuck outside in cages. They usually start laying eggs by 10 weeks of age so they mature pretty quickly.

Ive been talking to a few breeders who raise them for human consumption and eggs, they find they do best in wire bottom cages, the poop falls through and is more hygenic. They dont need a huge amount of space, ill be keeping a breeding trio in a 90 x 40 x 40cm cage.


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## Jay84 (Jun 8, 2009)

Personally I think keeping any ground dwelling bird on a wire floor is definitely NOT ideal! And that floor space is way too small. These are active birds, that are constantly running around the aviary floor. 

Are you planning to keep for pleasure or food? If food what will u be feeding them to?


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## beeman (Jun 8, 2009)

Jay84 said:


> Personally I think keeping any ground dwelling bird on a wire floor is definitely NOT ideal! And that floor space is way too small. These are active birds, that are constantly running around the aviary floor.
> 
> Are you planning to keep for pleasure or food? If food what will u be feeding them to?


 
You dont have a clue on floor space with these birds, we used to raise over 2000 a week as a commercial enterprize and all our breeder cages had a floor area of 450 by 400 and housed 5 hens and 2 cocks. They are kept like that to keep fertility up in the eggs, Other wise the fert rates suffer to a point that the eggs arnt worth incubating.And as far as being active birds the Jap quail is one of the laziest and benifits from a tightly crowded growing environment.


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## Vixen (Jun 8, 2009)

Jay84 said:


> Are you planning to keep for pleasure or food? If food what will u be feeding them to?



Will be keeping for pleasure and food, will be feeding all my snakes from the young carpets to spotteds and adults carpets.


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## Jay84 (Jun 8, 2009)

Having kept them in aviaries myself I have observed all of mine running around, having sand baths, scratching for food. So yes, I do have a clue for floor space. Maybe they don't do much in cages that size, which is why they appear lazy, they can't do much else. People could argue battery hens produce more eggs, and it's easier to collect the eggs. They do survive in these conditions, but don't thrive! Put a rescued battery hen in a nice big backyard and they appear lazy, they don't know what to do. Give them a few months and they make full use of space. My quails loved their big aviary, and I wouldn't keep them in cages.


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## Vixen (Jun 8, 2009)

Im very against animal cruelty, and if I thought it was thered be no way in hell I would do it. But seeing the size of the cage in person its really not that small, and only 3 will be living in there. I plan to give them bowls with sand to dustbathe etc, it wont just be a bare cage.


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## Reptile_Boy (Jun 8, 2009)

Any photos ?/


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## scorps (Jun 8, 2009)

Just going to point out, itis illegal to use king quail for food or any other native quail you have to use the jap ones or similar breeds.


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## Stranger (Jun 8, 2009)

SCORPS GRRR you beat me to it ...


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## andyscott (Jun 8, 2009)

scorps said:


> Just going to point out, itis illegal to use king quail for food or any other native quail you have to use the jap ones or similar breeds.


 

I had no idea it is illegal, or that King Quail are native.
Oppppps


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## Vixen (Jun 8, 2009)

Jap Quail are better anyway! Bigger, spit out more eggs, and lay year round.  They are THE most productive quail species.


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## Jay84 (Jun 8, 2009)

Wow I never knew it was illegal to feed king quail. Does that mean it's illegal to feed zebra finches too?


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## andyscott (Jun 9, 2009)

Jay84 said:


> Wow I never knew it was illegal to feed king quail. Does that mean it's illegal to feed zebra finches too?


 

Hope not.


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## Jay84 (Jun 9, 2009)

Lol @ andyscott! I'm sure the cage bird trade can spare a few?


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## beeman (Jun 9, 2009)

andyscott said:


> Hope not.


 
It sure is Andy, using any native animal, bird etc for a food source is illegal :|


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## Colletts (Jun 9, 2009)

Although the King Quail is native to Aust, the one we keep in captivity was the Chinese subspecies imported here in the mid 1800's. They are also known as the Chinese Painted Quail. They're on this list of exotic birds of Aust, compiled by the Aust Government Department of the Environment and Heritage. So I guess it _is_ legall to feed them to your herps.

http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/exoticbirds/pubs/exotic-bird-inventory.pdf


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## Jonno from ERD (Jun 9, 2009)

G'day guys, 

Just thought I'd point out that I have a very productive group of Japanese Quail available at the moment. 3 males, 12 girls for $150.

Cheers


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## pythons73 (Jun 9, 2009)

Is it illegal to feed any wild bird to reptiles,pigeons,doves and sparrows etc.I realise they would need time in the freezer before to any reptile.I would like to no the legal requirements regarding this,cheers.


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## Jonno from ERD (Jun 9, 2009)

Only illegal if they are native I believe.


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## pythons73 (Jun 9, 2009)

Cheers Jonno,so introduced species like the noisy minor etc are legal..


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## Jonno from ERD (Jun 9, 2009)

Yeah mate, as are Spotted Neck Doves etc.


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## Jay84 (Jun 9, 2009)

I thought the noisy mynah was Australian? They have just benefitted too much from land clearing and the opening up of bushland to undergrowth clearing? Population explosions making them a nuisance?


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## andyscott (Jun 9, 2009)

beeman said:


> It sure is Andy, using any native animal, bird etc for a food source is illegal :|


 

Bugger


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## Reptile_Boy (Jun 9, 2009)

so there no photos of setups?


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## bk201 (Jun 9, 2009)

pythons73 said:


> Cheers Jonno,so introduced species like the noisy minor etc are legal..


 
the common indian myna is the legal one


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## Reptile_Boy (Jun 10, 2009)

Reptile_Boy said:


> so there no photos of setups?


 

so no one has photos come on guys :lol::lol:


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## Dukz13 (Jun 10, 2009)

yer cmon


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## Reptile_Boy (Jun 11, 2009)

stubbern  come on please some photos


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## Stranger (Jun 11, 2009)

We used to breed quials .. Well they did it themselves. we had a huge avairy and had about 30+ qails we started with 4... . the avairy housed birds and pheasents aswell it was awesome


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## Shotta (Dec 17, 2012)

i thought i would give this thread a bump..
am interested in breeding japanese quails and keen to see some pics of setups to get an idea also if there any quail breeders


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## RedFox (Dec 17, 2012)

Nilesh said:


> i thought i would give this thread a bump..
> am interested in breeding japanese quails and keen to see some pics of setups to get an idea also if there any quail breeders



this thread is very, very old. Have a look at this link. It covers commercial production but can be applied to a smaller collection. I've heard of people keeping a few adult jap quails in guinea pig/rabbit hutches. 

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/145346/Raising-Japanese-quail.pdf


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## Bananapeel (Dec 17, 2012)

How do you cull them? haha sorry old thread but thought I'd ask anyway :lol:


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## RedFox (Dec 17, 2012)

I would assume a CO2 gas chamber would be the best way, just like rats and mice. I looked into breeding them, but for human consumption and eggs as I didn't have pythons at the time.


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## fourexes (Dec 17, 2012)

Only pics I have on hand: I'm just starting out also. 




What I have learnt so far is the males can be super aggressive, the females are hopeless mothers so if you intend on breeding an incubator is a must. I haven't tried yet but I am going to attempt to feed my water python a raw egg, will be interesting to see how that goes. Perfect size at the moment. 

I have them housed in an old home made mini aviary I used to raise chooks in made from an old box trailer top frame. They stick to the ground and don't really appreciate much vertical space although I read 'scalping' can be an issue. (when they get scared they head straight up full tilt head first into the roof)

They also love alot of hide, they aren't 'tame' birds by any stretch. plenty of grasses and nesting material.


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## Bananapeel (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks redfox 

- - - Updated - - -

Nice fourexes. Be interesting to see how the egg experiment goes!
How big's the enclosure?


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## sharky (Dec 18, 2012)

Bananapeel said:


> How do you cull them? haha sorry old thread but thought I'd ask anyway :lol:



CO2 gas chamber as said above. Hook a soda stream machine with a plastic tube, make two holes in a plastic tub, put the ttube in one and fasten it with duct tape. put the quail in and close the lid, turn the soda stream machine on and leave for a couple of minutes...
EASY AS THAT! fourexes, your quails are cute!!!!!


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## Bananapeel (Dec 18, 2012)

Haha thanks for the description sharkyy! Now I know...


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## thomasssss (Dec 18, 2012)

sharkyy1o5 said:


> CO2 gas chamber as said above. Hook a soda stream machine with a plastic tube, make two holes in a plastic tub, put the ttube in one and fasten it with duct tape. put the quail in and close the lid, turn the soda stream machine on and leave for a couple of minutes...
> EASY AS THAT! fourexes, your quails are cute!!!!!


you make it sound so easy , ever done it? when my mate did it it wasn't as EASY AS THAT  , you have to get the squirts of the soda stream right or they start running around gasping for air with nose bleeds etc not a fun thing to watch , what should happen if you get it right is they just slowly start going to sleep one by one then you hit them all with more soda stream (co2) to actually kill them once their all asleep , to much and it kinda looks like they suffer before they die


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## sharky (Dec 18, 2012)

I haven't done it before but my dad does it because it's 'his soda steam'. He always walks me through the process though whenever I'm around to watch. He always gets them asleep and then whacks it down one last time, no troubles. I actually didn't think it was that hard.....dad makes it look easy 
Except we don't have the quail set ups, it's on our grand pas farm and when he gets over run by them he sends some of the quail to us. I'll try to get a pic of Grand pa's set up next time I go over ;-)


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## Shotta (Dec 18, 2012)

awesome peeps lol i brought a pair of japanese quails lol the males make the funniest sound and they really timid and dont flutter about like the normal quails, lol i could sit back and watch them for hours lol they live in a big chook pen and i also have an incubator for the eggs the one thing i dont get is do you feed them chicken starter/feed or just regular birdfeed? the petstore said they would be fine on seeds but im not sure also what do you guys use as nestboxes? i just used a cardboard box with dried grass for bedding but the dont seem to be using it also lol is there a reason they lay on their sides or are they just lazy


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## Gonemad (Dec 18, 2012)

I would recommend using a good bird seed as most no name stuff is mainly seconds but for hatchling When we hatched chickens we always fed them turkey starter as it had probotics with helps provent cox city disease where chicken starter doesn't but I don't know if this will hurt snakes. You may need to crush it to make smaller. No nest boxes they lay as they go anywhere side laying is normal so is dust baths.


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## Shotta (Dec 18, 2012)

hey thanks for the info that clears things up i just thought they hated the "home" i made for them lol its cute when they lay on their sides ha ha yeah they seem to take dust baths in their seed!, i will definately be getting turkey starter!


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## thomasssss (Dec 18, 2012)

sharkyy1o5 said:


> I haven't done it before but my dad does it because it's 'his soda steam'. He always walks me through the process though whenever I'm around to watch. He always gets them asleep and then whacks it down one last time, no troubles. I actually didn't think it was that hard.....dad makes it look easy
> Except we don't have the quail set ups, it's on our grand pas farm and when he gets over run by them he sends some of the quail to us. I'll try to get a pic of Grand pa's set up next time I go over ;-)


no worries  your dads probably just got it down pat , it isnt that hard really its just the way you worded it with EASY AS THAT , you probably could of gone into a little detail of the amount of squirts to put certain size rats to sleep first to say that its that easy , its just thats the sort of info my mate got so he thought to just gas the crap out of them i wasn't there but he said it wasn't a nice sight watching them frantically trying to escape whilst gasping for air , he ended up working it out in the end but im not sure what it was he did and his moved to darwin so ive kinda lost contact


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