# button quail?



## ohiogoatgirl (Jan 31, 2010)

hello everyone 

i am wondering about button quail. i saw an ad for some on CL and hadnt heard of them. so of 

course, curious me, goes and looks them up.

i'm not finding a whole lot of information on them. its like three people with them shared 

their info and then the rest of the web just copy/pasted it. :? 

my biggest questions right now are:

*size- they get to like 5 inches tall at most? are they worth keeping for meat? i mean if they 

are a little meaty then they look like they would be easy as pie to butcher. but isthe meat 

tasty or enough there to be worth butchering?

*eggs- i read that they "are egg producing machines" and that the females if not fed well will 

go right on producing eggs and take calcium from their own bones and eventually get so weak 

they cannot stand or walk. okay but how many do they tend to lay?! argh.... like one per day? 

two per day? one every other day?

*housing- i'm in ohio and i really dont think i would want them inside the house. for one i 

have a small room as it is and for two i'm not one for animal smells in the house. could i have 

them in a barn outside? even through the winter? the coldest we get is usually about 10*F and 

rarely lower. the barn is quite draft proof and i am working on a non-electric and non-flame 

way of heating the barn. i'm also wondering if it would be better to have a sort of large 

colony set up or smaller family set ups. such as a "room" in the barn of about 5ft by 4ft and 

about 7ft tall. then i could have lots of shelves and ramps and perches and hiding places, 

which would in a way make it much bigger because they could get away from each other if they 

wanted to. and have fake vines and plants all about. and hay as bedding. OR do i want to do 

cages? i was thinkin family group set ups for cages. so a cage of about 2ft by 5ft and maybe 

2ft tall. and probably two adult pairs per cage. this give plenty of space for young hatchlings 

to grow up as part of the family. but i am wondering since they are only about 4-5 inches tall 

as adults how small their feet must be so what size wire mesh would i need for flooring? and if 

it was real small would that just be too much a pain in the butt to clean versus the colony 

type idea?

*feeding- i want to be as self-sufficient as possible. i found that they like millet, apple, 

cabbage, cucumber, broccoli, corn. they like mealworms and crickets (i'm not a bug/worm person 

though i dont imagine it would be hard to have a little mealworm or cricket "farm" bin but i 

have no idea what those eat). 22-25% protein feed is best. feeding mashed up boiled eggs with 

the shell (for calcium). i have read that turkey mash or non-medicated game bird feed is a good 

base. and i read that people who have large aviaries use the little button quail (which are 

ground bird but can fly a good distance) to live on the floor of the aviary to eat the spilled 

and otherwise wasted feed. and that they live entirely on the spilled feed. which to me doesnt 

seem like it would be all that much. 

and the incubation period is 16-21 days and they begin laying as early as 6wks old! 

so can anyone give me any more tips or info on these? thanks!


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## Zarafia (Mar 25, 2012)

Button quail are tiny, adorable little birds. I have five of them, but I don't breed them anymore.
I have known falconers who raised them for their kestrels to eat but I wouldn't suggest raising them for meat. They are hardly bigger than a sparrow. They make great additions to large aviaries with gentle birds like cockatiels, lineolateds, grass keets or finches. At petstores they can sell anywhere from $10 to $25 each.
If you want to know more let me know.


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## ohiogoatgirl (Jan 31, 2010)

i would love to hear anything else you might share  even if i dont end up with any i love knowing about things. especially animals.


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## ohiogoatgirl (Jan 31, 2010)

hm... okay button quail idea has been scrapped. lol. *though i am still interested in learning about them  *
i had looked into coturnix quail before but had not been able to find anyone with them. and quite honestly i dont want to buy an incubator and eggs and everything needed to house them, etc. ...and then end up with cooked eggs 
i've never done any egg incubating....

alrighty looks like i'm venturing over to backyardchickens.... <sighs> this makes my new tally at 16 forums i think.... O.O time to learn about the world of eggs and bators....


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## Jessaba (May 13, 2010)

Button quail are small, we bought some raised them (we heard they were hard to raise) and we raised them just fine. I don't know much about them we only kept them for a bit and ended up giving them to a lady.


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## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

ohiogoatgirl said:


> hm... okay button quail idea has been scrapped. lol. *though i am still interested in learning about them  *
> i had looked into coturnix quail before but had not been able to find anyone with them. and quite honestly i dont want to buy an incubator and eggs and everything needed to house them, etc. ...and then end up with cooked eggs
> i've never done any egg incubating....
> 
> alrighty looks like i'm venturing over to backyardchickens.... <sighs> this makes my new tally at 16 forums i think.... O.O time to learn about the world of eggs and bators....


Ahahaha, backyard chickens also has a sister site....backyardherds!

As for incubating, most incubators won't cook your eggs! I personally use a Brinsea Eco 20, and after many incubations, it still holds a super steady temperature of 99.5 degrees. I LOVE it. It holds humidity really well, too, so I don't have to worry about that either. Even basic models from Brinsea are a bit pricey, but they do work. And usually there is a coupon code available from them on the Brinsea facebook page that whacks 10-15% off the purchase price.


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