.button quail
the button quail these beatiful little birds have a special place in my aviaries and I couldn't imagine
looking into my cages and not seeing them. they are very curious and brave birds to say the least! they are
like little vaccum cleaners on the floor of the cages. they are a great addition to any aviaries for the
beginner or the expert breeder. they get along with just about any of the more popular birds like finches,
canaries, parakeets, doves. you shouldn't combine them with cockatiels, lovebirds and other similar hook bills
or larger birds. they have a neat way of standing on their tiptoes and calling to the other birds. during the breeding season I use artificial lighting and I can hear them calling to each other at 3 or 4 in the morning.
when you here a few hunderd do it at once its loud!
description the males is about 4 1/2 inches long and about 4 inches tall and their body is slender. the way to tell if it is a male is they usually have a black and white band underneath their beak on the throat area, but on the new colors or combination of colors they don't have the black and white bands. so what I go by is the vent color, it is red on a male no matter what color it is, pink on the silver varieties(silver dilutes) works every time except for whites. The females are a little larger about 5 inches long and the same height. they are very thick and round. Their bodies are built for laying eggs and when they get started its hard to stop them. they can nearly lay an egg a day. that's pretty amazing considering how little they are. the hens color is always more dull compared to the male. tans and browns make up the colors of hens. reason being that in the wild the males are more colorfull to attract any predators away form the nest. the hens dull colors allows here to blend in with the grasses and bushes were she is nesting. keep in mind that in the wild only normals colors exist and not the colors that are available today.
housing there are many ways button quail can be housed. it all depends on what your intentions are.
if you are just begaining out, and you intend to just have a few, the most common way is in a aviary with
other birds. as long as they don't get overcrowded they will be fine. 1ft by 1ft sq. is a good rule to go by.
for those of you who intend to breed and raise button quail, you will want to have a little more control over
what hens are going with what cocks. the easiest way would be in smaller individualtype cage. big enough for
one male and one or two hens. eggs could be collected and records could be kept. there are a few examples of
different type of cages I use in my setup page. you also have a choice of wire floor or solid floor. I prefer
solid floor for breeding and raising. my growing cages have dirt floors. they love to take dirt baths. their feathers seem to open up so nicely when they reach maturity.
care buttons are fairly easy to care if the basic necesities are provided. the first is clean cool
water. the second is a good quality food. what I use is a mix of 50%purina start and grow-25% finch mix-25%health grit. I mix it together and they love it! I feel the grit is necessary because if they are going to be eating seeds, they swallow them hole. the seed still needs to be ground up and this is done in the gizzard with the
assistance of the small grains of sand found in the grit. the grit also contains calcium and charcoal that the birds need very much to make it through the long breeding season. since buttons quail spend their time on the
floor, they will pick up just about anything. good things and bad things. for this I use veta farms brand
ronivet and probiotics to keep their intestinal tracks in line. about every three months or so.
incubating button quail hens will incubate their eggs themselfs, and if a hen goes broody on eggs, you will have to take out any other buttons in the cage. they will distract or worse kill any babies that hatch.
the other way and most common method is using a incubatorto hatch the eggs. you must be sure to set the
temerature at 99.5degrees and humidity at around 60%. the eggs must be turned and most incubators come with
them. this will prevent the embrios from settling on one side. when collecting eggs to set, store them in a
cool, dry place. pointy side down. incubation takes 16 to 18 days. around the 14th day they can stop being
turned and extra humidity added to the incubator following the direction in the instructions. then laeve it
alone! do not open the incubator untill 2 to 3 days after they start hatching, the eggs need the extra
humidity to soften up the shell so they can break through it. its a fine line from just enough and to much humidity. not enough and the chicks dry out, too much and they drown. this is something you are going to have
to expirment with. incubators are different.
Raising once all the buttons have hatched, have your brooder ready and move them into the brooder. baby
buttons are pretty easy to raise if you remember they are tiny. I use a 90 qt plastic tote. type storage
container. I have a light inside from a old lamp with a 100watt bulb. I cut a portion out of the top and put
1/4 inch wiremesh so they can't jump out. the top I cut out I keep if I need to cover them up during the
first few days. the floor can be lined with kitchen cabinet liner . this works very well. I feed my young
quail purina start and grow. the feed needs to be ground up to a powder for the first 2 week. after the
first two weeks the birds will be fine. the water bottle needs to have a small hole for drinking, they will
drown themselves. after the firts two weeks I move them into a outside aviary but still provide light for
them. they might not need it in the wormer months, but they will definantly need it in cooler months. the
light is provided for another week or so. you will notice that they don't stay close to the light and they will travel more. a good way of telling if they are ready is once their lungs are fully covered by feathers, that when you know it's o k to take the light away. at about 8 weeks they are pretty much grown up. some hens will start to lay. the males will chase and top the young hens.
looking into my cages and not seeing them. they are very curious and brave birds to say the least! they are
like little vaccum cleaners on the floor of the cages. they are a great addition to any aviaries for the
beginner or the expert breeder. they get along with just about any of the more popular birds like finches,
canaries, parakeets, doves. you shouldn't combine them with cockatiels, lovebirds and other similar hook bills
or larger birds. they have a neat way of standing on their tiptoes and calling to the other birds. during the breeding season I use artificial lighting and I can hear them calling to each other at 3 or 4 in the morning.
when you here a few hunderd do it at once its loud!
description the males is about 4 1/2 inches long and about 4 inches tall and their body is slender. the way to tell if it is a male is they usually have a black and white band underneath their beak on the throat area, but on the new colors or combination of colors they don't have the black and white bands. so what I go by is the vent color, it is red on a male no matter what color it is, pink on the silver varieties(silver dilutes) works every time except for whites. The females are a little larger about 5 inches long and the same height. they are very thick and round. Their bodies are built for laying eggs and when they get started its hard to stop them. they can nearly lay an egg a day. that's pretty amazing considering how little they are. the hens color is always more dull compared to the male. tans and browns make up the colors of hens. reason being that in the wild the males are more colorfull to attract any predators away form the nest. the hens dull colors allows here to blend in with the grasses and bushes were she is nesting. keep in mind that in the wild only normals colors exist and not the colors that are available today.
housing there are many ways button quail can be housed. it all depends on what your intentions are.
if you are just begaining out, and you intend to just have a few, the most common way is in a aviary with
other birds. as long as they don't get overcrowded they will be fine. 1ft by 1ft sq. is a good rule to go by.
for those of you who intend to breed and raise button quail, you will want to have a little more control over
what hens are going with what cocks. the easiest way would be in smaller individualtype cage. big enough for
one male and one or two hens. eggs could be collected and records could be kept. there are a few examples of
different type of cages I use in my setup page. you also have a choice of wire floor or solid floor. I prefer
solid floor for breeding and raising. my growing cages have dirt floors. they love to take dirt baths. their feathers seem to open up so nicely when they reach maturity.
care buttons are fairly easy to care if the basic necesities are provided. the first is clean cool
water. the second is a good quality food. what I use is a mix of 50%purina start and grow-25% finch mix-25%health grit. I mix it together and they love it! I feel the grit is necessary because if they are going to be eating seeds, they swallow them hole. the seed still needs to be ground up and this is done in the gizzard with the
assistance of the small grains of sand found in the grit. the grit also contains calcium and charcoal that the birds need very much to make it through the long breeding season. since buttons quail spend their time on the
floor, they will pick up just about anything. good things and bad things. for this I use veta farms brand
ronivet and probiotics to keep their intestinal tracks in line. about every three months or so.
incubating button quail hens will incubate their eggs themselfs, and if a hen goes broody on eggs, you will have to take out any other buttons in the cage. they will distract or worse kill any babies that hatch.
the other way and most common method is using a incubatorto hatch the eggs. you must be sure to set the
temerature at 99.5degrees and humidity at around 60%. the eggs must be turned and most incubators come with
them. this will prevent the embrios from settling on one side. when collecting eggs to set, store them in a
cool, dry place. pointy side down. incubation takes 16 to 18 days. around the 14th day they can stop being
turned and extra humidity added to the incubator following the direction in the instructions. then laeve it
alone! do not open the incubator untill 2 to 3 days after they start hatching, the eggs need the extra
humidity to soften up the shell so they can break through it. its a fine line from just enough and to much humidity. not enough and the chicks dry out, too much and they drown. this is something you are going to have
to expirment with. incubators are different.
Raising once all the buttons have hatched, have your brooder ready and move them into the brooder. baby
buttons are pretty easy to raise if you remember they are tiny. I use a 90 qt plastic tote. type storage
container. I have a light inside from a old lamp with a 100watt bulb. I cut a portion out of the top and put
1/4 inch wiremesh so they can't jump out. the top I cut out I keep if I need to cover them up during the
first few days. the floor can be lined with kitchen cabinet liner . this works very well. I feed my young
quail purina start and grow. the feed needs to be ground up to a powder for the first 2 week. after the
first two weeks the birds will be fine. the water bottle needs to have a small hole for drinking, they will
drown themselves. after the firts two weeks I move them into a outside aviary but still provide light for
them. they might not need it in the wormer months, but they will definantly need it in cooler months. the
light is provided for another week or so. you will notice that they don't stay close to the light and they will travel more. a good way of telling if they are ready is once their lungs are fully covered by feathers, that when you know it's o k to take the light away. at about 8 weeks they are pretty much grown up. some hens will start to lay. the males will chase and top the young hens.
.button quail
coturnix chinensis or chinese painted quail
please keep in mind the the views on this website are my own and has been gathered over a 10 year period of breeding and raising button quail. they are my own opinions gathered with my own birds. the methods work for me and so far this year I have raised over 1500 button, so I would say they are working well!
click on the underline text to see photo