Quail Questions

[Debjw]

Originally Posted by WhiteRaven

Good luck, I hope it works out too! Have they been sitting on them?

Hi whiteraven,
an update, the five eggs have not been added to today, and no-one is attempting to sit on them, they all (4 females and both males) - go an have a look at them, but that is all? - since this morning, my male (same one who made the previous nest) - has made a new nest on the opposite side to the first nest and there is one egg in that one - no-one is sitting there either, just merrily eating bits off the floor and thats about it - I am thinking they are all too young? and this is all too much for them? - but of course I have very little knowledge about quails, and not sure what is going on! - have a great weekend.

[WhiteRaven]

Sorry, I didn't see this until now.

Quails not sitting on their eggs is very normal. Infact it's what usually happens (unfortunetly). They just lay eggs and have no interest in sitting on them. This happens regardless of their age. It is the uncommon female that actually sits on her eggs. This could take anywhere between a few weeks, few months or few years. It depends on the individual quail.

The best thing to do is just sit and wait. Eventually down the track, one or more of your females will most likely decide that she feels like raising a family. :P Even with female quails that seemed to have no interest at first, I have found some of them become very clucky and obsessed with sitting on a nest.
You can encourage them by making sure they have lots of little hiding spots where they might want to build a nest (I create areas like this for them using bricks, wood, rocks, concrete slabs, etc). Also provide dry grass, etc as nesting material (they do use a little bit). You could even put it in the hiding areas where they may likely build a nest.


When you are lucky enough to have babies hatch, there are a few things to look out for. Baby quails are teeeny (and adorable!) and can fit through small spaces. If your cage mesh spacing is 1cm X 1cm or more, they will run right through it like it's not even there. Have some sort of barrier around the cage. My first aviary didn't have any kind of skirt so I put wooden planks around it. I also was careful not to separate mum and babies when I was in the aviary, this detered the babies from wandering out of the aviary.
The other thing to watch out for is water. Baby quails can't reach typical water bowls and if they manage to, they will probably drown. You need to remove unsuitable water bowls and use really shallow dishes - I use container lids and saucers (and have a few so they can't run out of water). This does mean you need to change them more frequently to make sure they always have water.
You can tell the what mutation a quail chick is going to be from day one! I have only worked with normal, silver and cinnamon: normal chicks are brown with dark stripes, silver chicks are yellow and cinnamon chicks are yellow with a caramel coloured head. By one week old they already start getting their adult feathers starting at the wings. The last adult feathers come in at the throat which means you have to wait right until the end before you know if they are male or female! D:

Hope that helps. Good luck!

[WhiteRaven]

Here are some nesting/baby quail photos of my own quails: :)

(the baby turned out to be a normal coloured male who I still have today)


(notice she even collected seed husks to make the nest!)


(newborn baby)


(a normal and and a cinnamon)


(silver babies)

By the way... my quails have nested on anything between 5 and 14 eggs! Amazingly, one baby did manage to hatch from the one with the 14 egg nest, despite her never being able to sit on them all at once.