what do you know about button quail?

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I have a darling little quail here, from a humane society. We call her Betsy. Last night she laid an egg! She is awfully cute and loveable...but I know nothing about these birds. Would like any advice or tips. She is living in the house with our parrots.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), May 25, 2001

Answers

I know they're darn cute! Here's a site for you, Shannon. It shows a button quail that is a different color than I've seen -- the ones I've seen were a darkish brown. Probably a different color phase or something.

http://members.aol.com/butonquail/homepage.html#HOUSE

And more: http://www.gamebird.com/button.html
http://www.finchworld.com/bquail.html
http://www.zebrafinch.com/NewButtonquail/MainQuail.html
http://www.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/fowl/bquail.htm
http://www.northnet.org/terowepersians/quailpg.html
Dang, they're cute! I don't think they'd last long around here with the cats though . . . Babies the size of bumblebees! Wow!

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), May 25, 2001.


That very first site you listed is really awesome! Thanks!

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), May 25, 2001.

Well, Joy got there with all the pertinent information. I will merely add that Button Quail are cute as buttons, and they are very prolific! The few aviculturists I've talked to that got into Buttons were quickly hip-deep in them.

They are great little birds in large mixed aviaries in that they clean up spilled food, are not viewed by other birds as any danger, are extremely quiet, and come in a goodly variety of colour variations. I have heard that some people pickle their eggs to use as a garnish on hors d'oerves and drinks, and these *might* be the same as the quail eggs I saw for sale in fancy groceries in London.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), May 26, 2001.


We hatched a few eggs from button qual's a couple yeards ago for a young fella. His birds wouldn't set on any s owe used one of our bantan hens. Worked great until the eggs hatched!!! The hen didn't want to give up the chicks!!!

-- michelle (tsjheath@nci2.net), May 26, 2001.

I raised button quail for several years. They like an aviary with dirt or sand floors, places to hide and plenty of food and water. They breed easily but won't set without privacy. The chicks are tiny downy things that pop like popcorn whenever any enters the aviary! Button quail do flush, like other quail, so they need a roof. Enjoy them!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), May 27, 2001.


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