Button Quail Gone Broody

[Annabelle]

My button quail hen (Lucy) has gone broody and is sitting on 10 eggs!! Just thought I'd share that with everyone. Lol, Im soo stoaked cause ive read everywhere that getting them to sit on eggs is fairly hard cause they just tend to leave them where they lay them like chooks often do. She laid 21 eggs in total but she was only sitting on 10 of them so I took the other 11 out and put them in my incubator. Considering this is her first time sitting, 10 is quite enough for her.
My little male quail is really attentive and guards her and helps her sit on the eggs at night. He even guards the eggs during the day when she gets off the nest for food though he wont go as far as to sit on them.
Well ne way, thats all for now. Huzzah for Lucy!

[Kerry C]

Hey that's great. Just remember the chicks are about bumble bee size so make sure the cage wire is VERY narrow or you will have chicks wondering out side of the cage.

[tweets]

Hi Annabelle, good luck with the quails. It's true they can get through very small wire. My finch cage has 1/4in. and I lost a couple of chicks to kookaburras when they squeezed through. The kookas hang around all the time just waiting (they have chicks to feed too) but the quail chicks are too big now.

[Annabelle]

I was fortunate enough to see some baby button quail awhile ago and I built my cage with them in mind. They wont be going anywhere. I was wondering though, if any one knows of any foods that I may have to put into the cage when the babies hatch? The parents have thier seed, grit, greens and fruit but will I need some easier to digest food when the babies hatch? The only pellets and crumbles available in my area are made with chickens in mind. Is this ok? I do have egg and biscuit, high protien baby cereal, calcium powder, vitamin drops, and comercial rearing mixes for granivore and insectivore birds. These were remnants from being in a wildlife rescue service a short time ago. I was going to use these and have been feeding some of this stuff to the parent birds during the egg laying process. Would this stuff do?

[Lovebirdfan]

Annebelle, I hope this is helpful. Source http://www3.sympatico.ca/davehansen/qfeed.html

These tiny birds feel right at home in almost any cage or aviary. They like outdoor aviaries the best but will also do fine in any larger size cage. They will be enjoyed much more if they have space. They will run around on the floor of the cage, searching for seeds, and other valuables that they seem to find. They are always busy pecking at something, and enjoy hiding in evergreen branches or cedar that can be put on the floor for them to play in.

They like to hide in these, and if you shift them around weekly, they get to explore their home all over again. The branches also give scared birds a place to hide when one approaches, instead of flying straight up and hurting themselves. They like to bath like all birds, but quails don't bath in water - they bath in sand and dust. They should be given a container of sand in a well lit spot. They will spent hours "playing" in their sand box. They seem to like to run around the edges of the cage or aviary, so if it is outside, they should have fine gravel in these areas. This keeps them from running in mud.

Grated lettuce is a good green food, moths, and meal worms can be added when the babies are large enough to eat them. Any open water dishes should have marbles in them so that the babies can get a drink from between them, and not get wet. Only shallow jar lids or clay dishes should be used unless you can get them used to the clip on waterers such as those for Budgie cages. Ours prefer shallow dishes.

[Annabelle]

Well I have currently 10 babies hatched out. Seven of them hatched under Lu a few days ago and 3 more hatched in my incubator last night. I let them spend the night in the incubator and put them in with the rest this morning. It was an experiment as I didnt know how the others would take to the new ones. They have settled in really really well. The parents didnt even think twice they just took them under thier wings (quite literally) and they are now part of the family. They cant get around as well as the older ones and they tend to tire easier but that should fix itself in the next couple of days as they find thier feet.
I really love watching them as a family unit. Ben (the male) is as good a parent as Lu is and they love following mummy and daddy around and copying them. Its too cute.
I dont actually have mealworms right now so ive been feeding the parents the earthworms from my worm farm. Is this ok? I heard they were a really well balanced protien but that was for axolotls, I assumed they would be ok for quails though.
Am buying film tomorrow cause I really want to catalouge the growing process, plus I just want photos cause they are really cute.
Thanx btw Lovebirdfan. That info u gave was helpful.