Everyone wants to keep their animals and birds happy. So if you are raising quails, then you must know more about keeping quails happy.
Quails are smaller sized birds and they require comparatively less care and management than other poultry birds. However, here we are describing more about keeping quails happy.
Keeping Quails Happy
Here we are trying to describing more about keeping quails happy.
Caring Quails
You must take good care of your quails. So you must know how to care for quail. Start feeding your chicks with high quality feeds, and provide them with fresh and clean water. Try to change their bedding on a daily basis and inspect their health regularly.
Keep Quails in a Group
Quails love to stay in group. So keep your quails in a group to keep them happy. Quails are social birds and they should not be alone, otherwise they will become depressed.
Don’t Stress Your Birds Too Much
Don’t stress the birds for keeping quails happy. Unless tame, the quails don’t like interacting with them. And untamed birds generally hate being picked up.
Quails love calm environment, so keep them free from predators, pets and other types of disturbances.
Feed Your Birds Some Treats
Quails generally love some treats to eat along with a high quality feed. Quails might not like everything you give because they can be picky.
They generally eat what they like and leave what they dislike. Fresh vegetables include corn, cucumber, sprouts, salad leafs, broccoli etc.
Quails prefer fresh fruits such as banana, apple, melon, strawberry etc. Woodlice, mealworms, spiders, milipeds etc. are good bugs for quails.
And good table scraps for the quail include cereal, rice, pasta, noodles etc.
Avoid some treats such as stems, leaves of tomato plants, avocado, chocolate, citrus fruits, salty treats and lettuce. These all are toxic to quails.
Scatter the Food Around
Scatter the food around instead of putting the feed in a bowl, so that the birds can go foraging for food. Doing so will create lots of fun for them during feed time.
Ensure Adequate Space
Ensure adequate space per bird, and arrange more space per bird if you can.
Quails generally love plenty of space for roaming around and it lessens the chances of fighting between the flock.
You can build or purchase a run with a great amount of space for keeping quails happy during the the day time.
Make the Run Exciting
Try to make the run for quails exciting. Add some extra items that the quails love, if you have a lot of space in their cage.
Quails will love rocks, rodent huts, plants, hiding spots etc. Planting a few shrubs in their enclosure will be good if your birds live outside on the ground.
Quails will love pecking around at the plants but ensure they are not poisonous to the birds.
Provide a Tub of Sand
If possible, provide a tub of sand for your quails. Doing so will help you for keeping quails happy.
Because quails love to dust bathe daily and it’s their way of cleaning themselves. Provide your quails with a shallow tub of dry sand to dust bath in.
Interact With the Birds
Consider playing with your quails, if they are tame. But if your birds are not tame, then either find a way to tame them or visit them often in their cage.
Just ensure that you are not disturbing your birds too much, because quails are not very interactive birds.
Things to Avoid
There are many things that can cause unhappiness to the quail. Some of these things are mentioned below.
- Quails are sensitive to temperatures, and too much cold or too much hot temperature is not good for them. Try to keep the quails in a shade during summer, and bring them inside a warm room during winter (depending on how cold/hot they get in your area). Hot quails will pant and cold quail will huddle up.
- Quails generally require 13 to 15 hours of light per day. And too much sunlight or little sunlight will harm them. If the birds get too much lighting hours per day, then consider providing them with a few light bulbs hung above the cage. The birds should always have access to shade if they become too hot.
- Provide adequate space per bird. Ensure at least 1 square foot of floor space per bird, and more space will be better.
- Try to keep your birds free from predators. Common predators for quails include birds, cats, dogs, racoons, snakes and rats.
Avoiding all these things will help for keeping quails happy!
Thank you this has been helpful to read
Thanks for your honest opinion!
You say lettuce is toxic to quail. As I understand it, only light-coloured lettuce is toxic.