This is a cage I designed and built for my button quail. I found some large cookie sheets on sale. They became the dropping pans. The rest of the cage is built from 1/2" x 1/2" hardware cloth, clipped together with j-clips.
We now have a total of 6 button duplexes for a total of 12 "apartments".
First residents of the Button Duplex are Tater(cinnamon) and Sunny (white) on the left and Diablo (Double Factor Blue Face hen) and Rocket (Red-breasted Wildtype) on the right.
Yee-haw!!! A new batch of baby buttons arrived Wednesday night. They are a rainbow of colors! Hopefully there are plenty of hens in the bunch. In the last batch, there were only two hens, so I've got a bunch of eligible bachelors waiting around.
At four weeks the button quail were developing colorful new feathers and personalities. They copy each other on new skills - like flying.
My little button quail chicks are putting on feathers of many colors. There are quite a few silver, a couple of cinnamon, and some I-don't-know-what. Each one is beautiful.
Their diet is expanding as they are now having some salad greens. They are eating ground gamebird starter with a small amount of ground kitten food added. (1/4 c. kitten food to 2 c. gamebird starter)
And what a surprise: they can fly even this young! I learned the hard way when my precious Quailito flew out and was killed by one of my chihuahuas. A couple days later it happened again while I was feeding. And I was trying to be very careful! The chicks are now in a dog-proof area.
The chicks started avoiding the heat light, so I changed the light bulb from 60 watt to 40 watt and they now seem comfortable. Soon they will need a larger brooder as they become more active. (sigh) How quickly they grow!
By 2 pm Sunday, seven more chicks hatched. The final total was 12!
Saturday brought three darling silver chicks. They are fitting in just fine. I cannot tell them apart, so they don't have names yet.
