How to Keep Your Quail Happy

Co-authored by Amy Harrison

Last Updated: January 22, 2019

Quail are hardy birds, but even then they can become stressed from time to time. A lot of owners unnecessarily stress their birds out, and end up doing more harm than good. Quail are solitary pets that prefer to stick to their own (in a pair or small flock). If you'd like to make your birds life a little bit better, read the following tips below.

Steps

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You can start to make your quail happier by taking the simple steps into making sure you know all of your quails needs and want. Do a little online research and find out what type of birds quail are, and what they prefer. This might be as simple as providing the best and most nutritional food, or switching up their bedding choice.
Quail are sociable birds that do well in pairs, trios or small flocks of four or more. Loneliness is a true occurrence with many animals, and can make them sad and unhappy.

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Avoid unnecessarily causing stress to your quail. Quail are shy and sensitive birds that don't like being handled on a daily basis, unless they are tamed and use to the human hand. They usually do not like being picked up, but can be hand fed or spoken to in hushed tones.
- Having pets or loud noises in the same room as you cage can also stress them out.
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Feed your quail a limited amount of treats. Quail are picky so they might not like everything you give them, but they will eat what they like and leave what they dislike - thus you will soon pick up on what to feed them. What they can be fed is listed below:
- Fresh fruits including apple, banana, strawberry, melon, etc. Make sure you chop these up into small pieces so that the quail can eat them.
- Fresh vegetables including broccoli, corn, cucumber, salad leafs, sprouts, etc. Chop these up as well as the fruits.
- Bugs including mealworms, millipedes, spiders, woodlice, etc. Make sure you keep the bugs small so that the quail will have no trouble eating them.
- Table scraps including pasta, rice, noodles, cereal, etc. Quail will eat most types of food but make sure to only give them a small amount.
- Never feed quail avocado, chocolate, alcohol, stems and leaves of tomato plants, uncooked potato or egg, citrus fruits, lettuce and salty treats. These are all toxic to quail.
Instead of putting the quail’s feed in a bowl, scatter it around so they can go foraging for it instead. This helps to create mental stimulation and physical exercise during feeding time.
Quail are naturally ground-dwelling birds that roam around, foraging for food throughout the day. More space will help to not only make your quail a lot happier, but also encourage mental stimulation, exercise and discourage fights between the flock. You can purchase or build a run which is a great amount of space to keep your quail in during the day time.
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Pot plants in the quails habitat. If your quail live outside on the ground consider planting a few shrubs in their enclosure depending on how big it is. They’ll love pecking around at the plants but make sure they aren’t poisonous to the quail.
- Although you must be aware of the many poisonous plants there are to quail, you probably won’t come across these anyway. And quail will avoid plants that are poisonous to them.
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Make the quail’s closure more exciting. If you have a lot of spare space in the quail’s cage, add some extra items that they’ll love such as logs, rocks, rodent huts, hiding spots, plants etc.
- The hiding spots will give any bullied quail a place to retreat to when chased, and it also increases the chance you can have males housed together.
Quail love to dust bathe daily and it’s their way of cleaning themselves. Provide them a shallow tub of dry sand for your quail to dust bath in.
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Get rid of things that make your quail unhappy. There are many things that can cause unhappiness to quail, some can be seen below:
- Too much sunlight or little sunlight. Quail need 13-15 hours of light per day, if they lack this consider providing them with a few light bulbs hung above their cage. However, the quail should always have access to shade if they become too hot.
- Predators including pets. Racoons, birds, dogs, cats, rats and snakes are all predators of quail. Make sure the cage is predator proof and that no pets can get inside the quails room.
- Lack of space. Provide your quail with at least 1 square foot of floor space, more will be even better.
- Hot or cold temperatures. Bring the quail inside a warm room during winter and keep them in the shade during summer depending on how cold/hot it gets in your area. Cold quail will huddle up and hot quail will pant.
If your quail is tame, consider playing with it. If your quail is not tame, either find a way to tame it or visit it in its cage. Just remember to not disturb the quail too much since they aren’t very interactive birds.