Aussie Finch Forum

Buzzard-1 wrote:

mr.fox wrote:Is it possible to hand rear button chicks? Very fiddly I imagine

No they are easy,just a brooder or hospital cage kept at 37.5deg chicken mash and a coccidia treatment until about 3 weeks of age they raise themselves. and a very,very shallow water dish.

I posted a link in one of Diane's things about one of her baby quails

and why does everyone have button quail but me!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?!?

Jayburd wrote:

Buzzard-1 wrote:

mr.fox wrote:Is it possible to hand rear button chicks? Very fiddly I imagine

No they are easy,just a brooder or hospital cage kept at 37.5deg chicken mash and a coccidia treatment until about 3 weeks of age they raise themselves. and a very,very shallow water dish.

Can I quote 'Aviculture in Australia' by Mark Shepard ? .." the male bill feeds the young, that is, food is taken directly from the father's beak"..."Hand rearing any button quail chick is generally a difficult task, as mentioned earlier. However, #### successfully reared 2 Painted buttton quail which were kept in a brooder with a young silver King quail of similar age. In the first few days of rearing, the Painted chicks had to be forcibly fed by placing food down their beaks. Small mealworms were also given using a pair of tweazers After day 4 the young King quail appeared to be assisting the Painted chicks in teaching them to feed from the floor of the brooder. The button quail seemed to have adopted the King quail as their parent and would try to pick at its beak"

I can't say that I have tried it, but I beleive it would be a challenge getting those tiny little bubs to take food, even from tweezers and such. But there are some very clever and dedicated people out there I quess....much more clever and dedicated ( and Patient!) than myself ;)

VR1Ton wrote:Black-Breasted need to take the food direct from the males beak for about the first week, & they will not feed unless he calls them to.

Just reread post. To be completely honest I never read post properly the first time thought we were talking about King Quail.My sincere apologies to anyone that I sent down the wrong path.

We'll let you off this time Buz

Re hand raising button quail.
Having hand raised a pair of Painted Button-quail (not Chinese Painted Quail), It is suggested don't attempt unless you have lots of available time and wish to prove the experts wrong.
Australian Button Quail of the Turnix species are incubated and raised by the male and are incapable of feeding themselves when first hatched. Chicks are totally dependent on the male to beak feed them. I have successfully raised 2 female birds, which included their incubation of 14 days. Fortunately I discovered it is necessary to pick the live food of the ground and offer it to them by tweezers. (white ants). Freshly incubated birds show no interest in food offered from above as their food never arrives in that manner when fed by the male. Purely by chance I dropped an ant which was immediately seized by the chick when I picked it up and re-offered it. Food offered from below their line of sight is accepted.
It may be possible to crop feed an appropriate diet. The two earlier mentioned birds were raised exclusively using white-ants for 3 weeks and were feeding independently at 4 days old.
Mixed seed and meal worms were introduced at 3 weeks when the chicks were fully feathered and capable of limited flight.
One chick experienced a severe moult at approx 5 weeks which may have been due to dietary deficiency and had to be separately raised from its sibling due to its sibling’s desire to pick emergent pin feathers from its sibling. Both birds have progressed well to maturity.
The female should be removed from the scene as soon as a full clutch is laid and the male commences incubation. In the wild the female vacates the nesting territory after completing the clutch and seeks a further mate. If she is unable to vacate as in an aviary she is likely to distract the male from his incubating duties with her desire to mate.

Wow...you did it! Thanks for the very interesting information and for sharing your experiences. Just as i thought, Button quail are very challenging little buggers to hand rear. I doubt that many people would have the patience required to do the job. Sounds like the biggest challenge is to get them through those 1st few days. I know that with mine that once the male can get them past a few days old they are much more likely to survive.
My young pair of Littles are still laying eggs everywhere but they are so flighty that they won't settle down to incubate. Not like the old birds, so much more docile and reliable.

Just out of interest, today while slashing Triticale cover crops in the vineyard, I disturbed several Little Button quail with the tractor. I haven't seen this species in this district for many years. They were definately Littles, I got out and tried to catch one a couple of times but too fast for me! Got some really good views from very close. Interesting that this season has been a pretty good one over here, so not surprising that the Buttons should put in an appearance. Hopefully I haven't disturbed them so much that won't stay and breed. Actually, one was particularly dark on the back ( flying away from about 6 metres away) I wondered if this one would have been a Red-chested Button quail? What would the chances be of seeing both Littles and Red-chesteds in the same patch of cereal?

Sorry cant tell you any information about the quails, but I wish I had a video camera pointed at the field when you were trying to catch them
I laughed when reading your post just imagining you running around after the quail.

I've seen Browns, Paintes, & Kings all in the same paddock with a couple of Hares while out collecting nesting grass, so would not be suprised if Littles & Reds in close proximity.