How To Care For Quails (Guide and Checklist)

Quails are small, low-maintenance pets that are very easy to take care of. But if they are not kept in the proper environment or fed the right foods, they will start to show health problems that could even be life-threatening.

Caring is crucial and it will require knowledge and labor. The general quail care includes house, feed, and farm management. However, if you just started your quail farming, this may get overwhelming to keep them healthy and happy.

Here, in this article, I will explain the exeat caring process that we provide our quails. Besides, give the details on what care they need and when.

So,

Quail Care Checklist for Beginners

No matter, if you are raising quails as a pet or a profitable business, here is a checklist to ensure proper care.

Quail CareWhat to doWhen and what to do
Quail House Management1. Provide enough spaces
1. Once, when setup housing
2. Provide or change bedding2. Once, every week or two.
3. Cleaning the cage3. Daily
Environmental Care 1. Check temperature1. Use a temperature monitor, keep it at around 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Ensure proper lighting2. Utilize sunlight and artificial lights.
Feeding Management1. Provide Fresh clean, dry food and water.1. Use feeder and water to avoid waste.
2. Provide separate food for baby quails2. You can use a chick starter.
Farm Management1. Install fence 1. Once, when setup farm
2. Keep them safe from predators2. Always keep an eye on them.
3. Keep Them separate from other poultry3. Don’t raise them with other poultry birds.
Special care1. Protect baby quails from bad environment temperature2. Keep them in a brooder for the first six weeks.
2. Separate weak and unhealthy ones.3. Take special care of sick and weak quails.
Quail Care Checklist for Beginners

One other tip that might be helpful for beginners, is starting with a small batch of quails. It will be easier to maintain.

8 Steps to Ensure Care For Quails

How To Care For Quails

Not only do Quail require exceptional food, housing, and environment, but they also need regular attention. Therefore, new owners must become familiar with Quail before bringing one into their home. Being prepared will result in a long and healthy life for your birds.

These birds are friendly and gentle. So, the day-to-day care is easily manageable. In fact, it will not require much time and labor. You can handle more than 1000 quails alone.

However, there are some time-consuming works too. Luckily, most of them are part of farms and shelters management procedures. And you have to do that once a week, a month or even a year.

Besides, if you take time to ensure care for quails, it secures success and reduces the potential problem regarding quails health and farm management.

Now, let dig deep into the steps to take care of your quails.

1. Provide Appropriate Shelter And Enveronment

The best way to care for quails is to set up a sturdy pen with fencing or netting. The pen should be reasonably large since Quail requires lots of room to roam around and exercise and a few different levels to jump onto and off of.

If you’re going to keep them inside, make sure that they have plenty of natural light – or purchase a lamp – and that they have access to fresh air through an open window or grate.

The primary thing that every living being need is shelter. These tiny birds will need a house to protect them from bad weather, predators.

Besides, Quail prefer temperatures between 21 to 32 Celsius, 16 hours of light per day. So, for commercial farms, a shelter can aid in increasing productivity by controlling the environment.

However, what kind of shelter is suitable for quails?

When it comes to housing, a good rule of thumb is to provide enough space for your quail to be able to stretch its wings fully,

  • Cage rearing is more profitable than the litter method for commercial quail rearing. Each quail needs 65 square centimeters in the cage and 100 square centimeters on the floor.
  • Older quails require 150 square centimeters of space for each cell and 250 square centimeters on the floor.
  • Provide adequate lighting and ventilation.
  • The gap between the baby cage floor mesh will be 3 x 3 mm for three weeks, and the floor mesh gap for the adults will be 5 x 5 mm.

2. Feeding Management

Feeding Care

If you provide your quail with a high-quality, high-protein feed designed for them, they should not have problems getting essential nutrients.

However, make sure you do not overfeed them because it could cause their beaks to grow abnormally large or other health issues.

An adult quail can consume 20 to 25 grams of food per day. Besides, the quail drink water very often. So it will require some special care and equipment.

Follow this optimal food management process, to ensure healthy production.

Feeding Care

  • Ensure a healthy and balanced food supply. Here is a feeding guide that you can follow.
  • To make eating easier for a kid, serve food on flat trays or in tiny containers.
  • For every 26 cubes, use one feeding container (50 cm long, 6 cm wide, and 3 cm high)
  • And for every 34 adult quail, use one feeding container (56 cm long, 10 cm wide, and 4 cm high).
  • Give 20-25 grams of food each day per person in the morning and afternoon.

Water

  • Always provide clean water.
  • For each adult quail, provide 0.7 cm (1/4 inch) of water.
  • However, you can use any type of water container, automatic or standard.
  • In the litter raising method, ensure at least one pot of water should be provided for every 40-50 quails.
  • On the other hand, attach the water containers to the cage.
  • Early in their life, quail chicks are prone to dehydration. Always check on them after they’ve had access to food and water for an hour or so.

3. Litter Management

The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure your coop is ready. Then, fill it with around 10 inches of wood shavings, hay, or straw for them to sleep on.

A wooden nest box should be placed inside; use something like pine chips as nesting material. Bedding and a water dish will also be needed.

However, you can also use sand, ash, wood powder, etc. as litter. It is necessary to change the trash in case of any unhealthy environment. It is better to use the deep litter method on the floor.

  • The first step is to spread 5-6 inches thick bran and ensure that the litter does not get wet.
  • Usually, the debris should change and be replaced in winter.
  • In other seasons the litter should change and return, and 1-2% of the litter should mix with lime to make it dry and sterile.

4. Lighting Management

14-16 hours of light are required daily to increase the desired egg production and egg fertility.

In autumn and winter, the daylight length is less, so it provides artificial lighting. Male quails that are not used for breeding and those only used for meat production need 8 hours of light daily.

5. Wings Clipping

When the quail’s body is full, we should cut off some feathers next to their arms. This will reduce their body weight, and they will feel normal. It also gets rid of the tendency to fly with age. So, clipping wings can be a great comfort.

6. Keep Them Safe from Predators

  • Foxes attack quails at night when they cannot avoid attacks on dense grass. Foxes are one of the chief enemies of birds, as they mainly maintain this bird population as the norm;
  • These large wolf hunters rarely leave forest areas, but they can hunt quails during times of hunger. Although, because of their colossal size and laziness, wolves can rarely catch a nipple bird;
  • Ferrets, Nezels, Erminis, Martens. Dextras are the best predators for these birds, as they move as fast as quails, but in most cases, they are interested in cubs;
  • Falcons and hawks They prefer to follow flocks of birds during seasonal migration, thus providing them with food for a long time;
  • Hamsters and other rats are not interested in them, but they have no objection to eating eggs, so they destroy the nests of eggs hatched from eggs from time to time.

7. Common Diseases of Quail Birds

Quail’s disease is less than another proletariat. But for this, you need to take good care of the farm and manage it properly. Good care and management are essential for a profitable business.

Quails are not usually getting the vaccine against the disease. Quail birds usually cannot tolerate sudden temperature changes and weather changes.

Therefore, there is a possibility of getting sick because of a sudden change in temperature or weather. Be very careful. The following diseases are very harmful to quail.

  • Coccidiosis: If quail coccidiosis occurs, mix two grams of ‘Cocitol’ (or similar medicine) in a liter of water and serve in parallel for three days. Otherwise, act as advised by the veterinarian.
  • Ulcerative Enteritis: Mix one gram of streptomycin with one cup of water and serve for three days. It will get rid of harmful enteritis disease.

Vaccine:

Although there is no application schedule for quail vaccination, some farms have reported gumbo and bird flu. Therefore, it is advisable to vaccinate against these two diseases (only for layer or parent stock).

8. Special Care for Commercial Quails

To keep your quail healthy and productive, follow the steps below.

  • Always try to keep them dry and clean.
  • A small run outside will give plenty of room to play and explore surroundings.
  • Ensure adequate lighting and proper ventilation in the shed.
  • Keep the different adult quails separate from each other.
  • We must separate infected patients from healthy birds. Also, burn dead birds or throw them on the ground.
  • Do not allow other birds, animals, or strangers to enter your quail farm.
  • Provide adequate clean water as per demand.
  • You may also want to consider adding an automatic waterer. Since they are ground-dwellers, you can even set up some dirt mounds for them to hop around in.

Final Tips

Quail need to be cared for daily. Even though they are easier to manage than other kinds of pet birds, they still require food and water every day.

Most baby quail will start calling at around 12 days old, so you should begin feeding them before then if possible, but it’s important not to provide any baby bird until you know it is well enough to eat.

In either case, your quail needs regular access to fresh food and water in addition to making sure that there isn’t too much or too little moisture inside their housing area or nesting box.

Carefully research varieties of Quail. The four major varieties are Coturnix japonica , Coturnix chinensis , Coturnix delegorguei , and Coturnix pectoralis .

Each has unique characteristics that may best suit your preferences or lifestyle. Make sure you are aware of what you’re getting yourself into before deciding on a specific variety!

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