Buttonquails / Button Quails or Hemipodes
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The buttonquails or hemipodes resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quails. They naturally occur in the Old World (please see distribution map to the right), inhibiting warm grasslands. These are small drab running birds, which avoid flying. The female is the brighter of the sexes, and initiates courtship. The male incubates the eggs and tends the young.
Keeping Button Quails as Pets or Aviary Birds:
Button Quails can become very tame and may readily accept being scratched under the chin. They are not cuddly birds, but their antics are amusing and their size and quietness make them an easy-to-care-for pet.
I prefer to see them in an aviary environment. They add some visual variety to the aviary and has the added advantage of the buttonquails cleaning up spilled seeds from the aviary floor. This is acceptable, but bird droppings need to be cleaned off the aviary floor, and the aviary should not overcrowded. Their feet is not made for perching, but rather for walking. Therefore, the floor should not be wire. Natural soil is fine - however, it is harder to keep clean and may eventually carry a heavy load of parasites which may infect the quails or other birds. I actually like concrete, as you can hose it down daily, making clean-up a breeze. Adding some non-toxic potted plants will add interest to the aviary and will offer an enriched environment for the birds.
Quails are also kept in cages or aquariums - but I do not like that concept.
Food and water must be accessible to the quail on the floor of their home.
Button quails like to have placed to hide -- an upside-down rectangular (shoebox-size) box with two doors cut in work great, a plastic plant container, upside down with a "door" cut in works great too (and last forever); and / or plants with hanging foliage work great (non-toxic please)!
Breeding:
Breeding pairs require a minimum of four square feet of floor space. Being confined to a smaller space is likely going to result in aggressive behavior. The female needs a place to "get away" from her mate, so in addition to sufficient floor space, hiding places should be provided to make her feel secure.
Feeding your Button Quails:
Button Quails require animals for protein, vegetables and mineral & vitamin supplements to be healthy. Their primary need is a diet high in protein, and the staple of their diet should be "gamebird crumble" - which is over 20% protein. Live food should be offered, such as mealworms, crickets and fly larvae (maggots). These are commercially available at your local pet store, and are fairly inexpensive. Mealworms are high and fat and no more than 5 or 6 per day should be fed to your buttonquail. Protein can also be provided in the form of hard-boiled eggs, algae, spirulina and cooked beans.
Grit should be offered in a shallow bowl - big enough for them to sit in. In addition to providing minerals, grit will help their digestion and is an important part in quail hygiene. They will "bathe" in the grit.
A good vitamin supplement is also very important. Better bird / petstores have some choices for you available. Stick with the "powders" rather than the liquid vitamins, which are mixed in with water. They will cause water to "go off" and you are never sure how much of the supplement they are actually getting. Some birds may actually go off the water as they may not like the taste, which could cause them to dehydrate. Powder mixed with their favorite foods (coating mealworms, for example with it) works best.
Special Care for Female Button Quails
The production of eggs uses vast amounts of the female's resources, which must be compensated for in diet and lighting. Button quail can lay an egg every day. This practice can quickly depelete her calcium and other nutrients resulting in disease and even death. A calcium supplement is essential. Offering crushed oyster shells and/or smashed eggshell of boiled eggs mixed in with the grit will help maintain her optimum calcium levels. Alternatively, you could use cuttlebone available in the bird section of petstores, "Pet-Cal" - which is a supplement for dogs and cats; or any regular human calcium supplement would be acceptable as well. Natural sunlight is important for Vitamin D production.
Nesting Females:
The hen is likely to sit on the eggs almost non-stop, leaving them only to eat and relieve herself. She is protective of her clutch. If they are not fertilized, I would allow her to keep the eggs for about 20 days. If you remove the eggs prior to that, she will continue to lay eggs potentially causing harm to her health. Save any undamaged eggs in a basket / container (not airtight!) - mark each egg to be able to differentiate them from new eggs in the future. As the female gets started on a new clutch - after the first egg has been laid - simply add the old eggs, to discourage her from laying more eggs.
Of course, if the eggs are fertilized and you want her to raise chicks, she will proceed as is natural and will do so without too much assistance from you. Please note that during this time her nutritional requirements need to be paid attention to more so than at any other time. She will need more protein and minerals than in non-breeding times.
Button Quails: ZebraFinch.com ... The Button Quail Home Page ... Garrie Landry's Button Quail Pages ... Quail World: Those Darling Little Button Quail ... Sonja's Button Quail Pages (Classification, Aviculture and Mutations) ... Old Jim's Button Quail Page ... The Finchworld Button Quail Page
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