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Jan. 13, 2007
YAY!!!! QUAIL BABIEEEES!
Three of Lilo's quail eggies hatched!!. We have three adorable nickel-sized quail chicks running around their cage now! They are SO CUTE. We've named them gernder-neutralish names since we won't know their gender for a while: Sunshine (who is bright yellow), Valentine (who has reddish fuzz) and Edison. My mother is coming over later with her digital camera to take pictures, so I'll post them later. She has a feed and farm store right by her house, so she's bringing some starter crumble for them, too. I can't believe they HATCHED! There are a bunch of eggs that didn't, unfortunately. I am cleaning the cage out today. For the moment, I have separated Lucky from the babies because the cage is a bit too small for the five of them.
I am currently looking for a bigger and taller cage so that the babies can stay with their mothers until they are at least 4 weeks old. Button quails have so often been bred in captivity that they are losing their brooding instinct as a species; bird enthusiasts and fans of the species like myself recommend allowing mothers to raise their own young as often as possible to re-introduce the brooding and mothering instincts into the species. They are often kept as a trio of females for egg-laying purposes or in a ratio of 2 females per 1 male to reduce aggression in cramped conditions but their natural family unit is a male and a female with their current brood of chicks. I intend to let them raise a many babies as they'll have.
Do I have any idea what I'm going to do with the three new birds? No. I am a sap and will likely keep another pair. They are very low-maintenance birds, if a bit noisy. It is unfortunate that there are three and not four so that they can't all be given away in pairs. I will probably give the other bird away to locals, with a little typed up and printed out handout about how to care for them, since quails aren't like other birds in that they need a lot of horizontal space instead of traditional bird cages which have a lot of vertical space. They are better off in ferret and guinea pig habitats! It is possible to resell them, I guess, but it wouldn't be very profitable. I have to think about it. :) For now I am enjoying their fluffy chirpy adorableness!
There is a downside to all of this: Lilo's feathers don't look so great. She has a bald patch on her neck and head, and BIG one on her rump that she apparently got from overly aggressive mating, poor baby. But neither patch has refeathered and it's been weeks. I am giving her another few days and if she's not better by the time I get back from Orlando/Daytona next week, I am taking her to an avian vet to see what he says.
But I am especially happy that Lucky has reproduced because his colors are SO unusual and beautiful. If you look on the header of my page, you'll see the traditional colors for a Chinese painted quail male: brown and gray mottled on the back and head, reddish gray wings, and a blue breast and belly. While Lilo's coloring looks pretty much exactly like that, Lucky is dark slate blue with pale silver tips on the back, a black head with a white ring around the neck, and a BRIGHT sienna red on the breast. His colors are so, so gorgeous. I actually think he may be some kind of new mutation. I've been Googling an can't find a picture of it. So I'll have to post mine. :) Hopefully he has at least one son today and hopefully he's as pretty as his daddy! |
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