The Button or Chinese Painted Quail is about 4-5 inches in height, much smaller than other members of the quail family. They are ground dwellers and love to sit on top of their houses to watch the world go by. They aren't great flyers, but when scared they will have a short burst that normally "helicopter's" them straight up. They can easily clear a 6 foot fence. When they are frightened they can ‘boink’; they fly straight up and can cause themselves quite serious injuries if their cage has a low roof. This is another reason why they are excellent for keeping on the bottom of outdoor aviaries.
The males are distinguishable from the females by having a white bib under their chin; some also have prominent facial markings. Males will also have reddish feathers around their vent area. The exception to these "rules of thumb" are colors like white and slate where no bib is present. These will have to be sexed by body shape – the females are slightly larger than the males with a plumper body- or by listening to their calls. Males will make a "darth vader" call and a female will not. You could also have fun and put a dish of mealworms into the cage and see what happens. The male will sometimes pick up the mealworms but will not eat them. He will chirp away until the female takes it out of his beak. Another characteristic of the male is his funny walk when he is courting the female. He will walk around her, one foot in front of the other, with his body at an angle of 45° sideways, head cocked, chirping away at her. I call it the "turkey trot".
These are some basic care items for you button quails:
*Fresh water is a must. Get into a routine to change their water daily and you will have a much healthier bird. There are water soluble vitamins that you can give birds, but please be extra diligent to clean the water out at the end of the day because the vitamins left in the water create bacteria. I would rather see my birds eat healthy than take vitamins, but that is just a personal preference.
*They need to take sand baths for good hygiene. Place a dish with sand in it and make sure it is changed when it looks dirty. You don’t want to bath in dirty water and your bird would rather not bath in dirty sand. I buy the play sand from Home Depot.
*Fresh dark green veggies** (iceberg lettuce is not a dark green veggie), fruit, clean potato peals are a good way to provide vitamins. Angel hair pasta can be given as a treat and is a fun thing to watch them eat since the buttons will play tug of war with it.
*Calcium is VERY important for your bird’s health. They lay eggs daily and without calcium they will live a considerably shorter life. I provide a cuttle bone daily and will also supplement their diet with a hard boiled egg (shell and all) that has been blended with couscous, quinoa, and egg food (found at local pet stores). If the mixture seems too sticky add some cornmeal. Mixture should be good for several days if kept refrigerated. Remember to remove any leftovers at the end of the day when the temps are cool and within a few hours if the temp is warm. The egg will go bad quickly.
*Meal worms are a great source of protein. Each button quail can have 5-6 meal worms a day. This does get to be expensive so you could always consider harvesting your own (see additional items tab for info)
*Gamebird feed is also a staple. A good feed has around 30% protein.
*I offer buttons spray millet as a treat and keep some seed which is a mixture of roller canary seeds and parakeet seeds. If you have them housed in an aviary with other birds they will do a fine job at eating the spilled seeds from your birds.
*Hiding places are important to these birds especially if you have more than two housed together. The buttons can sometimes be a bit territorial and fight and if there are no hiding places it can become deadly. The hens also use these safe havens to lay there eggs. Some hens will actually become broody and sit on their eggs if they have found this safe zone. Broody button quails are becoming a novelty since they are so domesticated. My flock of birds tends to be broody so if you are lucky you may end up with a hen hatching her own clutch (and there is not much that is cuter).
*Kale, broccoli, swiss chard, carrot tops, spinach (given in moderation-excessive amount will not allow a bird to absorb calcium correctly) are just a few examples of dark greens
*If you do end up with chicks please feel free to contact me and I will tell you what steps to take to care for them. I adore these little birds and will try to guide you so that you have the best possible success in caring for them.
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