Quail Hunting Info >> Quail Hunts

The Button Quail ( Excalfactoria chinensis ) is a beautiful little bird that is commonly known as the button quail or the Chinese Painted Quail. These birds are often used as micro janitors in the bottoms of aviaries where they do a very good job at cleaning up the seeds that are left by other birds. Another usage of these birds is by commercial butterfly breeders and in green houses, where they do a very good job at keeping spider and insect populations under control. In their natural habitat, these birds are only found in China but we all know that these birds have found their way into homes all over the world.

The normal size of a male button quail is approximately 4 ½ inches, a little bit smaller in comparison with the female which is about 5 inches. The male is more colorful than the female and has a black & white bib that runs under the chin. If their basic requirements are met, these birds are easy keepers and prolific breeders. It is advisable to keep these birds in solitary pairs but there are many cases in which these birds are kept in trios of one male to two hens or colony bred with several males and hens.

The male quails ( and sometimes the females too ) can become aggressive towards one another. The quail is a territorial bird and very temperamental when other birds invade its territory. The pen should be sufficiently large in order to avoid serious fighting which will surely happen if the pen’s size isn’t large enough. Button quails are known to be very active that is why it isn’t a strange thing for them to track their droppings.

If quails aren’t kept on clean bedding, you can encounter serious problems when the droppings become encrusted on their small feet and form into rather large balls at the ends of their tiny toes. Under proper conditions, the button quail will incubate its own eggs. For this to happen, you need to provide the quail with both security and privacy. In order to do so you must place a tiny shelter on the floor of their pen.

Regarding their nutrition, the button quails don’t need sophisticated food and are very cheap to feed. If you keep them with other birds, they will get approximately half of their required food right off the floor. The button quail can easily survive with seeds and water. They enjoy eating turkey and game bird pellets, if you can’t provide them with this the alternative would be growing mashes for chickens. The food should be broken up into beak size pieces in order to allow the birds to actually eat the food. Occasionally, they should be fed meal worms, fruits and vegetables. The button quail needs a constant supply of fresh water.

Regarding the housing aspect, these lovely birds feel right at home in any cage/aviary but they prefer the outdoor aviaries, the more space they have, the better. In their search for food they will run around on the floor of the cage. The button quail enjoys bathing like other birds but they don’t bath in water, they like bathing in sand & dust.

The Button Quail comes in a great variety of colors as a matter of fact there are dozens of colors available for this bird. The most common mutation is the silver. The new colors available for this bird are only a little bit more expensive in comparison with the original colors, some of these new colors beingremarkably attractive.

Gallery :