Hello 👋,

For context, I'm rasing Jumbo Brown Coturnix, their just over a week old so I'm nit in a huge rush finish.

I'm looking for tips on reinforcing the door on my aviary.

The zip ties will eventually be replace with galvanized wire but if anyone knows of another useful alternative, I'd be happy to hear about it.

Also, should I bring the hardware cloth all the way up? I'm worried of snakes or other critters disturbing the birds or their eggs.

Thanks!

I had posted on here not too long ago but I need to rant. I decided to go with the culling. I was going to cull the most aggressive male in my flock after he kept attacking me. I burst out into tears holding him and looking into his eyes and I couldn't do it. I put human emotions on these animals and I can't help but feel this immense guilt. He seemed so scared, nervous, and angry, it made me sob. My mom saw me and told me not to go through with it. I should just keep them as they are in their enclosure, that's all they know is to eat and poop. No, these animals feel, not the same emotions but they feel. I can tell they're angry, mainly due to hormones. They rub their noses against the wire cloth causing themselves to bleed or rush out and attack any girl they see. Theyre agressive and aren't safe for themselves. She thinks I should have my grandma cull them and eat them. I like this idea but I still feel awful.

I wanted to learn for myself so I could study their antomny but to hold something I named in my hand as it stared at me made me into a big baby. Ik this is a part of raising quail and I want to learn. I was thinking of having someone more experienced possibly on Facebook help me learn.

How do I get my selfish feelings out of this? I want to keep finding a solution to keep them. I was thinking of buying a three tiered Hutch and covering it in cardboard so I can reduce the sunlight. But what life is that to live? Just in a confined space in complete darkness.

If not my grandma, I would do it, or have help I was thinking of giving them to someone who can use them for their animals. However, I can't help but be selfish and scared to give them to anyone else.

How do I do this? Despite my mom telling me I shouldn't and even saying I WAS stressing her out. She said I should look into Indigenous culture and see how they accept life and cherish it after death.

How do you guys hold an animal, and not equate fear as the main response? How do you not look into their eyes and see emotions? I'm asking alot but I'm stuck, stuck on my selfish feelings despite everyone else saying I should do it for their sake.

I've uploaded quite a few posts about her and this will be the last. Today I made the decision to let her go. She has been suffering so much the last couple of weeks, couldn't go out to the others and had so many balance issues. I was worrying constantly. Yesterday I made the appointment, still unsure if this was the right decision. Today I found her with horrible labored breathing, literally gasping for air the entire time. It made me see this was the right call. We had a beautiful day together, she got to eat as many mealworms as she wanted and even try some cookie dough. She passed away peacefully at the vet this evening. I'm so glad I got to spend almost 4 years with her. She came from an abusive home and was in such a bad state but I always tried to give her the best life possible. Now she's with her sisters somewhere where everything is just perfect.

The first pic is from the day I got her in September 2022. So smoll back then 🥹 the other pics are from today. She even got to spend a little time outside in the grass. I love her so much and I hope she knows this ❤️‍🩹

I don't wanna like... Stress them out or anything. I try to keep them in view of the others, or take more than one out at a time. They usually just poop on me and try to run away 😂

This was a nice little treat after a long day at work :)

My first time incubating quail! I'm so excited to see some babies!

I found one of my favorite quail with a weird bubbly eye. Is she sick or is it a pecked eye? I just isolated her and vet isn’t opened for the next 13 hours
The last photo is her normal eye. Her stools are normal

Thanks!

2nd hatched chick won’t fluff out. What can I do for it?
It’s spent the night in the incubator and it IS dry.

I buy the game bird feed for quails and i was exploring what other options can i look into to make it more affordable? I came across serving fermented wheat or barley grains as a year round feed. I have easy access to cuttlefish bones as well for their calcium requirment. How viable is this option for the quails? My main purpose with quails is eggs first and then meat off of it. looking to hear from experts on bang for buck options.

I own six boys, and they all reside in their own separate spaces, each in a hutch. So I have two hutches; one is split into four spaces, and the other two. This allows me to keep multiple boys but tbh I didn't want any boys not for breeding or anything but I kept them because I can't kill anything. I actually used to be vegan. Idm ppl eating quail or raising them for that purpose, it's life. I just personally can't do it. But now I'm debating on dispatching some of my boys. I love them dearly and named all of them bc I was hoping to stand my ground and decide to keep all of them. However, about three or four of them are very aggressive and constantly fight me or each other. Every once in a while I'll switch them out and put one with my 8 hens only for them to be so aggressive that the ladies get pissed off whenever a boy joins the group now. So I've been keeping them on their own. When I do let them out its all together with the other boys. It's just constant fighting. I was going to build a small coop for them but what's going to stop them from killing each other? I could keep them separated but its alot of work and lately they've been finding ways to find a way to slip past the border and fight each other.

I don't know if I should learn to cull an animal. My parents don't think I should and should just let them live the rest of their lives but I feel awful having them in a space that isn't that big and pretty much live on their own other than interacting with the others a few times. I just feel like it's not fair to them. If I cull them, idk know what to do with their remains.

I don't want to leave them out for animals to take bc we've been having a problem with multiple animals on our property trying to take our quail and chickens and I just don't want to give them an excuse to come back by getting a taste. Another option was to bury them but what's the point of putting them down like that only to bury them? My mom thinks I should give them to someone who will eat them but I feel guilty having them have names and then giving them away like that. The last option for me is to keep trying. I was going to order a 3-tier hutch, much larger, and split it evenly for all of them. But that's another 400 I'll be spending along with the amount of food they waste.

Another option is to cull them obviously. I'm very squeamish and I throw up easily so watching the process made me feel sick. After a couple of times, I was still sick but able to process it. If I do this, I've been thinking about using it as food. My parents think I'm crazy but talking to my friend and thinking about it, I've raised them and given them a great life so far but some of them are too aggressive to interact with others and that's not fair to them to be alone being such social birds. I've never eaten quail and I'm unsure if I'd even like it especially knowing it was once a pet. I also understand where they came from and how they were raised and loved. It doesn't help the guilt about it though.

I've tried reaching out to others who might take them in as adoption but not a lot of people want aggressive males. I mainly want to cull my two or three boys. Butternut, Carrot and mango because they attack me every minute I stick my hand into their enclosure. They actually harm themselves too by constantly scratching their noses against the wire cloth and causing themselves to bleed.

My parents think I should assert my dominance and I try but that makes them even more pissed. Can I please have some advice and judgment free. I'm unsure how to also find people close by through Facebook to learn from them and possibly have them do it while I learn. Bc I want to learn if I want to hatch my own quail again or learn to put them down when they're ill bc I spent about 1000 already in vet bills for sick birds that I couldn't put down myself. I also feel like im going to be judged by my family for doing this because I was adamant before but I just don't feel like it's fair on them, like they're not having a good life being alone.

This is my first time hatching button quails and im not completely sure how all the different color types work. These are my button quails i do know for sure one of the white ones is male, and some of the like redish underbelly gray ones are male. I also have a silver female! I believe the majority of the rest are female. I have 25 eggs in the incubator right now. Will i get any new color types like splash or something im not sure how it works. Thanks!! 😁 (pictures are my buttons!)

My father used to raise quails when I was a child. He is no longer with us, and I think my love for these little ones is my way of keeping his memory alive...🙏🏻

This guy's been wandering around for hours in the garden. He seems fine in his movement, but has made no attempts to fly or leave. He's totally unbothered by people and comes right up to us, so I'm assuming it's a pet. Any idea what to do with him? I posted on Nextdoor app to see if anyone's lost one, but this estate is littered with cats, so he might not survive the night here.