Two days ago my brother adopted a little 3 month old female Quail and her 6 eggs from Petsmart. Her name is Danielle Quail but we call her Dan. We got her a 20 gallon long fish tank as a home since Quails do not perch on sticks and need flat ground to walk. They are very much like little chickens. They don't really fly like other birds do but can flap their wings and jump very high straight up! We keep a piece of cardboard on top of her tank top prevent her from jumping out. In the store she was very stressed, pacing back and forth frantically non-stop. This is a sign of bad stress in birds. We bought her all the same things she had in the cage with her in the store such as the rainbow log cabin, food and water dishes etc. so she would feel more at home since those are what she was used to. We arranged everything the same way so she would think she was in the same home. The only thing different is we put in a folded soft microfiber washcloth in the corner for her to sleep on because we want to spoil her! We put her in and the first thing she did was check on her eggs but then she was frightened at first and started jumping and hitting the top of the tank. We turned off the lights and left the room to let her settle down. After a few minutes she stopped jumping and started pacing nervously. She did this most of the day but by the second day she had calmed right down and seems happy in her new quiet home. She is eating well and no longer pacing, just exploring. She is loving the washcloth bed and snuggles in there for long naps. Petsmart was only feeding her finch seed which is not a nutritionally balanced diet for a Quail. We are giving her a small amount of egg-enriched finch seed (for protein) and small insects and mealworms (dried), spray millet, fruit/veggies, cuttlefish bone (for calcium), bird gravel (for digestion and extra calcium) and hard-boiled egg with crushed into powder egg shells for lots of protein and calcium.
Females Quails lay a LOT of eggs and need tons of protein and calcium to replace what is lost from egg-laying. We are trying to prevent her from laying eggs every day by not removing her infertile eggs and giving her only 10 hours a day of light both of which will slow down her egg production and increase her lifespan and health.
We have done some research online but there is not a lot of sites out there with Quail info. At least we found out as much as possible which is more than Petsmart did! We are ordering a book on Quails to find out more about caring for her.
She is not tame yet but seems to tolerate our hands in the tank now and is quite calm when we watch her and talk to her. It will take a little time but soon she will be tame enough to hold and cuddle and we can let her loose in the apt (supervised of course) for extra exercise each day.
Here is a video I made of her today. Near the beginning she stretches her leg out behind her like a chicken! So cute!
And a few pics of her too...
Yeah, there are a lot of different varieties of Quail and this type, the Chinese Painted Quail (often mistakenly called Button Quail) has been raised for a long time in captivity. They are lousy parents and usually don't sit on their eggs. The eggs are placed in incubators and hand raised by humans so this makes them exceptionally tame and attached to humans. They are usually kept in large aviaries in big cages with canaries and finches and the Quail live on the bottom and clean up the spilled seed. They seem to be getting more popular as common housepets too because they are so tame, clean, quiet and easy to care for.
its so cute. how long do they live for. Are you gonna try hatching the eggs? I dont think quails lay eggs alll the time, i think your lucky she did and it might not be a all the time thing. petco selling quails...wow
The eggs are not fertile and she doesn't sit on them. There was no male with her. She gets very upset if they are taken away yet she won't sit on them. This is common for Quail hens. She just wants to know that they are there. Quails can lay eggs every day of their lives and this can kill them in a few months. For this reason it's best to leave the eggs in there as long as possible. As long as she sees a clutch of eggs she won't lay more but if they are gone she will. Male Quails live about 5 years and females can also live that long but ONLY if you prevent her from laying too many eggs and give her lots of protein and calcium to make up for what she loses when she lays eggs. Some females only live a year because people don't know enough to stop them from laying eggs.
We got her at Petsmart, not Petco. She cost $20. Her tank and supplies cost $169. (this is where they make their money)
Trust me, they're making money on selling the quails, too. It only costs a few cents for fertilized quail eggs (when bought in sufficient quantities), and finch food isn't that expensive.
Got an idea regarding the eggs. Try getting plastic eggs that are about the right size (perhaps from a child's playset) and paint them like quail eggs. Coat them with an animal-safe coating, and put them in her cage, see if this tricks her. Birds are very visual creatures, and seeing something that looks right (perhaps even not painted), can trick them. For example, the birds whose nests are invaded by cuckoos (can't remember what they're called) will abandon a nest if there's an extra egg, but if the cuckoo removes one egg and lays her own (which is slightly bigger and a different color), the mother will adopt it as her own. There are similar birds up here in MN that pull the same trick. I can tell the difference between the eggs, but the finches can't.
If this were to work, she wouldn't have to lay any eggs.
Of course, it might be just as unhealthy for a quail to not lay any eggs as it is for her to lay too many.
Yeah, I thought of the same thing too. I think you can actually buy plastic eggs somewhere specifically for that purpose. Quail eggs are dark brown with black spots. I think the plastic eggs are white but if I could find a way to paint them.... Letting her lay one egg every few months is probably okay. They say as soon as she lays one egg, you put the fake ones in nearby and she will see there is a bunch of them and not lay more.
You could also try blowing the eggs. poke a little hole in each end (I use a cake tester - a long thin piece of very stiff wire) Poke the wire in and stir the egg around enough to break up the yolk. Then gently blow in one hole and the innards come out the other end. These little quail are Wonderful! I haven't seen any brown ones. the normal color is a dark bluish gray with reddish brown and black markings. the male has a black and white 'necklace'. They prefer lots of plants to hide in and around. Mine are in an outdoor aviary (6'x8'x as tall as the underside of our carport). The males will fight with and even kill each other. Females are fairly friendly with each other. I have raised several batches of babies. the new ones are so tiny when they hatch that the first time I had eggs hatch, the babies were running across my carport before I realized they had hatched! Needles to say I added smaller wire around the bottom of my aviary. They can run right through 1/2" x 1" aviary wire. My current is a 5 year old male white that is just too ornery for me to add any others (he crows like a rooster and fluffs at any other quail). His wife (a white and dark pied) died this last winter. I don't like to keep more than 3 since they do like their space. If you hold a live mealworm for them, they will learn to eat out of your hand. They like food that wiggles. If you don't have room for plants in the cage, you may try putting some safe houseplants around the outside so she can see them. It may help to calm her down.
Thanks. She has calmed down a lot since we got her. She allows us to pick her up with a minimum of fuss and just snuggles down into our hands. She won't take food from our hands but gets quite excited when we put mealworms in her dish. She squeaks softly and paces and runs over as soon as we drop the worms in. She doesn't like to be alone and "calls" to us when she wants company. She loves it when we talk to her or whistle.
She loves to eat spinach and likes to throw the leaf around for awhile before tearing it up and eating it. She is spoiled and sleeps on a pot holder mattress. She has a hidy cave and a mirror that she loves (can't get enough of herself) and a small teddy bear that she snuggles up with and grooms.
We got her a 20 gallon long fish tank as a home since Quails do not perch on sticks and need flat ground to walk. They are very much like little chickens. They don't really fly like other birds do but can flap their wings and jump very high straight up! We keep a piece of cardboard on top of her tank top prevent her from jumping out. In the store she was very stressed, pacing back and forth frantically non-stop. This is a sign of bad stress in birds. 
We bought her all the same things she had in the cage with her in the store such as the rainbow log cabin, food and water dishes etc. so she would feel more at home since those are what she was used to. We arranged everything the same way so she would think she was in the same home. The only thing different is we put in a folded soft microfiber washcloth in the corner for her to sleep on because we want to spoil her! We put her in and the first thing she did was check on her eggs but then she was frightened at first and started jumping and hitting the top of the tank. We turned off the lights and left the room to let her settle down. After a few minutes she stopped jumping and started pacing nervously. She did this most of the day but by the second day she had calmed right down and seems happy in her new quiet home. She is eating well and no longer pacing, just exploring. She is loving the washcloth bed and snuggles in there for long naps. Petsmart was only feeding her finch seed which is not a nutritionally balanced diet for a Quail. We are giving her a small amount of egg-enriched finch seed (for protein) and small insects and mealworms (dried), spray millet, fruit/veggies, cuttlefish bone (for 
She is spoiled and sleeps on a pot holder mattress. She has a hidy cave and a mirror that she loves (can't get enough of herself) and a small teddy bear that she snuggles up with and grooms. 