We have quail... now what?

LunaBrown · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:35 am Post subject: We have quail... now what?

Yesterday we attended a "mock" NA test withour Local NAVHDA chapter, it was a great learning experience, but being that it was 30 degrees, snowing and windy it was pretty miserable! They ended up with extra birds due to a bunch of no-shows... Soooo we were able to pick up 4 quail yesterday, planning on using them to work with Luna on her NAVHDA training. We were not expecting to be keeping quail, but we have alot of work to do before our August NA test! I know we're not supposed to 'over' train for this event, but our little BYB girl hasn't established a point for us yet...

We have them in the garage in a 24" wide x 24" deep x 16" cheapie rabbit hutch turned on it's side so they have to flap to get up to the food.... so it's really 24" wide x 16" deep x 24" high the way we have it. We picked up some game feed, and food and water containers for them... what else can we do to keep them healthy and alive for a while? How long can we expect them to live?

Here's a couple photos of our make-shift setup:

h20fwlkillr · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 10:05 am Post subject:

They really need something that will allow them to fly higher to keep them flight ready. Quail and chukar need at least 6' vertical height to maintain or build flight muscles. Those birds won't be able to fly well before long. I suggest getting a launcher and tether the birds to it, so they can be used over and over again. Flying well won't matter as much in a launcher either. Should be able to get her to point in a few sessions w/ a launcher as well. A $50 manual launcher will work well for you. The Scott's line of manuals are some of the cheapest on the market and built very well.