Button Quail (Chinese Painted Quail)

Button Quail are 12cm long as adults and come in brown and silver colours. They eat about a teaspoon of food per day each, so they are very cheap pets to keep. Their favourite food is protein crumble which is avaalilable from pet stores for about $18 for 1.5kg of dry crumble powder, and then an equal amount of water is added to make a moist crumble. A 1.5kg bag lasts about 6 months for a pair of button quail. They also eat millet seed, but much prefer the crumble.
I keep native grass plants planted in a soil floor in their aviary for them to run and hide in, and also a sand pit which they enjoy using as a dust bath. They love to scratch around in the soil searching for food also.

The chicks in the photo are 1 day old and are about 2.5-3cm long. There are seven altogether; four brown and 3 yellow (the yellow ones will turn silver like their mother). The eggs take 16-18 days to hatch. Generally the female quail will only sit on the eggs herself if she was parent-raised. Incubated quail tend to lose out on the necessary nesting experience to raise their own chicks. Both of my adult quail were parent-raised. I purchased them off Trademe for $5 each when they were 6 weeks old.