Hi,I bought some quail a couple of days ago,I have put them in an extremely large,landscaped enclosure with plenty of grass and mature shrubs in it.They share this space with my ducks and some young bantams and seem to be getting along very well together.Problem is,if they get spooked when the dogs walk by,they don't head for the more than adequate cover of the bushes,they jump in the duck pond.They actually seem to swim,but I fish them out and have now put a ramp at one edge of the pond,but they seem too scatty to find it themselves.Is this normal behaviour,and how long would they survive if not fished out?
swimming quail?
- Thread starter Martdog3
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- Hampshire, U.K.
I would separate them from the ducks and chickens ASAP. Quail need dry conditions and I don't think its a good idea to encourage them to go into water. They need a nice dry dustbath made of fine silver sand, and their own enclosure, as they do get spooked easily and their needs are quite different from chickens and ducks. I certainly think it would be unlikely that they would survive winter conditions in a damp run with ducks.