Can you brood quail babies in a large fish tank or reptile aquarium? Yes, you can!
We have a 27 Gallon reptile tank brooder. Gary built an internal coated hardwire bottom raising the bottom of the space about 2-3in tall. With scraps he built crisis cross the bottom for support with added hardwire cloth of roughly the same height. Underneath this we don’t use flake pine shavings but hardwood horse pellets like you’d get for horse bedding at the ag store underneath that.
We lay out puppy pads and blue paper towels down on top of the 1/2 inch coated hardwire cloth, and do this in about 3-4 layers, alternating each, so we have a liner lasagna.
Placeing the heat plate over on one side, water and food not far from it, and when we’re ready, we introduce the babies. Slowly we move the food and water away from the heat plate as the birds get older. Cage changes are non-stinky and a breeze this way. By the time they are 2 weeks old or so they will be able to stand on the 1/2 inch coated hardwire cloth on their own without feet slipping through. If you are brooding this way – you will need that heat plate from day 1 until they are almost feathered out – but you’ll want to raise the heat plate gradually to allow for heat decrease.
Take a look at the chart here for brooding temps recommended by Mississippi State University – the page we’re linked to here is full of good info.We brood ours indoors this way until they are ready to go outside to a grow-out cage, and they have little to no problems adjusting to the floor bottom, and it’s so much easier and less smelly to clean the brooder between hatches this way.
I know mine seem to enjoy watching me and will do so for HOURS while I work.
Annie is a semi-retired homebirth midwife, the Director and head doula trainer for the MattieMarie Traditional Birth Studies program, and a Farmer’s granddaughter. It all ties into her mad plan to be as self-sufficient as she can while returning to her roots.