FINCHforum

Are button quail supposed to have a smell?
I cleaned the aviary 3 days ago and put down fresh aspen shavings,
and it already smells like chicken coop!
I even put in fresh parsley for everyone to munch
on and freshen up the aviary.
All I need is my wife giving me grief and blaming my canaries and finches!
What should I do? I like the little cuties, but not the smell!

Congrats! That's the smell of button quail. I bought a pair, they had 10 chicks, sold them all back to the bird wholesaler near me. Fun experience, but my wife did not like the smell either. They are fun to watch, and simple to care for.

I put mine on Kijiji for $25 for the pair
Pet shops sell them for $30 each here in Calgary

They are cute and I like the way the male is protective of his hen!
I don't like the smell!

Too bad about the smell - but nice to know about before I get any!

They are going tommorow!
A lady is driving in from Golden BC!

So those button quail are little stinkers--thanks for the heads up on that--just curious, but do any other of the small birds we all love so much have this problem---this stuff is kinda nice to know--you know--before we let our hearts get the better of us, ha ha, we all know how easy that can happen.

This is a first for me and I have kept birds for 30 years!
But then again, this the first time I have kept quails!
I was raised around chickens when I was young, so I know the smell!
Outside is fine, but not in the house.!

Jerry,

From your posts, I am guessing Button Quail have a chicken coopy smell? Well, they are sorta similar!

the only time i find that my buttons have smelly poop is when i feed them freeze dried blood worms. other than that i haven't found them to be that smelly!

I keep mine in my big aviary and they don't smell at all. I think they only smell when you have too many in too small of an enclosure and don't clean out daily.

I'm sorry that the buttons don't work out for you. They are fun birds but maybe they do need more cleaning than finches.

Ursula wrote:I keep mine in my big aviary and they don't smell at all. I think they only smell when you have too many in too small of an enclosure and don't clean out daily.

I'm sorry that the buttons don't work out for you. They are fun birds but maybe they do need more cleaning than finches.

Well they are gone!
The lady came and picked them yesterday.

I think the smell is two reasons, one, she was laying, everytime she laid she had a huge poop and two, they were getting the meal worms that the birds would drop.