Here is my friend's description of "Button", the quail:
"Our little Button quail is the size of a mouse. We rescued him from a pet store because he was placed beneath the parakeets and kept running into the walls of the cage. He looked pitiful. Button has some special needs. He is uncaged and has the run of our whole basement with most of his time spent in front of the 6 ft sliding glass door on ground level with a view to our backyard. One of his other special needs is that he can see outside either by giving him a raised platform that he can jump up on to see outside or allowing him to live in front of a sliding glass door with a screen that can be opened so he can hear the outside world sometimes. Of course living in front of a door presents escape possibilities. He escaped from us one time and we never thought we would catch him since he goes straight up and out but the neighborhood cat pounced on him while we were searching with our nets and sheets and before the cat had the chance to bite him, we rescued him from underneath the cat. He was unscathed but must have been in shock because he was easy to pick up. Normally he is nearly impossible to catch because he moves so fast and high and he sheds many feathers when he is caught. Even when you have him in your hand he is hard to hang onto because he squirms and slides out. He can't really fly so if he gets out of your hand he falls to the ground. Now when we open the sliding glass door for large objects, one stands guard chasing Button away while the door is open. Its a little tricky.
He loves turkey crumble, millet seed, cooked egg, cucumbers, lettuce, mini mealworms ( I buy them from the reptile area of pet stores and freeze them, thawing them out for a couple minutes before feeding them to him every morning) and organic hemp seed and lots of water. He also needs several mirrors which we have placed around his sleeping bed. He does do a plaintive quail call around 3 am every night and periodically throughout the day so if that noise wakes you up that could be a problem. He is wild, not tame but will come to his seed dish in the morning while you are holding it. He cannot be housed with another male button quail because they fight over territory. "
