Chinese Painted Quail

Care, Colours, Breeding & Keeping in an Aviary

Chinese Painted Quail – Care, Colours, Breeding & Aviary Life

Chinese Painted Quail are one of the smallest and most charming quail species you can keep. Tiny, busy and full of character, they make fascinating little pets and are particularly well suited to planted aviaries.

They spend most of their time on the ground, scratching through bedding, dust bathing and investigating anything that falls from above. Despite their tiny size, they are active, inquisitive birds with plenty of personality.

What Else Are Chinese Painted Quail Called?

Chinese Painted Quail are known by several different names, which can sometimes cause confusion.

You may see them called:

• Chinese Painted Quail

• King Quail

• Asian Blue Quail

• Blue-breasted Quail

• Button Quail

Their scientific name is Synoicus chinensis, although older books and websites may still list them as Coturnix chinensisor Excalfactoria chinensis.

The name Button Quail is commonly used by pet and aviary keepers, although true buttonquails actually belong to a different family of birds.

How Big Are Chinese Painted Quail?

Chinese Painted Quail really are tiny.

Adults are usually around 12–14 cm long and normally weigh only around 30–40 grams.

Their eggs are equally miniature and newly hatched chicks are unbelievably small – often described as being about the size of a bumblebee.

Despite their delicate appearance, properly housed adult Chinese Painted Quail can be surprisingly hardy little birds.

Chinese Painted Quail Colours

The natural or wild-coloured Chinese Painted Quail is very attractive and the males and females are quite easy to distinguish once mature.

A wild-coloured male usually has:

• Blue-grey colouring across the breast

• Rich chestnut colouring underneath

• Darker upperparts

• A distinctive black and white throat or bib

The female is generally much more subdued in colour, with mottled brown and buff plumage that provides excellent camouflage when nesting.

Selective breeding has produced a huge variety of colours.

These can include:

• Wild or Normal

• Silver

• Cinnamon

• White

• Pied

• Blue Face

• Red Breasted

• Tuxedo

• Dilute colours

• Combinations of several mutations

Different breeders may use slightly different names for some colours.

Some mutations can also remove or disguise the usual male markings, so colour alone is not always enough to determine the sex of a bird.

Temperament

Chinese Painted Quail are fascinating little birds to watch.

They spend a great deal of their day scratching, foraging and exploring.

They enjoy dust bathing and will often make themselves small hollows in loose bedding where they can sit or rest.

They are generally birds to watch rather than birds that particularly enjoy being picked up and handled.

With regular calm interaction they can become quite confident around people and may readily come forward when food arrives.

Males have a distinctive whistling call and both sexes can communicate with a variety of quiet peeps and calls.

Males may also perform tidbitting, where they find a particularly tasty piece of food and call the female over to take it.

Housing Chinese Painted Quail

Although Chinese Painted Quail are tiny, they should not be kept in tiny cages.

They are predominantly ground-dwelling birds and benefit enormously from plenty of usable floor space.

Their accommodation should provide:

• Clean, dry bedding

• Plenty of floor space

• Hiding places

• Low plants or artificial foliage

• A dust bath

• Clean food and water

• Protection from draughts

• A sheltered sleeping area

• Protection from predators

Natural-looking enclosures work particularly well for them.

Small logs, grasses, low-growing plants, little shelters and areas of cover allow them to behave much more naturally.

They particularly appreciate somewhere that allows them to disappear from sight if they feel nervous.

They Can Fly!

One of the most important things to remember about Chinese Painted Quail is that they can fly extremely well when they want to.

Because they spend so much of their lives walking around on the floor, it is easy to forget this.

When frightened, Chinese Painted Quail can suddenly launch themselves almost vertically upwards.

This behaviour is sometimes known amongst keepers as boinking.

Care therefore needs to be taken with low cages with hard roofs, as a frightened quail can injure itself by hitting the roof.

Doors also need to be opened carefully because an apparently calm quail can suddenly take flight.

Never assume that a Chinese Painted Quail cannot escape simply because it normally chooses to stay on the ground.

Keeping Chinese Painted Quail in an Aviary

Chinese Painted Quail are particularly popular as aviary birds.

They occupy the lower part of an aviary while finches and other suitable birds use the upper levels and perches.

This makes excellent use of the available space and gives the quail a wonderfully interesting environment.

They will happily forage amongst the substrate and investigate small seeds and pieces of food that fall from above.

They should, however, still have their own suitable food and clean water rather than relying entirely on spilled seed.

An aviary for Chinese Painted Quail should include plenty of ground cover.

Grasses, plants, small shelters and logs all help provide hiding places and allow the birds to get away from one another when necessary.

Care should always be taken when choosing aviary companions.

Larger, aggressive or very territorial birds can injure such a tiny quail extremely easily.

Feeding Chinese Painted Quail

Chinese Painted Quail require food that is appropriately sized for their tiny beaks.

A good quality small gamebird or quail feed can form the basis of the diet.

They can also enjoy small seeds and occasional suitable treats.

During breeding and egg production, good nutrition becomes particularly important.

Laying females need an adequate source of calcium and breeding birds and growing chicks require plenty of high-quality protein.

Chinese Painted Quail also love to forage.

Sprinkling a small amount of suitable food through clean bedding encourages natural scratching and searching behaviour.

Fresh, clean water should always be available.

Keeping Chinese Painted Quail as Pairs

Chinese Painted Quail are often kept as male and female pairs.

This works particularly well if you hope to encourage natural breeding.

Compatible pairs can form quite strong bonds and may spend much of their time together.

In larger aviaries some people successfully keep other combinations, but plenty of space and hiding places are essential.

Extra care should be taken when keeping more than one adult male.

Males can become territorial, particularly during the breeding season, and fighting can be surprisingly fierce considering their size.

Breeding Chinese Painted Quail

One of the most enjoyable things about Chinese Painted Quail is that they can be allowed to breed very naturally.

A compatible male and female should be given plenty of space, privacy and ground cover.

The male will usually court the female and may tidbit for her, offering her small pieces of food.

The female lays her eggs on the ground.

She may simply make a small scrape in the bedding or choose a sheltered position underneath grasses, plants, a little shelter or another covered area.

Providing plenty of natural-looking hiding places greatly increases the chances of her choosing somewhere she feels safe enough to nest.

How Many Eggs Do Chinese Painted Quail Lay?

A normal clutch is often around 6–14 eggs, although clutch sizes can vary.

The eggs are tiny and usually have a mottled or speckled appearance.

The female may lay an egg each day or at intervals until she feels that her clutch is complete.

Do not be too quick to remove eggs if you would like the female to incubate them herself.

She may appear completely uninterested in the first few eggs and then suddenly begin sitting once she has built up a suitable clutch.

Will Chinese Painted Quail Sit on Their Own Eggs?

Yes.

This is one of the lovely things about keeping Chinese Painted Quail.

Given suitable housing, privacy and a secure nesting area, Chinese Painted Quail hens can brood and hatch their own chicks naturally.

This natural brooding instinct is much more commonly retained than it is in many domesticated Coturnix quail lines.

A hen that has decided to sit properly will spend most of her time covering the eggs, leaving the nest briefly to eat, drink and relieve herself.

She should be disturbed as little as possible.

Moving the nest, repeatedly inspecting the eggs or constantly disturbing the hen can cause her to abandon them.

Chinese Painted Quail Incubation Time

Chinese Painted Quail eggs generally hatch after approximately:

16–19 days of incubation

Around 16–17 days is very common, although a hatch can naturally run a little earlier or later.

If the hen is incubating the eggs herself, the easiest approach is usually to leave her to do the job.

She will regulate the eggs naturally by sitting, turning and repositioning them.

Artificial Incubation

Chinese Painted Quail eggs can also be incubated artificially.

They should be treated as very small gamebird eggs and care needs to be taken because of their size.

The eggs should be turned regularly during the main incubation period if the incubator does not turn them automatically.

Turning should stop for the final few days before hatching so that the chicks can position themselves correctly for hatch.

Because incubators vary considerably, temperature and humidity should always be checked against the instructions for the particular incubator being used.

The expected hatch window is approximately day 16 to day 19.

Once hatching starts, avoid repeatedly opening the incubator unless absolutely necessary.

Natural Hatching and Raising Chicks

Allowing a Chinese Painted Quail hen to hatch her own clutch can be wonderful to watch.

The chicks are precocial, which means they hatch covered in down and are able to walk and feed very soon after hatching.

The mother will brood them underneath her body to keep them warm and will communicate with them using quiet calls.

The chicks quickly learn to follow her around.

The sight of a Chinese Painted Quail hen walking around with a group of tiny chicks behind her is quite something – the chicks really can look little more than bumblebee-sized when they first hatch.

Caring for Newly Hatched Chicks

Whether naturally or artificially reared, Chinese Painted Quail chicks require particular care because they are so small.

They need:

• Very finely crumbled chick or gamebird food

• Shallow, completely safe drinking water

• Warmth if being artificially brooded

• Fine, non-slip flooring initially

• No gaps through which they can escape

• Protection from larger birds

• Plenty of tiny hiding places

Water is particularly important.

A drinking container that would be perfectly safe for an adult quail can be dangerous for a newly hatched Chinese Painted Quail chick.

Very shallow chick drinkers or other suitably designed watering systems should be used.

Tiny chicks can also squeeze through incredibly small gaps, so brooders and aviaries need to be carefully checked.

Should the Male Stay With the Hen and Chicks?

This depends very much on the individual birds and their accommodation.

Some males remain perfectly calm around the hen and young while others can become troublesome.

A large, well-planted aviary gives the hen and chicks much more opportunity to move away if necessary.

Always watch the birds carefully around hatch time.

If either adult begins chasing, pecking or repeatedly disturbing the chicks, it is safer to separate them.

How Quickly Do Chinese Painted Quail Grow?

The chicks grow surprisingly quickly.

Within only a few weeks they begin looking much more like miniature adult birds rather than fluffy chicks.

Young birds can mature extremely early, so youngsters should be watched carefully as they grow.

Once young males begin becoming territorial or showing obvious breeding behaviour, they may need separating to prevent fighting or unwanted breeding.

Egg Laying

Chinese Painted Quail hens can be surprisingly prolific layers for such tiny birds.

Laying is influenced by:

• Age

• Daylight hours

• Temperature

• Nutrition

• Stress

• Whether the hen is broody

• The individual bird

Egg production should never be encouraged at the expense of the hen's health.

A female producing lots of eggs needs particularly good nutrition and ready access to calcium.

Life Expectancy

Chinese Painted Quail commonly live for around 3–6 years in captivity.

Some individuals can live considerably longer with good genetics, careful husbandry and a little luck.

Lifespan can be affected by diet, housing, repeated breeding, stress and general health.

Keeping Chinese Painted Quail Outdoors in the UK

Adult Chinese Painted Quail can be tougher than their tiny size suggests, but they still need good protection from British weather.

The most important things are keeping them:

Dry, sheltered and out of draughts.

An outdoor aviary should have a properly covered section where the birds can escape wind and driving rain.

Damp bedding should be removed and replaced promptly.

During particularly cold weather, they should always have access to a sheltered, protected area.

Dust Bathing

Chinese Painted Quail absolutely love dust bathing.

A shallow container filled with an appropriate dry dust-bathing material will often become one of the most popular parts of their enclosure.

Do not be alarmed if a quail suddenly flops onto its side and begins throwing dust everywhere.

It may look rather dramatic, but this is completely normal quail behaviour.

Enrichment

A bare enclosure does not give Chinese Painted Quail very much to do.

Simple additions can make an enormous difference.

Try adding:

• Grasses

• Safe plants

• Logs

• Small branches at ground level

• Little shelters

• Dry leaves

• Millet sprays

• Areas of deeper bedding

• Dust baths

• Food scattered for foraging

Changing things around occasionally also gives them something new to investigate.

Male or Female?

With wild-coloured birds, adult males and females are usually quite easy to distinguish.

The male develops the distinctive blue-grey breast and black and white throat markings.

The female remains much more mottled and brown.

Some of the many colour mutations can make sexing considerably more difficult because the normal male markings may be altered or completely hidden.

Behaviour and vocalisation can then provide useful additional clues.

Are Chinese Painted Quail Suitable for Beginners?

Chinese Painted Quail can make lovely birds for someone new to keeping quail, provided their tiny size is taken into consideration.

Their basic requirements are straightforward, but everything needs to be scaled down appropriately.

Tiny escape gaps matter.

Water dishes need to be safe.

Chick food needs to be fine enough.

Aviary companions need to be chosen carefully.

Once these points are understood, they are incredibly enjoyable little birds to keep and breed.

In a Nutshell

Chinese Painted Quail are:

Tiny – approximately 12–14 cm long
Also known as King Quail, Asian Blue Quail and Button Quail
Ground-dwelling and ideal for suitable aviaries
Available in many beautiful colour varieties
Usually happiest with plenty of ground cover and hiding places
Capable of flying surprisingly well
Often kept as compatible male and female pairs
Able to brood and hatch their own eggs naturally
Usually incubated for approximately 16–19 days
Likely to lay around 6–14 eggs in a clutch
Parents of some of the tiniest quail chicks you will ever see
Usually expected to live around 3–6 years

For such tiny birds, Chinese Painted Quail have an enormous amount of character.

Their colours, calls, courtship behaviour and ability to hatch and raise their own tiny families make them particularly rewarding birds to keep.

In a well-planted aviary, watching a pair forage amongst the grasses and then eventually seeing a hen appear with a procession of impossibly small chicks behind her is one of the real pleasures of keeping Chinese Painted Quail.