Best beginner exotic small mammal
KCZOOFAN - Quail can be too 'dusty' for the average living room. Most birds do better outside. However, various quail species have been kept in battery type conditions and laid well; some of the early captive propagation of Masked Bobwhites was done this way. I have kept single pairs of Chinese Painted caged indoors, with a divider in the cage, allowed together once a day for mating. This approach prevents feather plucking, which can be severe under indoor conditions. The domestic Japanese Quail, if well handled, can be treated as a kind of feathered hamster, with the added bonus of edible eggs.
Fossa Dude -- I have kept Chinese Painted with finches, small parrakeets and doves. The only aggression I have seen to other species was towards newly fledged Diamond Doves sitting about on the floor. I kept the normal wild type and the Silver mutation, which was almost all there was in those days; I am not fond of the many modern mutations, many of which have lost the original markings. It's not gemerally known that a cock Chinese Painted will usually accept incubator hatched chicks and rear them; hens don't do this.
Sun Wukong -- many people seem incapable of looking after anything properly, however 'easy' it is. You've only got to look at all the behaviourally messed up dogs around, or even children....
