In July I acquired three coturnix quail. There was one Egyptian fee and two pearl who I named Sabrina, Zelda and Hilda. I bought a special quail cage from Wynola Ranch, which came recommended from the farm where I purchased my birds. I got into keeping quail for their eggs, but my birds were also pets. I am allergic to chicken eggs, and quail eggs are hypoallergenic. There is also a growing body of research showing that the consumption of quail eggs helps allergy sufferers and people with mast cell disorders. I believe eating quail eggs helped me with my seasonal allergies and my interstitial cystitis.
In addition to the quail cage, I purchased a mesh run. It is much larger than the cage, and so for a brief time, I moved my birds outdoors in the run inside of our fenced in yard. There is a cat that would come around that I believe is someone’s pet. I don’t understand why a person living in the downtown area of a small city would let their cat out at night. A lot of “street smart” cats get hit by cars, beat up by other cats, and have run-ins with wildlife (which eventually happened with this cat via a skunk, which I believe is what prompted the owner to stop letting the cat out at night). I didn’t know the cat was coming into our fenced in yard until I woke up to find one bird missing. The cat had reached an arm in under the mesh and dragged Zelda out. We figure she must’ve been sleeping near the edge when this happened. I added more ground stakes to the run, and packed buckthorn branches around the outside, which was effective in protecting the birds. (The picture below shows all three birds in the run before the buckthorn was added).
When the forecast called for hail, I decided to move them inside. We have the cage set up on top of a table in the garage. Sabrina always posed a challenge when it came time to move the birds, and could be a bit of an escape artist, but that day it was Hilda who got away from me. A normally docile bird, she was still on high alert because of what happened to Zelda. We live next door to the United Way, and luckily, one of the employees had to come in that evening to tidy up the office. He helped us capture Hilda, who was seeking refuge in the United Way’s shrubbery.
I got into raising quail when I got rid of my car. I had given up driving due to my symptoms with multiple sclerosis. I figured that this was my chance to do something I had wanted to do for a long time. I love the aloofness of these small birds. Just like with cats, you need to earn their affection, and I did with Hilda. She was my favorite. Sabrina was a loner, even amongst the birds. Hilda would communicate with the mourning doves who would come in and visit. Quails need lots of sunlight, so we would open the garage door after sunrise and close it before sunset each day. We knew that the cat that killed Zelda came in the evening and left at dawn. I had witnessed this behavior.
The whole time, I referred to this as the quail experiment, knowing that these birds have short lifespans even in the best of circumstances. I knew that there would be many challenges. We used a fan and ice packs to keep them cool in hot weather. We used a ceramic reptile heater directed at their cage as the temperatures dropped. We bought a full spectrum lightbulb to simulate sunlight on dark days. They got frozen corn as a treat on hot days, and had their diet supplemented with fresh dill and oregano, meal worms, sprouted birdseed and oat groats. They loved foraging for meal worms and taking sand baths. Hilda enjoyed being petted. She also would playfully peck at the scoop I used to fill their sand baths.
I had been having a rough week health-wise, so I wasn’t spending as much time outdoors. Will would open up the garage in the morning, and close up in the evening. I would go out and check the bird’s food, sand, and add straw to their cage. I’d collect their eggs. I was finally feeling better this past Sunday morning, so I went out to open up, and saw a nightmarish scene. Sabrina had been decapitated, and Hilda was stunned. She was huddled against Sabrina’s dead body, as though seeking protection. Her own injuries seemed superficial, but she was in shock. I moved her to the run, placing a grass hut over her body and laid a heated sock filled with rice by her. She was having problems standing up, but could move her legs and wings, was able to eat and drink, and even laid an egg. I thought there might be a chance she could survive. I cleaned her wounds and put antibiotic ointment on them. I moved her to a box with straw and a warm sock before it started to rain. The following morning, she was still alive, but much worse. I had her put down.
On Saturday, Will had said he heard an animal rustling around in the empty seed bags in the garage. It was midday, so I figured it was a squirrel, as we had them get in before and they will find their way out. Things had quieted down before he closed up for the evening. After the incident, I could hear an animal making noise, so started moving things around, when I saw a ball of badly matted black and white fur jump out. I yelled, “It’s a cat!” I shut the garage and had Will grab the extra pet carrier. I put an open can of cat food inside. When the other cat had killed Zelda, we had a borrowed a cat trap from my parents, but it was too rusty and didn’t work. We knew that cat had gone in without setting off the trap because each morning, the food would be gone. I figure I might be able to chase this cat into the carrier.
The cat was terrified. I would never seek revenge on an animal the way some people do, but experiencing some level of terror was perhaps deserved given the nightmare Hilda lived through. This cat was climbing the walls, and came close to having a can of paint fall on it. I was just moving things out of the way, trying to get the cat to notice the food. It was a small long-haired cat. I believe it was actually a kitten, but definitely feral. I knew from contacting the shelter before that they do not take feral cats, but that there is a capture, neuter and release program, so I called anyway. Apparently there is often a long wait list for neutering, and they don’t even lend a cat trap. No one helps you capture the feral cat, and I get the impression that any nuisance cat you might trap, our humane society would assess as feral given their criteria.
When I called, I was told that I should have kept my birds in an enclosure. I had. This person assumed I was free ranging, which one cannot do in the city limits. I did everything I was advised to do, and even if I had the cage on a smaller table, this cat would have still gotten on top of it to make the kill. I saw it climb the walls and jump on top of the empty cage. I could have probably grabbed the cat off the cage, but was a little bit afraid to handle it. I had already been accidentally scratched when it fell off of another wall as I was moving tools to prevent the cat getting injured. I cleaned out the wound right away, and put on rubber gloves, but I thought it best to just try to get the cat to see the cage as a place of refuge. Hearing that the cat couldn’t get picked up for surgery for a week, I opened the garage, and it ran out. I sat the food outside to see if the cat would come back, but it hasn’t. I thought I could borrow a trap from someone I knew and try to capture it, but I believe the cat was too scared to return, so I told the shelter employee it was unlikely that I would be able to trap it for it to get neutered on Friday.
I love cats, and want them to be taken care of. You can’t blame a cat for doing what comes natural. It is irresponsible cat owners that are to blame. People who dump unwanted cats that then become feral. I am not for killing feral cats, but they really shouldn’t be protected as wildlife either. They are an invasive species. They kill songbirds, including many threatened species. Capture, neuter, release programs can do a lot of good, but we also need shelters to adopt out working cats. Ours did until recently.
In one way, the local shelter has improved by spaying and neutering all their animals before adopting them out. This is something that shelters in neighboring counties have been doing for awhile, but was only recently implemented here. I adopted my cat from a no-kill shelter that did this. She was in shelter for seven months, and honestly behaved the way the shelter employee described feral cats as behaving. She was timid. I am sure that is why she was in the shelter for so long. She hid in the basement for the first eight days after we got her. We are certain that she suffered some trauma at the hands of a human. It deeply saddens me how horrible people are to cats. Even some people who profess to love cats. I cannot read anything or watch anything about cats in the U.K. where the majority of cat owners let their cats roam free and then act shocked when their cats get hit by cars or beaten by street thugs. Get a fucking clue people! But there are people here in the U.S. who are just as bad.
I felt bad about my quail, but I also felt bad for the kitten who killed them. This cat was in rough shape. No one wants to step up and improve the cat’s life. Badly matted fur hurts the animal. I am sure she is riddled with parasites. Even if the cat is captured, neutered, vaccinated against rabies, these are just measures to try to prevent a problem from getting worse. There are people who help out feral cats, and these cats can have fulfilling lives as working cats on farms and in warehouses, but no one here is putting in the effort to connect these people with the little hunters. That is where the animals should go, not get returned to a neighborhood with busy streets. The shelter employee I spoke to even said that the cat may have hitched a ride into town by seeking comfort in a warm engine block.
The quail experiment is on hold for now. I may get more birds next summer and am devising a better enclosure for them. The plan is to move the mesh run inside the garage, building a heavy wooden frame around the base, filling the bottom with easy to clean sand, and perhaps still employing some strategically placed buckthorn branches. I know from reading about other quail owners who’ve lost birds to cats, they got away from using a wire cage and switched to a mesh enclosure. The mesh prevents the birds from stress injury as well as they are not likely to hit their heads on a hard surface. Having space for grass huts and potted plants where they can hide would also be a benefit of that structure. I have to see how I feel next year.
Thinking about Hilda, and about so many loved ones who’ve passed, I am always struck by the great dichotomy, the profound paradox of all living things. We are all so strong and so fragile all at the same time. Hilda had been fighting to survive. I had to give her that chance until it became obvious that she couldn’t survive.
Before we ever get quail again, we plan on getting a trail camera and focusing it on the ground below our bird feeder. We had a camera on the girls, but it wasn’t night vision. This was part of a Raspberry Pi setup Will created to measure temperature and humidity in the garage. The point is to just see what animals are coming in. I want to see if and when feral cats are coming to know when to arrange for capture and neuter. I have seen the flurry of feathers indicative of a cat strike with wild birds as well. We need to mitigate the problem with the services we have and keep pushing for better services to address this problem.
I live in a Bird City, and am a founding member of Clean Green Action, a local organization that worked to make this a Bird City. Our organization paid for brochures to educate people about keeping their cats indoors. While cats love going outside, there are smart ways to give your cats outdoor opportunities. Enter the catio. My cat has her own enclosed outdoor run, and enjoys a window seat we installed for her as well as other accessible window ledges and a screened in porch. She gets supervised time in our fenced in back yard. I used a pet stroller with one of the cats I had before her. My current cat would jump in the stroller (which we had on loan from my parents) but would jump out before I could zip her in. There are ways to give your cat the stimulation of the outdoors without posing risk to the life of the cat and other animals.
One final reflection: I think the feral cat problem has worsened in part because of Covid. The same could be said in regards to feral dogs. People bought and adopted pets during shutdowns, and were able to care for them while being allowed to work from home. Some had buyers remorse soon after acquiring their pets, while others only had after returning to work. So many people did the least responsible thing, and dumped their pets in rural areas. Someone I know who has a small farm saw a stark increase in the feral cat population due to the pandemic. There is a real problem with surrender fees at animal shelters. They deter people from doing the right thing. Every effort should be made to rehome any unwanted pet. Dumping domesticated animals creates an enormously avoidable environmental crisis. It is more important for humane societies to prevent this cruel act than to keep its numbers of intakes low enough in order to cheat their way into a no-kill designation. Our shelter has become hugely restrictive in having animals in foster homes, which is unfortunate for the animals and unfortunate for elderly residents for whom fostering would be a good fit. There is a lot of work to do.
I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your quail. I had no idea quail eggs had so many benefits. I hope you find a way to make keeping quail a feasible thing and that it helps your health. When I was a kid, and I had a pet rat, stray cats would actually sneak into the house to try to get to him. They were never able to get into the cage, but it was always a scary prospect. It's amazing how honed they are for hunting.
Since moving to Aliso Viejo, I haven't seen any cats outside. I was going to say that I don't know what they're doing differently here, but it occurs to me that there are quite a few coyotes, lynxes, and large predatory birds around.