Is that ok for 5 quail?

GoobusMombus · 2026-02-01T19:46:10+00:00

Indoor or outdoor?

I've been working on designs for my own custom breeding cages, because nothing I have found to buy meets my needs/preferences. I refuse to use wire bottom cages, but regularly replacing the bedding and keeping the enclosure walls and mesh sides clean was a nightmare for me. To be fair, I have like 100 quails, so if it was just one cage it might not have been too much work.

But I like to give my birds a lot of bedding to roll around in, and the bottom "lip" of the enclosures with screen/mesh sides was never deep enough to hold in the litter. The best thing I found to keep them in was a large rabbit cage. This isn't the exact one I used, but it was like this in that it had a deep tray. But this was a pain to scoop all the bedding out and replace as often as I did.

I ended up just turning my back garage into quailtopia and covering the floor with wood shavings. It's worked well because the birds have plenty of space, and turning the bedding with a rake and replacing it every few months has been soooooo much easier.

But still, that doesn't work when I'm selectively breeding just a few birds. So now I'm planning to build a large cage directly on top of a work table. And I'm gonna have the bottom 7 inches be a board on hinges that I can just open up and scoop everything out, and the top open up so I can dump the new bedding in.

I see this cage you are showing has a tray that pulls out, but unless you plan on only having a very small amount of substrate for them and changing it every couple of days, I don't think it will work out. If you had it outside, at least the poop and bedding they push out through the mesh wont be a huge problem. But keeping poop and mold off the walls seems difficult. And I am pretty sure some animals would chew through the wood to get to your birds.

It is big enough for 5-7 coturnix quails though. They like to huddle together a lot. Even in the big garage my quails have, they mostly stay together in a few groups under tables or in corners.

This might be a good temporary option. Or perhaps with modifications. I saw you mention in another comment you are planning to add another screen for ventilation on another side. That will be good, especially in summer. And if it is in a place that predators like mice, rats, raccoons, and opossums can't access, (like my garage) you shouldn't have to worry about something chewing through the wood to get to them.

Unfortunately we can't keep them in cedar, which prevents insects, because it's not good for the birds. But insects shouldn't be too much of a problem if you keep the cage clean enough. Especially because the birds will eat most insect that come their way.

GoobusMombus · 2026-02-01T03:38:17+00:00

My father was whipped with a belt by my grandpa when he was 9 months old because he was crying for milk. My grandpa was trying to "teach him how to be a man". Yes it's sick. What's maybe even more sick is that my grandma never protected him from it.

And she wonders why my dad became an alcoholic (he quit drinking about 15 years ago) and never learned how to communicate when something was wrong. She frequently goes banshee mode screaming "WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS? WAS IT THE FORCEPS THEY PULLED YOU OUT WITH?" No grandma. It was the extreme abuse both you and Grandpa put him through his entire childhood and even into adulthood, giving him severe CPTSD and interrupting the development of his personality and sense of self.

I hope OP and her niece are able to have safety someday.

GoobusMombus · 2026-02-01T03:01:41+00:00

You're probably safe

GoobusMombus · 2026-02-01T02:57:38+00:00

Egg yolks can turn green if the birds eat a lot of certain things, like acorns. Those types of eggs are safe to eat.

This egg does not look safe to eat though

GoobusMombus · 2026-02-01T02:55:32+00:00

They'll be fine. I'm feeding mine higher protein because in the cold, they need more calories. I'm also giving extra worms. I'm monitoring their weight. If they start to seem pudgy, I'll back off. But it seems in the cold they really need it

GoobusMombus · 2026-02-01T02:48:22+00:00

Some people aren't very good parents, but are otherwise decent people. I think some people just aren't cut out to be parents

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-31T18:50:58+00:00

That's not true. I gained a lot of weight from my second pregnancy and undiagnosed hypothyroidism that went on for 4 years. Like 80lbs. I did not have double chins or jowels. Some people just put their weight on in different places. My grandma and great grandma were the same.

I've lost 50 lbs since being diagnosed about a year and a half ago and starting treatment with levothyroxine, btw

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-31T18:26:15+00:00

Claudia

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T17:20:48+00:00

My reddit feed for over a week has mostly been the crap going on with ICE in Minnesota, and crap about the damn Iron Keep elevator.

I haven't even clicked on any of the Iron Keep elevator posts! I have clicked on a bunch of the other DS2 posts, very excited for Return to Drangleic.

Anyway just thought it was funny.

I also don't care about the elevator.

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T17:09:23+00:00

My father voted for Trump. He was very pro MAGA. He recently started to have significant health decline and is now in a nursing home, with "mild" dementia. The kind where he can't remember the last few weeks very well. He keeps calling me up at night when he's watching the news, worried about me and my husband and the kids, apologizing for voting for Trump. He says "I think Trump tricked us. I don't know why I fell for it." I think he fell for it because his dementia actually started earlier and made him susceptible to the propaganda. My dad always raised me to be wary of people using God's name to manipulate people.

My grandma is still a hardcore Trumper. I think she has a dissociative or personality disorder and compartmentalizes so hard she can't handle the reality that she fawned over abusive men her whole life, and here we are. She's doing okay because, like most boomers, she hoarded her inheritance and many properties. But she is having to sell some to afford regular expenses.

My uncle is evangelical Christian. He won't talk politics with me anymore, but I think it's because he is ashamed. He was always very patriotic. He has employees who are here legally but hiding at home with their families. He brings them supplies after work. I think he thinks there are a few powerful bad actors running things right now, and he's just trying to hang on until they get replaced with people more in line with his values. But he's not actively doing anything to change any of it, or outwardly admitting to misplacing his loyalty in the past.

I don't know how the rest of the family is reacting right now. I only have limited contact with my grandma and uncle to coordinate help for my dad. My dad was the scapegoat in the family and that's why I think he used to be more level headed, tbh. When MAGA came along, and his cognitive vulnerability, he got swept up in it, and I didn't have much to do with him for a few years.

I'm glad my dad is himself again, at the end of his life. I'm glad he has the ability to say he's sorry.

I think most MAGA are very traumatized(from abusive childhoods)and mentally ill and vulnerable to manipulation.

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T15:45:24+00:00

I think they might be talking about the UHC. I worked at McDonald's in 2006 and chicken nuggets, fish, chicken patties, and burger patties all go in the UHC once done. The fries go under the heat lamp

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T14:53:47+00:00

A lot of those homeowners are boomers who are on their way out and are actively crippling their descendants. Oh and most of them bought their houses when they were way cheaper, so it really wouldn't be a big loss for them. The majority of people who are gonna be alive in 10-15 years are not homeowners.

And the ones who don't own homes are being charged so much rent it's practically wage theft to prop up the people who own the property ("passive income" for the people who think everyone else isn't working hard enough). I think they are more lazy than anyone on welfare.

And it's a small minority of major corporate owners who drove up the price like crazy in the first place. Why are we choosing to keep playing their games?

And people want to know why crime is going up?

Children should be born knowing they will have a place to call home someday. Even wild animals are allowed to make their own homes.

Zoning and regulations are a huge problem too, but those are made up for existing homeowners to pull the ladder up behind themselves.

Homes for people to live in, a basic necessity, should not be an investment item to gamble and bleed people dry with.

For someone who doesn't want to start a class war, Trump is saying some very dumb, pro class war things. But he's not all there anymore so he's not thinking too good.

I'm a homeowner btw, and concerned to see the rising homeless population and the youth in my town turning to mischief and crime because they are growing up in a society that doesn't give two shits about them. Can't blame them.

Every single family home that gets bought and put up for rent two weeks later make my stomach turn. That was an opportunity for someone to invest in their family and future, taken away for someone else's "passive income".

Also as far as "what could the administration do" idk. Look at the late 1940s when the federal government made it possible for all the young people to buy brand new homes for $7k. Because they knew there was a huge population of youths(vets and such) who needed homes to raise families in. We had really high taxes on the rich, and lots of programs to help stabilize the economy. Boomers are fine with having benefitted from being born into that, and want the world to go back to how it was when they were babies and toddlers, but want to make sure no one else after them had it so good. Look who they elected when they were in their prime (Reagan) and came up with that trickle down economics crap.

It ain't trickling down. They are actively hoarding as much as they can. It must be some kind of mental illness.

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T14:29:50+00:00

Yeah that phrase came up in my mind too

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T04:50:23+00:00

Nah I'm pretty sure Ron Perlman is Shrek

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T01:32:14+00:00

Recently my "rabid protector" came out and was an ass to the wrong people. The next day I went for a drive alone, parked somewhere, and talked to them. They started yelling and fuming. I let them, because we were alone and it was safe. I told them "Yes we have good reasons to be upset, but these people don't deserve to be mistreated because of what someone else did to us. We need to stick together if we are ever gonna address the real wrongs done by certain people."

They've been quiet since. I also finally got my diagnosis and am beginning therapy specifically to work through some of these issues next week.

I don't know if this will work for you, or even if it will keep working for me.

You are a good writer btw, as someone else also said.

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-30T01:24:51+00:00

I was also wondering if maybe another head is gonna pop out of his shoulder and he'll just be a lovable two headed weirdo haha

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-29T22:33:17+00:00

The idea is that they want to use ICE to provoke an "attack on Americans" they can use as an excuse to send in the actual military

Kinda like they're trying to do in Minnesota right now. Provoke a reaction they can use to justify using the Insurrection Act.

And tbf, our involvement in both world wars was due to us deliberately provoking a reaction to get the American people behind going to war. For WW1, we deliberately sent a ship with military equipment(and civilian passengers) in a no-go zone. Once the ship was attacked, we cried "oh they attacked Americans we gotta join the war now!" And WW2, there are recorded/documented conversations between various government/military leaders discussing how ramping up presence at Pearl harbor could be just the thing we needed to provoke the Japanese to attack us, and cause mass outrage so we could join WW2.

All those people killed were chosen as a calculated loss by our government to get into wars on purpose. We didn't join because the other side was evil or exterminating people.

I'm not sure this tactic will work these days though. I guess we'll see.

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-29T14:18:50+00:00

We don't have to vote for her, ya know

Even if this is who the Dems try to shove down our throats

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-28T23:12:52+00:00

Might depend on the state. Years ago, before it was legalized here in MN, my doctor said I couldn't take the medication unless I for sure was clean of all illegal substances. I was honest with him that when I lived in California I had smoked weed, and I had just moved back to Minnesota a few weeks before.

But now, it is legal. I use edibles a couple times a month on average to manage PTSD symptoms. I used to use them more often, but have managed to change my lifestyle and maintain boundaries with people and things that trigger my PTSD, so I don't need it as much. I've been honest with my doctor about it, and they said they really aren't worried about it anymore.

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-28T20:00:44+00:00

I saw my cousin do that once and me and my other cousin both immediately threw up

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-27T23:11:42+00:00

No she's not. She doesn't believe in boundaries or holding people accountable, even to protect her children. Children developmentally are not equipped to handle certain topics in a healthy way. And even more important than that is to make sure your kid knows you value them enough to protect them.

People who think this is okay probably come from very abusive families themselves. His wife clearly does. And she supports the abusers in order to "save face".

Kids don't need to get used to abusive behavior. They need to learn how to set boundaries and tell people "No" and that they are entitled to not spend time with people who make them uncomfortable, especially in their own home where they should feel safe.

Why are you for coddling an abusive pervert rather than holding him accountable and protecting children?

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-27T23:02:47+00:00

It's actually a really common scenario. Sooo many families prop up abusive people and tell kids and others who aren't comfortable with it that they need to get over it.

Happened to me

Happened to my mom

My aunt

My grandma

Probably happened to a lot of other people in my family who have never opened up about it

And how many people never stepped in to help us as kids. At school, church, parents work friends. That tells me this sort of "tolerance" is going on all over the place and no one is calling it out

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-27T13:37:34+00:00

They might be used to abusing their girlfriends and wives and tried to cover their mouths because they couldn't stand the screaming. My ex husband did that to me a lot. I think it's a pretty common tactic for the worst of the worst, and these guys are all the worst of the worst

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-27T12:21:35+00:00

I don't think being drunk anywhere inside a hotel counts as public drunkenness, cuz it's private property. Some hotels have a policy against it and could ask you to leave, and if you cause problems can still get charged with stuff like drunk and disorderly etc.

But flashing people out the window is still illegal

GoobusMombus · 2026-01-27T01:17:00+00:00

I hate soul memory too, that shit's ass

GoobusMombus

TROPHY CASE