Quaiiiils!!!

Guess what?? I'm now a proud mom of three adorable, pidgeon-sized quails!
I have one white male and two wild-colored hens, and they are now my little project, seeing as getting just about any animal in Asuncion is more of a rescue-operation than anything else...
They have been under my supervision for a fair 12 hours and they are now calming down a little.

They are still nameless, but let me introduce them by describing their current condition.
My white/light beige male is a bit ruffled in general and dirty, a little more skinny than I'd like to see him. He should get a better coat, but is also the most forward and curious of the group. He has the most adorable little tweet and jet black eyes.
My better-looking female (in fact my best-looking quail) is a little anonymous, I've still not gotten to know her. She's wild-colored and at least has a reasonably adequate weight. She misses some feathers on her back but they are growing back. Just like my other little babies she's still very shy.
My worse-off girl basically has a bare back and bleeding little holes where the other quails she shared cage with in the store have been pulling out feathers, but a reasonable weight. I took her out tonight and walked around the house with her, to make her tamer (my project with all of them...) as I will be spending some time caring for her back.
I'm glad to report that they're all eating and drinking very well.
They eat a quail feed which I mixed with flax seeds in hope that if, wonder of wonders, they'll lay eggs, these will have an omega 3- content. I also tried giving them apple and cucumber.
I read the other day that apple cider vinegar helps with both eventual worms and the feathers, so I'll be mixing a little of that in their water. Also I want to buy a patch of grass (like, a square meter of lawn) to put in their cage. I'd like to have them on the actual grass, but with a round 10 wild cats coming to our house every day, it does not ring all too true now does it.

So why are my quails so ruffled? Brace yourself for a real-life, relatively mild, animal horror story Paraguayan style...
After a talk yesterday with my family, we agreed that I could get some quails.
Why I want quails?
Because I do, that's why.
My family told me about this animal/veterinary shop about 6 blocks away (note that this is the average distance to just about everything...) where I would surely find my new pets.
And yes I did, didn't I? A bit doubtful I entered what more looked like a hangar, and the first thing I see is a huge duck an a cage. Then some awesome rare goose-ish specimen I didn't dare to bring to my house in fear of being thrown out of the house (it wasn't a small bird...).
And about 50 rabbits in two cages. A reasonable amount of white mice, most of them dead by the looks of it. Cages with up to 20 canaries (I'm generously rounding off downwards).
And... Quails.
About a hundred. In three small-ish cages. Pecked, stressed, featherless quails. One very little quail that had gotten stuck and was trampled. I needed a moment to recover mentally from this whilst expressing my wish for buying quails to the attendant. I was thinking only two females first. However, then I saw this white one, which I really wanted (Sweden I hear your butthurt protests, but don't hate me just because I choose something white, it does not make me a racist.) and it turned out to be a male. So then I got two additional chicks, with the thought of "if I at least save these three, it's better than nothing".
And I hate caged animals. Very weird to buy cage birds you might say? Very two-faced? Yeah well, agree as I do that animals do not belong in cages, I am convinced that I can give at least these three a better home than most others would care to. It makes very small difference in the whole business of animalkeeping... But for these three, it does make a big difference.


On another subject, today I ventured to Mercado 4, which is basically a huuuge area of venders, with my friend Lilian and her mother.
The reason for this little adventure was a series of events that lead to Lili loosing her tereré-termo last week. This may not sound so bad to you but I assure you, this is basically one of the worst things that can happen to anyone in Paraguay, especially in the summer. It borders on cruel torture...
Mercado 4 is rather impressive. I don't know how else to describe it. It can't really be described... You walk through, busses drive through, you smell hundred different things at once and it is just an overwhelming experience, but still a really good one.
And yes, we did find a thermo qualifying to the high standards my Paraguayan friend put up...

Stay safe, take care, smile