A school girl who hatched a quail from a supermarket egg hopes he might start his own family - after pairing him with a gaggle of six female birds.
Zara Sutcliffe, 13, said the affectionate fowl, called Pebbles, was her “best friend” after she reared him from an egg bought at Sainsbury's.
She'd begged her mum, Claire Sutcliffe, 48, for months to try the incredible project after reading online how a shopper had managed the same feat with ducks.
Claire eventually bought her a box of Clarence Court ‘free to fly’ eggs - even though her husband Simon, 51, had warned her they ‘couldn’t have any more animals’.
Just under three weeks later, Zara hatched Pebbles at her suburban semi-detached five-bed home in Hale, Gtr Manchester, and raised him in her room.
But last week, the family bought a “hareem” of six new female quails so that he could start living among his own kind - and maybe even have some chicks of his own.
Zara said about the cheeky bird: “Pebbles is one of my best friends.
“I used to carry him all around the house with me anywhere I’d go, and if I left him, he’d just start squeaking.
“They’re really cute chicks. I had a choice between chickens' and quails' eggs, and I saw how small the quails' eggs were.
“It was exciting but also scary because you always wonder if you’re going to do anything wrong.”
Animal sitter Claire hinted their collection of pets, which also includes a dog, three cats and two red-footed tortoises, could grow following the new arrivals.
She added: “They’re really sweet, and they will sit on your knee. They are really cute little birds. I don’t know why more people don’t have them.
“They will always be with us. The only plan going forward would be if there were babies - and that would be quite amazing.
“Pebbles is a life that never should have been…and he might end up making life.”
Claire said Zara, who hopes to work with animals in the future, had asked her if she could try rearing a chick from a supermarket egg during the summer last year.
The mum-of-five put off her pleas for two months until she eventually gave in at the ‘last minute’ while doing their family shop together on August 14, 2023.
Zara then put the eggs in a heated tank and on September 1, Pebbles arrived, followed by another chick, Speckles.
Sadly, Speckles later died, but Pebbles, who spent six weeks living in Zara's room, went from strength to strength and now treats her as a mother figure.
Claire said: “Every child’s dream is to have a chicken, isn’t it? They see an egg and they always start to think something is going to come out of it.
“She’d been asking me for two months. And I gave in at the last minute. She kept checking them and she said, ‘I think one's got one in it.’
“When they did hatch they ended up in her bedroom, so she had them in a mesh dog crate with a heater, a brooding lamb, and he ended up living in her room for weeks.
“When she goes to the cage, he lifts his bum up in the air - that’s what they do when they’re excited. And he gets giddy and runs up and down.
“He’ll sit on her hand or her shoulder, or on her bed.”
Claire said she’d had a tough time breaking the initial news to her husband Simon that the family might be entertaining some more pets.
She added: “[He’d said] ‘no more animals’, he was fuming. He went ‘That’s it, no more’. But there’s nothing you can do, it happened. It’s just one of those things.”
Claire said Pebbles was now settling in well with his brood of six other quails who live in a chicken coop in the back garden of their property.
And although he was now learning how to act with animals of the same species, she said the flock was still known to come into their home from time to time.
Claire said: “He’ll be coming up to breeding season soon, so he’ll be a proper quail with his hareem.
“But Zara brings them in to play with them or check them over.”
