Best Bedding

[Welshies]

Currently my quail are using hay bedding, as well as a roof. However... I'm wondering. What's the best bedding for quail, guys? I know hay lets them hunker down and stay warm (and they need it for a nesting area anyways), but wouldn't sand (grit) make good bedding for quail because they love to dust bathe and it would be easy to get rid of their poop? What is your favorite bedding for quail?

 

[Hope Hughes]

Currently my quail are using hay bedding, as well as a roof. However... I'm wondering. What's the best bedding for quail, guys? I know hay lets them hunker down and stay warm (and they need it for a nesting area anyways), but wouldn't sand (grit) make good bedding for quail because they love to dust bathe and it would be easy to get rid of their poop? What is your favorite bedding for quail?

Mine are on the ground so i cant help to much much with this.
From what i see the majority of people use hay/straw.
Regardless of what you choose i would still have a decent size area for dust bath area and just treat it like a cat box and scoop out what poop they leave in there.
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[purslanegarden]

Sand might be hard to get enough of it to lay out in an entire pen, not to mention a few inches worth. So some people use straw/hay for most of the pen, and either leave an area exposed for dust bathing or add the other material, such as sand, to a certain small area, or in a small container.

The straw also lets you get rid of their poop, as you might clean out sections or the entire thing at some point (use it for compost, along with the straw). Or you can do like others and just kind of keep piling it on and let some of the straw/poop compost as it is in the coop. That also will create some heat and warm up the birds...though it's not a fast process so it depends on when you have already been doing this.

 

[JaeG]

I love straw. Recently it's been unavailable so I've had to use pine shavings. Such a pain - I'm digging it out of their feeder and changing their water constantly. Sand could get cold in winter and to work properly it needs to stay dry.

 

[JM25]

I love straw. Recently it's been unavailable so I've had to use pine shavings. Such a pain - I'm digging it out of their feeder and changing their water constantly. Sand could get cold in winter and to work properly it needs to stay dry.

I agree. The pine shavings get everywhere!

 

[TwoCrows]

I have used sand on the floors for bedding and they didn't care for it. Of all the beddings I have tried, my crew enjoyed snuggling into grass hay, (Bermuda Grass Hay you can get at feed stores) burrowing under when cold and of course making nests out of the hay was an exciting past time.