One post mentioned acorns as scratch for quail, so I have been wondering if there are any other wild seeds that could be used as scratch, in supplement to quail feed. Beech nuts? conkers (horse chestnut)? chest nut (the edible type)? Obviously they would need to be shredded. My quail love the mixed bird seed I scatter but leave the unhulled sunflowers. Any other food one could gather in the wild that would encourage quail to scratch?
Thanks to Quailsong for his suggestion of adding seedheads from the garden to the deep litter. They seem to go for the tiny seeds mostly. I tried plantain, which they seem to love Amaranth carrot/wild carrot/ umbellifer oregano Actually, autumn seems to be a good tine for collecting seedheads. In Europe farmers get subsidies for fallow fields seeded with certain weeds, that should be a good source for seedheads now. I'm also thinking of gleaning corn that the machine dropped, drying, then shredding it and using that in deep litter.
