gave young quail dust bath-they keep trying to eat it

[Kel60]

Their really trying to eat it. Like chowing down on sand. I suppose it looks like their food, but you'd think sand would taste bad or something.

Some of them had been trying to dust bath with the wood shavings so I gave them a box with sand.

Can they hurt themselves eating sand like that?

Will they figure out it's not food?

 

[Nabiki]

They can hurt themselves if they fill they stomachs with non-digestible stuff instead of food. That's why you don't give your birds sand until they're aroudn 3-4 weeks old at the youngest. Are you using construction sand, at least? Play sand tends to clump when it gets wet and can cause crop issues even in adult birds.

 

[Kel60]

Yeah it's just construction sand. They only had it today and were scared of it until recently. When I realized they were just pecking away at it I took it away. They shouldn't have eaten much of it at all.