The feeder mods. are very ingenious. I have a different take on why quail waste food.
I think it's a behavioral thing that is going on there.
Per my observations and tests I have come to the following conclusions, and applied remedies that follow. They work for me, but your results may vary.
Hopper type feeders encourage birds to waste food, especially clear type feeders. I think it has something to do with the movement of the food, and the seemingly endless supply of food. Like a kid at a gumball machine that requires no money. Exactly how long would it take for every gum ball to be under the wire and the kid wanting a refill? (Assuming we raised our kids on wire and they only had natural instinct, and an IQ of -5 to fall back on)
The second reason is that they simply want a dust bath.
What works for me is to use a 1-2-3 punch.
#1 Use a trough style feeder. Also called, flip top, slide top feeder.
#2 Provide a dust/sand box. Not to be confused with calcium rich grit supplement.
#3 Provide greens. My preference is kale, collards, cabbage, in that order, but anything in the (brassica oleracea acephala) group is fine. Avoid lettuce! Especially iceberg lettuce. It has the nutritional value of a paste made of one part copy paper and 100 parts water.
Also, do not overfeed any greens. It's more about the fight, not the fill with greens. Over feeding means less of the high protein high priced feed winds up in the birds. It's a moderation thing, that I have yet to perfect.
I have found that #2 and #3 works with a hopper type feeder as well.
Ken
