Quail dead at 2 weeks - bath dust???

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

I have read several post on this forum recommending sand, dirt, dust baths. So I started giving my quail bagged sand box sand and they loved it. However after several weeks I had quail dying, I suspected it might be the sand. I stopped giving them the sand and the deaths stopped and the quail did just fine without. They do not need it and I recommend not giving them any type of dust bath I think they ingest it and it blocks the crop. Give them good housing, good feed and water and they are happy!

Blocks the crop? True if they haven't had access to sand or dirt in too long chickens and quail will gorge on it. But It just passes through. They NEED the sand to be in their gizzard to process their food. And if you think you are safe using only commercial food, there are still sometimes larger piecers of the ground up grains in the crumbles that can only be fully digested and absorbed when the gizzard grinds it up. Plus they will always find something to ingest, like other types of bedding, even feathers, that can cause them lots of trouble if their gizzard doesn't have sand /small gravel in it to process it.

 

[Barb Colvin]

***UPDATE****
Thanks for all the great advice! I went outside with a shovel and found some good ole fashioned backyard dirt. Ground it up, took out the rocks, and put it in the dust bath. The quail aren't as excited about it...but they are definitely bathing in it!
Thanks everyone!


I hatched my first batch of quail. The hatch was super successful 10/10 eggs hatched. Babies have had no issues. They are now two weeks. The ten quail are eating 5lbs+ of gamebird food/week, go through a ton of water daily. They have two sources of food at either end of the cage and the food is always kept full.

So, I JUST yesterday added bathing dust. Lixit Chicken Bathing Dust. The quail literally dove into it and frolicked around. Then, I noticed this morning that they were pecking at it and seemed to be eating it. I left the dust baths there not thinking to remove them. Then just now I found a quail dead in the dust bath. I called Lixit and they did tell me its not supposed to be eaten by the birds, but that its just dirt.

****QUESTION*****
Do you guys think that the ingestion of the dust killed the quail OR did it die from something else?

As in, I saw more quail eating the dust as well, should I expect more dead quail?!?!

i use desert sand for my quails dust bath or you can use regular playsand.