Dust Bath

[sam-e jo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lkQhQwlg2Q

[courtnell]

Mine love to dust too. What is the reason for this? Mine had rather dust than eat!

[Reeves]

I have dial up, so didn't look at the video.

However, all Quail , Pheasants etc need a good dust bath area. Sunny days you'll see them in it often.

I'll be posting pictures of my new aviary in about a week. Some pictures will show how I make them.

[sam-e jo]

They do it to clean and cool them selves.

[Reeves]

Not so much to cool off.

You'll see them doing this in direct sunlight, in almost burning hot sand.

[mobe_45]

my quail dust so much they have holes in the ground deeper than they are.

[sam-e jo]

I put sand on a bowl for mine b/c my cage is off the ground and I go through allot of it,LOL. I actually ran out the other day and have to get to Wally World (Wal-Mart) to get them some more poor little things are so sad.

[Reeves]

I only bought sand one time.

I had stopped by a concrete place for a small ammount of crush for making concrete at home.

Spotted this big pile of golden colored washed sand.

So I bought 5 ton.

I changed all the sand boxes for my birds........and they looked at it like it was going to attack them !

They never did like it. They just moved off to the natural ground and made their own dusting area.

Eded up using the sand in concrete mixes.

Now I get my sand from a river bank near home. They like it.

[mobe_45]

Reeves, do you treat the river sand before you put it in or is it ok to just dump it in?

[Reeves]

I pick up a truck load (pick-up truck) and "store" it in my pole barn till I need it. Wraped up in a tarp.

I do not see a need to "treat" it with anything.

Some times I'll add dusting powder to the sand when put into the sand boxes.

Check the fishing regs, if there is any warning on toxics in the fish (eating warnings). If there is, choose another river for sand.

[mobe_45]

thanks for the heads up on the fish warning.