Quail feed

[galaxie428]

I am in the process of building a recall pen to train my dog on quail. My question is, what do I feed them? Is there actually a feed especially for quail out there? Also, do I need to have gravel or something in the pen for the birds? I assume that they need something in their gizzards just like a wild quail to grind up the feed.

I plan on just having 1/2x1/2 hardware cloth on the bottom of my pen, is this sufficient?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Jason

[txhoghunter]

Yes to all 3 questions - you can get both grit and gamebird feed at most feed stores.  I'm feeding purina's gamebird starter (think its 28%) and gamebird breeder (20%).  Search a bit here and you'll find lots of discussion about grit, and also wire-bottoms for your j-house. 1/2 inch mesh will work well - any smaller than that and you'll have trouble with droppings not dropping.. larger than that and you'll have unwelcome guests in your house...

Tim

[galaxie428]

Thanks for your help txhoghunter.