Grass in aviary

[charlie01]

Would mulch be good for an aviary floor.
I'm planning of having the mulch close to the shed and then growing grass near the other end.

[Fincho162]

In my humble opinion I'd stay away from mulch and steer towards summat that's drier and less dusty.........also if mulch gets wet it retains that moisture..........far better to use a coarse river gravel or even small pebbles.....dries easier and drains better - mulch is sort of desigend to hold moisture................also wet mulch can harbour and cultivate a lot of nasties.........read anything by Russell Kingston and he says dry, dry, dry........

With your planted grasses beware that meeces luv to build under the roots of grasses and have seen a fair few fincho's riping it (and their hair!!) out because of this....."ever heard birdo's say there's no way a mouse can get into MY aviaries"....YAWN!!............the pots may look a bit ugly but it is a clean, easy and no fuss way of feeding grasses to yer finches..........even those polystyrene boxes are great too..........just need a grassy recooperation area outside for all those frazzled grasses!!

HTH

[charlie01]

What should I use for the aviary floor, as I'm after some quails

[Jayburd]

I would recommend sand, or another substrate that is easy on the feet of walking birds, and also good for dust-baths, which quails are very partial too.
The flooring should be at least 10cm deep, so as to make sure no areas are exposed by the birds. Also it would probably help the birds dust-bathe as quails may make something of an impact crater
some potted plants and native grasses would probably be appreciated by all occupants. ;)

I stand by what I said earlier, if the grass is established and the birds have access to the required amount of greenfood before being let loose, the grass should be fine. Most finches only devour anything green because of a lack of other (better) vege to eat. I had a pair of gouldians that ate almost an entire ti-tree, before I realised the problem. That was also in the off season, part of the reason why I didn't realise. (it turned out the 'off season' was the gouldian's 'on season')

[Diane]

Ive been using shell grit for the floor in the aviaries and for the breeding cabinets. It cheap, easy to source, drains fairly well, it always looks clean, can be gently swept to get the top layer off and the chickens get the benefit of it afterwards.

[jusdeb]

small river pebbles , quails like to dig into it when its hot ..no matter how much rain the surface is always dry . Easy to clean just rake and sift in a makeshift mesh wire sift , not overly expensive and lasts forever .
Mine gets turned over every couple of weeks and raked smooth again .

[gomer]

Coarse river sand all the way for me.