This is an old post but i want to write my observations about feeding quail to my collection.
Firstly i live in İstanbul and theres no rodent supplie in möy country so you have to breed them and theres a lot of quail supplier.
1 ball python (new born) and 1 bci (new born) i only gave them quail.
1 ball python (new born) and 1 bci (new born) i only gave them mice.
After 6 months later i saw that eating quail snakes bigger than who ate mice.
Also when they get adult ball python gave huge clutch who eats quail.
After 6 months later i saw that female bci much larger and longer than the other rat eater sister.
Quail is not flying bird and their population is all over the world and i think that balls and boa's feeding birds more than rats. (all documentry scenes you see that snakes eat birds).
I agree about poo is very bad but i use aspen bedding and theres no big problem for me..
That is fascinating !!
I know many say that Rats are far better nutritionally than mice and quote it as gospel YET there's plenty of data suggesting they're nearly identical..