Binki
Songster
@Binki: Thanks for your reply again. And also for your speculations - it make me speculate too.
Why I perhaps is a bit more concerned about parsley, is because many people in my country (Denmark) keep quail in their greenhouse - it's actually one of the most common ways to have quail (compared to for instance cages).
I have had them (buttons) this way too in a greenhouse with pavement (years ago - my current greenhouse has dirt floor). They mostly ate the fresh leaves of my wine and peach, but when I once put a parsley in it, eventhough it was protected with bricks, they simpley jumped over the brick and right down into the parsley... and ate it all.
I think in this case it was bad for them. It was too much.
Where as today, I have a nice parsley in my greenhouse and they almost don't eat it eventhough they have free acces to it. They probably don't eat much of it because there are other green plants and so many other green things comming from the dirt floor (sprouts, weed etc.). I hope in this case a small bit of parsley is a good varierty.
Besides this, eventhough parsley might be toxic, there is also the level of toxiness. I give advice to alot of people, so if I start saying - protect your parsley, many of them will probably do so. But is it worth the trouble, the effort? - compared to how important it is to have focus on good food, fresh water, shrubberies to hide in, rat-protecting, not too many males together and so on, and so on...
Though I have a 'safe than sorry principle' about quails, I think I will draw the line here, and say: Ok, it might be very, very little harmfull, but it's not worth the fuzz.
I love the sound of your setup and the fact that most people in Denmark don't like wire cages and chemicals
!Some people have died from drinking too much water and a lot of other examples of harmless things unless taken in excess so I agree! A spoonful for us is a whole meal for a quail and so it's easy for them to overdose.
