Quail Not Laying. Questions On Their Food

ghull999 said:

I had the same issue. Before finding a local feed store that supplies 26% protein feed, I was adding flake fish food to my chick starter. I know it sounds crazy, but I also raise show guppies and sell a lot of Brine Shrimp Flake food. It has a 48% protein content. I've actually had customers tell me that they also add it to their cats food and they love it. Anyhow, my quail love it and it boosts the protein content.

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preciouseureka said:

Same issue in my tiny town!  I've been spending my weekends with a rolling pin smashing mealworms in  a plastic baggie so my little ones get enough protien,  my bigger five I just handfeed extra worms.....I might try the cat food trick though, the mealworms here are thirty dollars a bag and I have 17 quail...

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Quail862 said:

I had the same issue a couple weeks ago.  I posted a message earlier on and got some nice feedback. I am getting more eggs now. Below is a list of things I've tried since and I am not sure which one worked. Just for your reference:
 1. Extra lighting - I put a lamp with a timer by the quail cage. I am giving them extra two hours of light per day.
 2. Food with high protein. - They used to be on layered chicken food with 18% protein. I switched to meat bird food with 20%-22% protein. I cannot find anything higher than this.
 3. Time - When I posted my message my birds were around 12 weeks and they are older now.

BTW I have 8 females and 1 male.

 Hope this helps.
Good luck.

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raisingdaisies said:

My white ones were not laying.  I did some research and found I was probably giving them too much protein(we have been using a 30%) and that they likely needed a calcium supplement.  We switched foods to a 20% and within a couple days they started laying, and the other boys started crowing.  We thought they were all girls, other than the mean one who we butchered this weekend!  Our brown one who was set for the butchering because of defective eggs(one side soft-shelled, and sometimes the whole thing) started laying good eggs, too.   I feel bad that we saw one bit of advice about using the highest %  you could find and stopped there :/ ​ and it obviously was too much for them. 
We moved the babies to a mix of starter that's 24% and what was left of the 30%, since 24-28 for the babies seems like a good place still.   I'm not good with wasting food anyway 

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JOEL1994 said:

I feed mine Gamebird Starter perminetly, go and ask Landmark or most pet stores if they will order you it in. Its 29% protein which is perfect for egg production and for meat birds. I have a 5w warm white globe above the three of my cages running for 14 hours a day which only costs 6cents a day for all 3. Laying daily.

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