Mearn's quail chicks are very difficult to raise. Their chicks can die from starvation in sight of food. Their parents need to show them how to eat, and if they don't like the food they have for their chicks they will let them starve. They do best with live insects. Flightless fruit flies, meal worms, and small crickets can all be grown in cultures and fed to Mearn's parents with chicks. You better have those bug cultures up and producing before the eggs hatch. If you incubate the eggs that means you will be showing the chicks the food, pointing out each morsel for each chick to eat, best done with tweezers. Once they are eating bugs and begin pecking a bit on their own you can begin to offer game bird/turkey starter, but again expect to show them what to put in their mouths. Once they have transitioned to more traditional domestic game bird fare they are mostly the same as other quail, but getting them there is the kicker.
So the reason you see a high price tag on those Mearn's? They are worth every penny and more for the trouble they cause to the person raising them. And no I don't have any but I know someone who is a wildlife rehabilitator for Arizona Game and Fish Department and sometimes gets a Mearn's or two for whatever reason to re-hab.
So the reason you see a high price tag on those Mearn's? They are worth every penny and more for the trouble they cause to the person raising them. And no I don't have any but I know someone who is a wildlife rehabilitator for Arizona Game and Fish Department and sometimes gets a Mearn's or two for whatever reason to re-hab.
