feeding quail

[thegawd]

oh ya for sure.... I have a couple hundred quail so a 50lb bag would only last me a couple weeks LOL. that will totally work, supplement calcium with small oyster shells or cuttle fish bones and they will lay just fine. I think its pretty cool that the one brand of food has instructions to cut the protein... I read the entire thread after posting...

have a good one

 

[Dinx]

I just tried using my small, cheap coffee grinder on some oyster shell and it worked great.

 

[seth osborn]

I use blended up game feed.

 

[ChickyTown]

ok..so now after reading this thread I think I am doing it wrong? ....I just bought a bag of 26% game bird for my Laying Quail hens...what is this about cutting the protein?
Im reading that there are people feeding at around 20% protein, I had them on a chick starter that was 20% protein and thought that it should be higher so I bought the game bird starter, but they are 9 weeks old now...should I cut the protein back after this bag of feed?
I am the lazy mamma so this is their main source of feed, they do get oyster shells ground up but that's it.

 

[rick54]

For my laying cots, I brought them up until they were 8 wks old on Purina Startena. At the 8 wk. point, I've switched them over to the Layena which has more calcium in it than the Startena. Although it is only 20% protein, where as the Startena is 30%. They're doing good and I get an egg a day from each.

 

[ChickyTown]

Yes I do see a lot of people using the Purina and Layena, these are unavailable in my area at any feed store, the options I have are Poultry/Chicken mixs or Turkey-Game mixes, so I switched from chicken starter that was 20% to the Turkey starter which is 26%, but I cannot get the Turkey in an Organic so if possible I would like to be able to use the chicken mixes as they come in an organic feed, but its only 20% protein so I was concerned that wasn't high enough...so my question I guess is 20% enough protein for laying quail?

 

[keifer1122]

I feed my birds straight wild bird seed and catch them a couple worms a day. As for my chicks i feed them ground up wild bird seed so its like flour also chopping up a worm into bite sized bits for chicks.

go to the antique store and get yourself a grinder you dont need all that fancy purina layena. Just look at wild bird seed package 8% protein now look at de hulled wild bird seed 16% my adults are also in a tractor and clover is all over my yard and clover is 23% protein. Only chicks i had die was in the beginning due to drowning in my old waterer

 

[dc3085]

There is no way that diet is healthy to any of the domestic species we raise.

 

[keifer1122]

So your saying the grain based purina dog chow for my dog is no good.dogs currently 10yrs old and a wolfs diet is like 95% meat get what im sayin. And birds eat seed. Have u ever shot a south dakota pheasant there craw is loaded with seed

 

[dc3085]

These are t wild birds youre talking about. Theyre line bred for specific characteristics like faster growth and larger size. Feeding them seeds is akin to raising a human child on top ramen. Your dog food provides a nutritionally balanced diet, the same as game bird feed does for game birds. I can promise you that if you raised one of your birds on high protein feed and one on what youre feeding them, there will be no comparison. The quality of the bird will never be more than the quality of its feed. Wild quail do not subsist on seeds they have a very diverse diet. Theyre your birds feed them what you want but there is a proper feed formulated just for them.