Giving the quail "treats"

[Sians quails]

how do you use the apple cider vinegar?

 

[Lildia]

The proper strength of Apple Cider Vinegar is 1 to 2 Tablespoons per 1 gallon of water for maintenance. For treating sick birds, use 3 Tablespoons of ACV per one gallon of water.

i know, it is a bit of reading to find it xD

 

[Sharment]

I checked the ingredient label on the GB starter mix I am feeding my little stinkers...no gluten! One less source of potential contamination to worry about.

 

[quailchick]

I checked the ingredient label on the GB starter mix I am feeding my little stinkers...no gluten! One less source of potential contamination to worry about.

Did you look specifically just for the word "gluten"? Because gluten is any wheat, rye, barley, and oats. Some oats are certified gluten free, but unless it says it is, it won't be. Can you tell me the brand name?

 

[Sharment]

I have been living with Celiac's now for over 7 years, so I know all the usual (and unusual!) sources.

The brand is Kruse, and it is their 30% protein turkey/gb starter. My local feed store ordered it in for me, comes in the usual 50 lb bag.

The only thing I don't like is that it is primarily soy based, but that is kind of hard to get away from these days. :/

 

[FoxTea]

My friend in Hartford swears by baby cakes. I tried them on my chicks and it did make the smell go awy

 

[Sharment]

Baby cakes?

 

[FoxTea]

I got mine at agway

 

[GalloSiSupieras]

Baby Cakes are a brand of that suet-like treat for chicks

http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Baby-Chick-Supplies/BabyCake-Supplement-p844.aspx

 

[Beckey2054]

We are now the proud parents of 53 Quail

(35 of which are Cots), and have 160 eggs in the incubator set to hatch middle of next week.

Its funny how every group is so different. Most of our quail LOVE scrambled eggs. Except our oldest Bobs.. they used to, but have decided they no longer like them. But the one thing that all the quail love is lettuce and zucchini. None of the quail will eat carrots, even if shredded up fine. They all love cheese, but I have convinced my husband to stop giving it to them very often. The Bobs love frozen watermelon and bananas, while our Cots will not touch either. They will all eat grapes, but they are not a favorite. Apples are pretty good, but only if we shred them up for them. The best overall treat that every quail will go crazy for is Crickets!! We raise our own crickets for our other animals (I have dart frogs, garter snakes, and preying mantids) so once in a while we will throw a few crickets in with the quail. Looks like a football team on drugs!!

So funny to watch them go crazy for a cricket and try to get it before someone else does. We usually take 10 quail and put them in the big pen, then start giving out crickets.. In the end everyone gets one, but its still funny to watch them try to "fight" over it. We have also given them corn, on and off the cob, none of the quail really care for it much. We discovered on accident they all like wild bird seed (one day several quail got out of an improperly closed cage and went nuts at the wild bird feeder- made it easy to find all of them..lol) so we started giving them some in a dish and it was a hit. Dandelion leaves are yummy, but not the heads. and the occasional fly is yummy if they can catch it. We have fly traps out to keep flies under control, and have sprinkled a mix of PDZ and diatomaceous earth under their pens to control odor and insects. Seems to work great! We still give them water with acv in it, and I do notice a huge difference with its use. Reduced odor, and I swear the quail just look prettier- like their feathers are more colorful or shiny.. something. Hubby is in planning stages to build some very nice cages for all of them.. We have 4 grow out pens and two brooders right now, and one large "pen" that is really just an old rabbit cage that sits on the ground we use when we let them "wander" around in the grass or weeds for some fun. It has no bottom and is mostly chicken wire so we cannot leave them in it unattended, but it is handy for letting them out for some fun but not letting anyone decide to take a side trip to the neighbors yard (where a dog will eat it.. or possibly a cat as we are surrounded by cats or dogs on all sides..) One thing I can say for certain.. we have some VERY spoiled quail.. Hope to start seeing eggs soon as our eldest Bobs are 15 weeks old now and the oldest Cots are 7 weeks. The roos call all the time, especially in the morning, and so we are hopeful to see eggs before too many more weeks. We do plan to place them under artificial lighting at least this first winter, then decide if we wish to continue doing that next year depending on how well things go this time. Hopefully as they are so spoiled rotten we will get lots of eggs, but we were not sure if we should try to incubate any of them over the winter.. Somewhere we read that fertility is low in winter months, even with artificial lighting.. (??)Hope this is not the case, as we would like to build our quantities before next spring so we can begin to use them for both food eggs production, and meat.