Growing quail food

[Farmerman]

Im probably going to have to buy some commercial stuff to start, but by the end of the next summer I intend to grow all the food for my quail. don't ask me how many I have, as that is still up in the air.

Anyway im not concerned about a PERFECT diet, just a nice healthy one. Ive just ordered a btach of meal worms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealworm , superworms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zophobas_morio (which are basically just another species of mealwormish type insect ), along with two types of earth worms, red wrigglers and european night crawlers.


so what grains, or seeds should I grow? Millet? sorghum? corn? sunflower? amaranth? (amaranth and sunflowers are the easiest for me)

what greens should I grow? are wilder perennials and annuals ok? Like pigsweed, dandelions, plantain, purslane, etc????

I raise fish as well, and have snails and clams in there, which Im told will be breeding heavily eventually so can I ground that in place of giving them oyster shells?


any info on raising a complete diet for them will be GREATLY appreciated......

 

[JJMR794]

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2383.htm

THEY HAVE YOUR RECIPE

 

[Robo]

You will have to grow soy, and you will have to have some oyster shell or crushed and baked egg shells in it too. You can grow millet, but if you give them a lot of it they will need grit which you can dig up. You can use corn as a filler to decrease the protein intake from the soy, and you could give them some alfalfa, clover, kelp, turnip greens, or anything else anything like that. These are a few of the things you might need. I am sure there are more.

 

[Robo]

Quote:
I love that article and all of the others about quail. They have some very reliable information, and it is great for a person who is starting out, or for someone who has had them before. I read this when I first started out with quail.

 

[Farmerman]

Quote:
thanks!
Im not sure thats what Im after though, but I only skimmed it so far. Im sure a range of greens, grains, and legumes sprouts, seeds, and the worms and mealworms, along with the shells can offer a full scoped diet, if the things they listed can. thanks though, i will read more on it, its still a useful page because i can correlate the needed nutrients, and relate that back to what I can grow and process myself. Corn and soy are both inferior foods. they are however heavily subsidized so "cheap". both need additional processing to even be fully soluble by the body. soy particularly is heavily over rated as a nutrition source. It really should be fermented to even be used. many beans, and seeds especially put it to absolute shame on all points from mineral content, solubility, and even close or equal protein levels. Knowing all that, theres got to be a more applicable list for me.

 

[Farmerman]

Quote:
Do you think the snail and clam shells i mentioned could be used instead of oyster shells? i dont have to buy those..... What about crushing bones from the fish Im growing and the all ready eaten quails I will eventually have? I would think the mineral contents are similar especially the more important ones....

 

[Farmerman]

http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924000051502#page/n1/mode/2up

http://www.archive.org/stream/gamefarmingforpr00huntrich#page/n5/mode/2up

Just cracked these open, but it looks like between these and knowledge collected since, i should be able to do it well....

 

[Robo]

Quote:
Do you think the snail and clam shells i mentioned could be used instead of oyster shells? i dont have to buy those..... What about crushing bones from the fish Im growing and the all ready eaten quails I will eventually have? I would think the mineral contents are similar especially the more important ones....

That would work, but they would have to be crushed very fine.

 

[Farmerman]

GREAT!!!! thanks everyone.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
LEMME GET THIS STRAIT... YOU'RE GOING ON 40+ YR OLD INFORMATION FROM ANCIENT IDEAS PERTAINING TO NEW WORLD GAMEBIRDS FOR YOUR MAD SCIENTIST APPROACH AT MAKING FOOD FOR YOUR OLD WORLD QUAIL? ..... WOW, ALL I CAN SAY IS GOOD LUCK