Quail feed pellet form

[coturnixxx8]

Hello, when I purchased my 5 coturnix quails, I was given a bag of turkey feed in pellet form. The pellets are pretty big, some almost 1cm x 0.5cm. I was told that the quails have been eating it for a long time and are doing fine with it. I notice that the quails like to peck the pellets out of the feed jar and onto the ground and then try to break it into small pieces. Problem is, they are on wired floor right now so the pellets just fall through the wire before they can eat it. Right now I am using a rock to try to smash the pellets into smaller pieces before feeding them, but it is very ineffective. Should I add pebbles to their diet to help them digest better? Or should I get a juice blender to break the pellets into a crumble? They seem pretty healthy for now but I don't want them to develop any digestion problems later. There are no feed stores around me that sells crumble with the right amount of nutrients for quails, so I will have to make do with this bag of pellets.
Thanks

 

[le_bwah]

How old are your quail? I have a thrifted coffee grinder I used to grind my chick's feed for the first week, but my crumbles are smaller to start with. You could also improvise a mortar and pestle; put the crumble in a flat-bottomed bowl and crush it with the underside of a sturdy glass. What's the protein content of the feed they gave you, by the way?

 

[RosieR]

Cheap food processor? That’s how I grind crumbles for the littles. Or maybe put a pie plate or similar under the feeder so they have a space to break it apart?

 

[coturnixxx8]

My quails are about one month old. The crude protein content for the pellets is 17%. I am supplementing more protein by giving them dried mealworms, which has 50% crude protein. Maybe I'll ask my mom for her old juice blender and see if I can grind up the pellets a bit. The blender needs a little water to blend. Can quails eat slightly moist crumble? Or should I dry the crumble before feeding to them?

 

[RosieR]

I’ve seen some people here feed their birds wet food. There might be less waste that way.

 

[le_bwah]

Supplementing with more protein is a good idea. I've heard of people wetting down feed so that the birds can't scratch it all over the place as easily. I've also heard of people fermenting their feed and giving it to the birds wet. It shouldn't hurt them as long as you remove old food and don't let it get moldy (it will want to mold faster when it's damp). That blender would work fine; you might even try grinding dry if it wouldn't hurt the appliance and you don't mind getting dusty feed all over the insides.

 

[DK newbie]

Actually, if you are going to add water anyway, you probably don't need the blender. Just pour water over the feed (it will probably need to cover the feed, as crumble tends to absorb a lot of water), wait an hour or so (depending on the feed, it might take longer) and see if the pellets haven't dissolved.
It might take a while for the quail to get used to the wet feed. You can try putting some crumble on top when you serve it, to make them try it out. As le_bwah mentioned, make sure you don't leave the wet feed in there for too long.
If you search 'fermenting quail/chicken feed' on this forum, you should find some very long threads on how to increase the nutritional value of the feed by expanding the adding water method just a little..

 

[Acre4Me]

Good luck. I can source game bird starter (crumble) and game bird feed (mini pellet), however, my quail prefer crumble and had a hard time with the mini pellets. If you can source turkey feed, then you should be able to source turkey starter, which will be a crumble at a higher protein. My Tractor supply has a Dumoor brand of non-medicated turkey starter crumble at 24% protein. I have fed this to my quail and they seem fine, but I prefer the game bird feed, since I can source it locally.

Wetting feed is an option and will help them eat the pellet and create less mess. But, you need to remove the feed each day, and clean the vessels. I give mine chopped/ground up fruit and veg occasionally and findthey want to scratch through it. To prevent this, I use a small plastic container (shallow rectangle type that pre-packaged lunchmeat comes in). I cut out a square opening in the lid, leaving a lip when the lid is on the container,preventing them from making a big mess as the contents stay in due to the lip.

 

[Diamond Dan]

I use a cheap blender i got at a yard sale for just grinding pellets and catfish food (hi protien ). It works great when don 2 cups at a time, close to perfect crumbles on lowest setting using the pulse technicue. A cheap way to save money on feed. Can also make smaller mix for chicks.

 

[BobDBirdDog]

With all the humitdy, a few hours or over night and it will probably cruble by itself. Just set tomrrows feed out today in a safe place and let the night and morning dew do the job.
Most pellet already has grit blended into it to help them digest it.

You could try to put a peice of plywood under the feeder, wide enough to keep it from dropping trough.. but then you have to worry about all the other droppings as well.