Anyone else mix their own feed? I started because I was unable to find organic feed when I first got my birds. I bought a bag of Sprout Game Bird Crumbles from a farm store, but .. well, I'm scared of the words "animal and poultry by-product".
Here's my recipe - it's for quail, so it's rather heavy on the protein.
3 parts corn (21%)
2 part dried mixed peas and fava beans (50% pea 54% bean)
2 parts bulgur wheat (26%)
2 part barley (26%)
2 part quinoa (30%)
2 part oat groats (30%)
1 part flax seeds (12%)
1/2 part acorns (3%)
1/2 part black sunflower seeds (6%)
1/2 part safflower seeds (5%)
1/2 part niger seeds (8%)
In the winter, sprouted wheatgrass every other day. (not ground up) (27% per fluid ounce)
Without the wheatgrass, the average is about 25% protein, with the wheatgrass, it goes up to 27%. The average for Coturnix is 24%, but since mine are indoors and lay all year round, I bump it a bit.
I chuck it into the food processor and grind it up. I also dump in amaranth flour or rice flour or whatever other "expired" flour I have in the house. (If it's been open and not used up within a month, it goes in either the bird food or the worm food.) I add oyster shell to the ground up food and shake it up, to provide grit and calcium. I tried putting that in the food processor but bunged up the blades good and proper, so now it goes in whole.
I also found out that "expired" flour in a cut down ice cream bucket makes a lovely dust bath for the quail. I put it in with mealworms hidden in it as enrichment for them and they decided to roll in it.
-Spooky
Here's my recipe - it's for quail, so it's rather heavy on the protein.
3 parts corn (21%)
2 part dried mixed peas and fava beans (50% pea 54% bean)
2 parts bulgur wheat (26%)
2 part barley (26%)
2 part quinoa (30%)
2 part oat groats (30%)
1 part flax seeds (12%)
1/2 part acorns (3%)
1/2 part black sunflower seeds (6%)
1/2 part safflower seeds (5%)
1/2 part niger seeds (8%)
In the winter, sprouted wheatgrass every other day. (not ground up) (27% per fluid ounce)
Without the wheatgrass, the average is about 25% protein, with the wheatgrass, it goes up to 27%. The average for Coturnix is 24%, but since mine are indoors and lay all year round, I bump it a bit.
I chuck it into the food processor and grind it up. I also dump in amaranth flour or rice flour or whatever other "expired" flour I have in the house. (If it's been open and not used up within a month, it goes in either the bird food or the worm food.) I add oyster shell to the ground up food and shake it up, to provide grit and calcium. I tried putting that in the food processor but bunged up the blades good and proper, so now it goes in whole.
I also found out that "expired" flour in a cut down ice cream bucket makes a lovely dust bath for the quail. I put it in with mealworms hidden in it as enrichment for them and they decided to roll in it.
-Spooky