Button Quail food

[B1uey]

I am wondering if you could advise me on the best diet for adult button quails. Would chicken mash, chicken pellets or finch seed suffice or would you suggest something different.
Many thanks.

 

[Tony K T]

Gamebird crumble.They are a type of gamebird so they need a gamebird feed.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[DK newbie]

I'm not an expert, but from what I've read they have different nutritional need from chickens, mainly needing more protein (and calcium?). I feed mine a 25% protein gamebird starter and a millet mix - they get to choose themselves(mainly because I'm unsure about feeding a gamebird starter to grown animals) and seem to fancy the millet mix but will eat both. They also get additional calcium and seem to eat that a lot.
I don't think they get as much protein as they should, when they mainly eat the millet mix, but by giving them the choice I hope their bodies will tell them if they need more protein.
If you supply them with additional protein and calcium(a bit of boiled chicken egg + shell, for instance), I guess they will do fine with the finch seed or the chicken food (I had my buttons for a couple of months before I got the gamebird starter and they seemed to be doing okay on millet mix + egg, insects and calcium), but eggs spoil quickly and it's just easier to feed them something that doesn't take much preparation - and just because they seem to be doing fine, it doesn't mean that all their nutritional needs are being met. So some kind of gamebird food is probably the safe choice, if available. I use a coffee grinder to grind mine to button size (powder, basically, but that's because the coffee grinder either only grinds half of it, or reduces the majority to powder).