Can quail eat meat bird food?

[CliftonQuail]

Purina makes an 18% gamebird feed, they call it a "Maintenance" feed.
BTW, Purina has gone back to making the 24% protein feed again, it's called Meat Bird Feed. The Lysine is adequate but the Methionine is a tad low, supplement with sunflower seeds and should be ok, all the other vitamins, essential minerals is adequate.

When you say supplement with sunflower seeds, do you feed your coturnix whole seeds or just the kernels?

 

[CliftonQuail]

Guaranteed Analysis	Amount
Crude Protein (Min)	.......................................................24.00 %
Lysine (Min)	.....................................................................1.10 %
Methionine (Min)	.............................................................0.40 %
Crude Fat (Min)	................................................................3.00 %
Crude Fiber (Max)	...........................................................5.00 %
Calcium (Ca) (Min)	..........................................................0.75 %
Calcium (Ca) (Max)	..........................................................1.25 %
Phosphorus (P) (Min)	......................................................0.55 %
Salt (NaCl) (Min)	..............................................................0.25 %
Salt (NaCl) (Max)	.............................................................0.75 %
Sodium (Na) (Max)	..........................................................0.51 %
Total Microorganisms (Min)	..........................7800000 CFU/LB
(Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans)	true

I don't recall the best numbers for Lysine and Methionine. @007Sean knows them and will probably be along to comment. Calcium is low for egg layers so you'll want to supplement with oyster shell or egg shells. I dry and crumble the shells from their own eggs and feed them back to them. I also get chicken egg shells from family members.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Where is here? I have never seen a 17% game bird feed they are usually much higher.

Dumor Gamebird feed here is 15%, which is super low.

 

[Kiki]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/japanese-quail-info.74354/

 

[Huntmaster]

Dumor Gamebird feed here is 15%, which is super low.

I guess I just have never paid any attention to Dumar didnt even know they had a game bird feed.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I guess I just have never paid any attention to Dumar didnt even know they had a game bird feed.

They do, our TSC sells it, along with their 17% All Flock Feed.

 

[Huntmaster]

They do, our TSC sells it, along with their 17% All Flock Feed.

Ya just looked and see a Dumar 14% game bird maintenance listed at my TSC also. That would be something I would never have a need for.

 

[007Sean]

When you say supplement with sunflower seeds, do you feed your coturnix whole seeds or just the kernels?

I don't raise Cots...mainly Bob's, all color variants, Bensons quail, Buttons and many, many, many pheasants. I used to feed white sunflower hearts but they have gotten out of sight, price wise, so now, I'm feeding them a mixture of sunflower hearts, dried fruit (mango, raisins) millet, milo, pumpkin seeds and peanuts which I've added vitamins, minerals and omega-3 fatty acids.
Here's a sample pic:

 

[007Sean]

Ya just looked and see a Dumar 14% game bird maintenance listed at my TSC also. That would be something I would never have a need for.

Nope, why even bother to sell it....it's not even at what I would consider maintenance level feed.

 

[007Sean]

Guaranteed Analysis	Amount
Crude Protein (Min)	.......................................................24.00 %
Lysine (Min)	.....................................................................1.10 %
Methionine (Min)	.............................................................0.40 %
Crude Fat (Min)	................................................................3.00 %
Crude Fiber (Max)	...........................................................5.00 %
Calcium (Ca) (Min)	..........................................................0.75 %
Calcium (Ca) (Max)	..........................................................1.25 %
Phosphorus (P) (Min)	......................................................0.55 %
Salt (NaCl) (Min)	..............................................................0.25 %
Salt (NaCl) (Max)	.............................................................0.75 %
Sodium (Na) (Max)	..........................................................0.51 %
Total Microorganisms (Min)	..........................7800000 CFU/LB
(Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans)	true

It's a tad low on both Lysine and Methionine. Lysine should be around 1.4(%) to 1.6(%) and Methionine + cystine should be around 0.6(%) to 0.9(%). Calcium, I wouldn't worry too much about because you won't be having meat birds long enough for them to lay, if your raising both male and female meat birds.