How is protein percentage figured for feed? 18g for 100g is 18% protein, right? What about the protein percentage of the 18g?
Yep! That's right, 18% of 100 is 18!
And the percentage of protein in 18g of protein is 100%!
I'm not a nutritionist, and generally let those guys tell me what an animal's daily needs are, but when I mix my own feed, I make up a sort of list of what's going in there and in what amount.
Then, I enter it into a nutrition calculator like this
https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Because I'm not bright enough to do it on my own, lol.
With the example recipe I entered in for that link, you can see what that particular recipe is like nutritionally. It looks like I need to cut ba k in the cricket dust, since now there's too much protein per 100g of that mix.
Since those nutrition calculators are for humans, make sure you look at the gram amounts and not the percentages. If it says 25%of daily calcium needed is present, that is not accurate for a laying quail, that's accurate for your needs, so this is just one of many stops you will make along the way when finding out what to feed your quail.
I sometimes figure out the daily needed amount in mg by checking the back of my calcium and vitamin supplements for birds, but it's never going to be 100% perfect when home done. A parakeet does not have the same calcium requirements as a laying quail for example. Luckily with calcium, you can feed them in increasing amounts until their egg shells are strong, and learn how much they need that way, but this isn't true for other things like iron and vitamin D. You can give them too much, and it's not safe.
So, since I'm not a nutritionist and my math and google-fu skills only go so far, I heavily rely on premade feed and supplements especially for quail, and only make my adjustments according to problems I run into, like picky eaters, adding extra protein for chicks, and boosting calcium and selenium for laying or molting birdies.
If you like, I would be happy to take pictures of the nutritional values and ingredients of my premium quail feed! That way you could at least get some idea of what your ballpark is for all of these things. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful, this stuff needs an expert.
