Feed for baby quail?

[itstheranchlife]

Hi all,

Have got a bulk lot of baby quail that are only a week old. Have raised baby chicks, ducklings, turkeys etc and have kept older quail a few years back but a first for baby quail. Breeder said that chick starter is too low in protein for them and that they need a high protein feed like turkey starter, I believe. Only problem is we live very rural, and the only feed-store in town has no turkey feed let alone quail feed etc. They have been eating boiled (then scrambled, shell and all) egg this week with oats and have been doing fine on it. Did a town trip today and was able to pick up meat & bone meal (hopefully) for them, which is apparently safe for most types of birds including quail but the bag says nothing about baby quail. Its 54% protein, my question is, is this safe for them? If not, what else would you recommend.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Xouie]

Wow, 54%... that’s amazing. I hope someone knows the answer.

well I’m going to tell you what I do for my baby coturnix though I really don’t know how much help that will be. We use Purina gamebird and turkey starter (30% protein) from Tractor Supply. There isn’t one close to us so we order a few bags for pickup at one of the closest ones — over an hour away — when we make a trip out. I’ve never had it shipped because it’s probably expensive.

 

[gdg327]

Can you get Gamebird starter? If not I have heard Chris on Slightly Rednecked YouTube say that you could increase the protein by adding dry cat food to the chick starter.

 

[gdg327]

The Gamebird Starter crumbles that I feed my young quail is made by Nutrena and most feed stores carry this brand.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The Gamebird Starter crumbles that I feed my young quail is made by Nutrena and most feed stores carry this brand.

We use the 22% chick feed and powder mealworns into the feed powder so you can't pick the meal worms out. Did fantastic

 

[Ravenlover]

Hi all,

Have got a bulk lot of baby quail that are only a week old. Have raised baby chicks, ducklings, turkeys etc and have kept older quail a few years back but a first for baby quail. Breeder said that chick starter is too low in protein for them and that they need a high protein feed like turkey starter, I believe. Only problem is we live very rural, and the only feed-store in town has no turkey feed let alone quail feed etc. They have been eating boiled (then scrambled, shell and all) egg this week with oats and have been doing fine on it. Did a town trip today and was able to pick up meat & bone meal (hopefully) for them, which is apparently safe for most types of birds including quail but the bag says nothing about baby quail. Its 54% protein, my question is, is this safe for them? If not, what else would you recommend.

Thanks in advance.

I used this off amazon has 24%

 

[FloorCandy]

Amazon has a brand called H&H gamebird feed or starter. It’s very pricey, but excellent.

If you can receive orders from chewy.com, I would recommend Hudson feed gamebird formula. It’s 24%, still a bit low, so offer some meal worms or crumbled egg as chicks. they can stay on it As adults.

The problem with not offering a poultry feed as a base is that you are missing the added vitamins and mineral supplements that they add. I would put them on the highest protein feed your store has, and supplement with eggs and mealworms until you get something better.

 

[Captain Quark]

We can't get gamebird here at all, so I called all the feed mills until someone agreed to make a bag of unmedicated organic turkey starter for me. It's 28% so close enough! Will supplement as they grow with bugs too. Perhaps you can call around within a couple hours drive from you to all the feed mills? Wishing you good success!

 

[itstheranchlife]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone!

I was skeptical about the meat and bone meal, but the little guys being Jumbo x Goliath quail have quite the appetite .. and the scrambled eggs and oats weren't cutting it anymore, lol. So, I ended up going 50 - 50 with chick starter, and the meat and bone meal. 54% protein is alot and I could imagine them growing 10x faster than ideal so I hope the chick starter has balanced it out a bit... and vice versa with the meat and bone meal balancing out the low protein chick starter. They seem very happy now anyway.

We don't have game bird starter or anything like that, however I will probably see if I can order some in.

Thanks all!