Game Bird Feed in Canada?

[JoshDMS]

Hi everyone, long time reader, first-time poster. I've had chickens for years and just picked up my first quails (coturnix) last weekend. Everything is going well so far, except I cannot seem to find "Game Bird Feed" anywhere around here.

I found some turkey foods with the right amount of protein, but they all seem to be medicated. So I found another non-medicated poultry feed with 35% protein, and my bright idea was to mix it about 50/50 with my chickens' 17% layer ration to achieve the right total protein. Unfortunately, they don't seem to like the 35% mix, and will just pick through it to find all the layer ration while throwing the 35% on the ground. I tried grinding the two feeds together to make it harder for them to pick out one kind, but this resulted in them throwing the entire contents of the feeder onto the ground within about 30 minutes. I'm now giving them straight 35% mix, and they will eat it, but still seem to waste far more than they eat. I think these four quails are going through more food than my eight chickens right now because they waste so much.

So I guess my actual questions are as follows:

1. Are there any quail (or other game bird) keepers here in Canada, or more specifically Alberta?
2. If so, where do you get your game bird feed?
3. Will getting them on proper feed reduce the amount they waste or are they just always messy eaters?
4. Are there any feeder designs you would recommend, or other techniques you use to reduce food waste?
5. Since feeding them the mix results in them eating only the lower protein chicken feed, I've got them solely on the 35% food right now. Are there any concerns to be aware of with using such high protein feed long term?
6. Is it possible to create my own quail mix? I know farmers that will sell me 5g pails of various grains for next to nothing, so if anyone has a homemade quail mix recipe I'd love to hear it!

I've got them outside in a fairly large "quail tractor" type pen, so they do get some additional food from being able to scratch around for seeds and insects, although I will probably end up bringing them inside for winter

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your responses!

 

[mdees88]

3) always messy

4)Feeder design.... I currently have 9 of them and they paid for themselves in the first month.....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-no-waste-quail-feeder.1232052/

 

[JoshDMS]

Awesome, thank you!

I was thinking about building a scaled down version of something like this: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/no-waste-feeder.1153175/#post-18065302 but I am using the 1 quart little giant feeder already so I will try it first with the modification. I didn't have any pipe the right size, so I ended up cutting a section out of an old pill bottle to make the level lowering piece. I also discovered that a large kraft parmesan cheese container will thread directly into the feeder, so I'm using that as the hopper for now to give it a little more volume.

Time to go try it out.

 

[JoshDMS]

Update: Working great so far! I watched them eat out of it for awhile and didn't see a single crumb of food fly out. It's kind of hard to tell in the pic but it's hanging a couple inches off the ground, so hopefully, they won't be able to poop in it anymore either.

Thanks again!

 

[mdees88]

Update: Working great so far! I watched them eat out of it for awhile and didn't see a single crumb of food fly out. It's kind of hard to tell in the pic but it's hanging a couple inches off the ground, so hopefully, they won't be able to poop in it anymore either.

Thanks again!


View attachment 1404244

Good deal.... yeah I set mine on a 2x4 block so they don't poop in it. Nice to see you could improvise one instead of spending a bunch of money on pvc.

I don't have the duct tape on mine anymore because I have a bunch of quail using 1 feeder. They waste just a tiny bit of food without the duct tape, almost none. With the duct tape they did not waste a single drop.