growing plants for feed

[risingeaglefarm]

I'm planning on making my own feed to give to my birds. I have mainly quail, but soon getting ducks and chickens too. The feed I'm giving now doesn't meet their dietary needs for protein and calcium as is, but its all I can find in store. I want to plant some grain and mix my own feed.

So I wanted to know what do you feed your birds?

Right now I'm planning on incorporating:
Corn
Wheat
Millet
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Eggshells
Earthworms
Mealworms
Wax worms
Freshwater clam shells
Freshwater snails
Fish (in duck feed)
Slugs
Apples
Sarvest berries
Grasshoppers
Crickets
Beetles
Rye
Barley
Milo
Alfalfa
Wild broccoli
Grass clippings
Anything I should add?
Any info on growing these plants or feeding to birds? Or anything else you can tell me? Do you think this will meet their needs and in what proportions should I mix?

What do you feed to your birds? I want them to have a well balanced diet.

 

[redsix]

What does the millet supply that the corn doesn't? I'm going to grow some corn and could grow millet as well, if there is a benefit. How do you prepare the pumpkin seeds? Would oats add anything nutritionally that wheat doesn't?

 

[risingeaglefarm]

I'm not sure. I'm just throwing whatever I can in there. I know that millet is a main ingredient in parakeet food and they say to supplement a quails diet with parakeet feed. I was gonna get the tiny baby pumpkins and see if they could just swallow those. The oats are mainly to grow the worms in

 

[redsix]

Squash seed might be a better option due to seed size.

 

[risingeaglefarm]

Yeah, that's a good idea. They'd be tasty too. Thanks

 

[redsix]

I've done some more research on feeding millet. Seems like the pearl millet is the preferred type and according to one study, it doesn't have to be ground for the chickens to digest it. The only problem that I saw was some people can't get their chickens to eat it. They eat the corn and other grains out of the scratch feed and leave the millet. I was thinking of planting some millet for my chickens when I get them, but I would hate to raise it and the chickens not eat it.

 

[risingeaglefarm]

Hmm. Well I've fed millet to my quail and they love it. Thanks for the info!