How do you grind up YOUR quail food? {Updates pg 2}

[Wolf-Kim]

We just hatched out our first batch of Coturnix quail. The people we got the eggs from told us that they grind up their gamebird starter so that the quail can eat it better. They used a rolling pin to crush their's up.

Our quail have gone through the food we crushed up a few days ago. We used the rolling pin, but it made a huge mess and was very time consuming. There has to be an easier way to do this.

Between crushing their food with a rolling pin and the losses we've experienced, hubby is already to call it quits on our first batch only about a week in.

-Kim

 

[brooster]

Blender, thats what i use, get a cheap one, and dont over heat it. After every batch make sure all the blades are intact, you dont want a quail eating a sharp blade!

 

[Katy]

I use a coffee grinder. I don't have quail but have done it for silkies and other bantams.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I have thought about using our blender, maybe when the rest of the family wasn't home. LOL

As long as you do not overheat it, your blender was fine? Did the blender clean out completely? I wouldn't want my siblings next slushy to taste like gamebird starter.(Or do I? muahaha)

The coffee grinder sounds even better, but alas, we do not have one ourselves.

-Kim

 

[PearlD]

I have bobwhite quail, but I have never crushed their feed.

Usually, they pick around until they find some smaller pieces, and I have yet to have one starve!
But then again, I don't start mine out on gamebird feed. I have a huge mortality rate if I don't give them medicated for a few weeks. Even still, they start scratching around pretty early. My babies are up and looking for food even in the incubator. Have you tried just putting some out and see what happens? I wouldn't think crushing would be necessary.....but thats just me.

Sorry for your losses....I had a hard time getting started with my quail, but I am getting better......

 

[brooster]

I just bought a cheap one only for feed. But i would imagine you could clean it.

 

[ninjapoodles]

We're having to do this for our Narragansett turkey poults right now, since a 26% gamebird grower was the only unmedicated feed we could find for them (all the starters available here were medicated). First we put it in a Ziploc bag and smashed it up with a mallet, but then we just started using the blender. It works great. And there's nothing in there that's harmful to you. Since it's totally dry, it's easy to wash out the blender. Just do small batches at a time, and pulse it instead of just running it full-out for long stretches. We're using a 30-year-old (at least) Osterizer blender!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I'll just have to carefully try the blender.

The losses were mostly preventable. Shoddy heatlamp and a rockless water-dish(just for a couple of minutes)

. Adam is just sick of them dying. We hatched about 50/100. We lost some because they didn't absorb "stuff". Then the heat lamp slipped and fried another 4-7. Then Adam left a rock-less tupperware full of water to go get rocks and another 10 or so drowned or got wet enough to die the same day. Hubby wasn't expecting them to be "this" high maintainance. He already said he just wants to eat whats left and not try this again. I told him I wanted to try at LEAST another batch, because I think we just had horrid luck with this one.

So far we have 35 left and the losses seem to have stopped.

They picked around the larger pieces, but then that left the larger leftovers just sitting in the brooder. When I put the ground up stuff in their I saw immediate results. LOL. They all started stuffing their faces like there hadn't been food their before.

-Kim

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Thanks everyone. I'll try the blender tomorrow and just be careful not to blow it up or something.

It was just the rolling pin thing, left the kitchen a mess and left Adam and I a bit... dissapointed? LOL We don't even put that much work into the chicks!

-Kim

 

[jkcove08]

$10.00 Black and Decker coffee grinder!!!! It takes a while but if you just stick to it you can go through a lot of feed and make it almost powder. I use it for my buttons. You are very right about a lot of waste when you dont grind it. I have been tempted to get a 50 lbs bag and grind it all down and sell it in smaller amounts. You will truely be amazed at what you can save by grinding. Dont give up on the quail yet!!! Jenn