How much feed for quail chicks? Do they need extras?

[Jada22]

I’m trying to work out how much feed to buy. It’s hard to get it here as most places only sell seasonally, luckily I’ve sourced feed but the postage is expensive so I want to make sure I get enough.
They’ve suggested sending me 5kg but I’m not sure if that’s enough until they’re ready to go on a lower protein feed.

How long would the bag of food be okay before it goes bad?

Also should I add vitamins or anything to their water? Or I’ve heard of adding apple cider vinegar?

 

[Nabiki]

How many chicks do you have? How old are they?

If you keep the feed dry and in an air tight container, it will stay good for a long time. I would say quite a few months.

You don't need to add anything to their water as long as they're healthy. If you feel a strong urge to add something, you could add some electrolytes, such as Save-a-chick. Their feed should be providing a balanced diet, so don't add vitamins or anything to mess with it.

 

[FloorCandy]

No apple cider vinegar, giving that is basically an old wives tale sort of thing, and it tastes bad and is unpleasant for them. If you put anything in the water it could be a poultry vitamin or booster like nutridrench or rooster booster.

How many chicks do you plan to raise? There’s nothing wrong with having a little extra chick feed and keeping them on it a bit longer until it’s used up. Most people say feed starts to degrade nutritionally after about 6 months I believe.

 

[Jada22]

I have 20 eggs in the incubator, not sure how many will hatch as some don’t look good.
I’ll leave off adding anything then, I had seen some people advising it was needed.

 

[FloorCandy]

It’s hard to say … have you hatched before, what kind of incubator do you have, were the eggs shipped or did you pick them up from a seller? If you got them fresh from a seller and have hatched with good results and have calibrated hygrometers and thermometers besides the the readings given by the incubator, you could end up with 19-20 chicks, if they were shipped from unknown sources, you’ve never hatched, have an untried incubator, and don’t have independent equipment to verify readings, you may end up with very few or none. If your setup and prep align more with the first option, I would get 10 - 15 kg which seems like 20-30 lbs from looking online, and if youre more aligned to the latter description, maybe just get 5-10 kg.

 

[Jada22]

First time incubating, lower quality incubator although I do have calibrated thermometers and hygrometers. Eggs were shipped, not expecting a very good hatch rate although Some of the eggs are developing well, but they’re hard to see in to so it’s hard to know for sure which are “bad”

 

[FloorCandy]

First time incubating, lower quality incubator although I do have calibrated thermometers and hygrometers. Eggs were shipped, not expecting a very good hatch rate although Some of the eggs are developing well, but they’re hard to see in to so it’s hard to know for sure which are “bad”

Maybe 10 kg just to be sure, since they look good. If it goes poorly and you just get a couple chicks, you’ll have some feed to try again.