manna pro gamebird feed

[bush]

Hi, I am planning on having some a&m chicks next month. I have read that is best to start the chicks on a 30% protein feed. All I can find in my area is mannapro gamebird and show bird feed at 24% protein, has anyone used this feed? Do you think the mannapro will be sufficient for my new chicks?

 

[dc3085]

The answer is yes and no. You could feed it to you chicks but they will have slightly stunted growth. What I would recommend instead is feeding turkey starter to your chicks and the Manna pro once they grow up. Turkey starter is 28% protein and is widely available. You will have to crush is up some because it comes in rounded pellets.

Manna pro is good food though, to answer that question.

 

[TwoCrows]

X2 on DC has said about the protein percentages.

BUT!!!! I have raises babies on this low of protein, not being able to get anything higher and they do grow normally. At least nothing I could see with growth problems.

So while 28% is the best for growing baby quail, 24% will not kill them and as long as you are not raising them for show, breeding or meat birds, you will be ok.

 

[USAmma]

Hi, I am planning on having some a&m chicks next month. I have read that is best to start the chicks on a 30% protein feed. All I can find in my area is mannapro gamebird and show bird feed at 24% protein, has anyone used this feed? Do you think the mannapro will be sufficient for my new chicks?

I used this at first because it was all I could find at the time. It was extremely expensive. When I resold some of my unwanted male chicks to a breeder I saw that my chicks were a lot smaller than his chicks of the same age. He then pointed me to the Purina game bird feed that was 30% protein that he uses. He said it's important to feed the young ones a high protein.

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Hmm ... I've been misinformed then. I have 3 days old quail chicks. Went to a local feed store and they said to just feed them with the GMO-free chicken starter that I already had, for 4-6 weeks, then switch to a turkey grow crumble that I bought 50 lbs of. I think the chicken starter I have is only 20% protein. I'd like good size quails and eggs. Should I switch then?

I read another recent thread that you could feed the 30% protein for the life of quails. Is there any risk of doing this?

 

[dc3085]

You want the chicks as close to 30% as possible the first 6-8 weeks. Meat birds and chicks get 28-30%. Adults get 20-24%.

Edit to add: Just an FYI An-Jan on DeAnza blvd has KING brand 28% pheasant crumble for 21.99/50lbs. Colliers Feed in salinas carries purina 20% and 30% gamebird chow if you're down that way its way cheaper at 16.99 a bag. Most places have turkey starter too, which is 28%. The feed store on monterey road just north of tully has waterfowl flock raiser that is around 22% and can be fed to adult quail no problem.

 

[dc3085]

X2 on DC has said about the protein percentages.

BUT!!!! I have raises babies on this low of protein, not being able to get anything higher and they do grow normally. At least nothing I could see with growth problems.

So while 28% is the best for growing baby quail, 24% will not kill them and as long as you are not raising them for show, breeding or meat birds, you will be ok.

I've only really noticed stunted growth when I bought a bag of KING chicken starter and raised them on that, not realizing it wasn't pheasant crumble. KING bags aren't labeled at all aside from the toe tag so I just grabbed it from the normal spot. Around the third week I started thinking something was fishy with the dinky chicks I had going so I checked only to find I grabbed a chicken starter.

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Thanks Don - I was about to ask where you buy your feed from. My (chicken) feed store has been Sam's DownTown on San Carlos St., but they didn't seem to know much about quail. They do have turkey starter but they told me I didn't need it. Tomorrow I'll go back for some 28-30% or I'll go to De Anza.

 

[TonysChickens]

Thanks Don - I was about to ask where you buy your feed from. My (chicken) feed store has been Sam's DownTown on San Carlos St., but they didn't seem to know much about quail. They do have turkey starter but they told me I didn't need it. Tomorrow I'll go back for some 28-30% or I'll go to De Anza.

So you are the guy that is buying up all the quail feed at the store everytime I go there its out
What quails do you have? Mine are hatched from eggs from james marie farms (third generation now). I go to Sams to get feed too, when I can, I get the purina gamebird breeder for my quails, they seem to lay much better eggs with it. I feed them the 30% starter when young and fod the meat birds. What store in De Anza has feed? I'm trying to find all my local feed stores, and Sams is the only one with purina gamebird 30% I found.

 

[VickieB57]

Is the Purina gamebird breeder different than the layena?