New to button quail, improvising food. Doing right?

[Pent]

Hi, I just got my first button quail recently, and I'm getting 2 more on Tuesday. The thing is, at the moment I don't have any game bird mash, so I've had to improvise until I can get some. What I've been doing is taking rat food, 20%protein, 7%crude fat, 4% crude fibre, etc, and grinding it up in a mortar and pestle, adding freeze dried bloodworms from fish food, reptile calcium powder, some bird seed from my lovebird's mix, a bit of reptile vitamin powder, and some wood/pill bugs. Also a few mealworms I bought for my tarantulas, that they hate but the quail loves. Am I doing anything wrong? anything I should add, or take away? I'm planning on boiling an egg later and using the shell and some of the egg as well, what do you guys think?

 

[mossypath]

Why don’t you ask the person you are getting your buttons from to sell you a small bag of feed? That way they will not have to change their home and food at the same time.

 

[jbobs]

I think you're doing decent as far as emergency improv goes, but I would be concerned about the vitamins - vitamines that are specifically forulated for reptiles may not be in the right balance for birds and you can overdose on fat soluble vitamins with catastrophic effects. Personally, if I were in a pinch i would go get some dry kitten food, it's closer to 30% protien. But I would want them to get on a game bird feed ASAP. I would use chicken layer or starter before i used anything else (as a matter of fact, i can't get game bird feed in my area either so I have had to always use chicken feed and seemed to have healthy birds from it, but game bird feed is ovbiously the best choice) Mealworms are good in small amounts - a few a day. they are really high in fat. Seeds are nutritionally empty but they like them once in a while. Be conservative with the Ca powder too - too much calcium can throw their electrolytes off balance too.

As a matter of fact, I would bet that the best substitute food out there that isn't for poultry would be a high quality budgie or cockatiel pelleted food - you just will likely have to bump up the protien by feeding some mashed up hard boiled eggs along with it. Hard boiled eggs are good for them. The pellets are actually way better for the budgies and cockatiels too BTW.

Good luck getting some game bird feed!

 

[jbobs]

Quote:
hehe why didn't I think of that. I guess at 6:30 am it's hard to see the forest for the trees

 

[Pent]

I can't get that food until Tuesday; the person i'm getting them from lives over an hour away and someone's picking them up for me. The one I have I got from a pet store, and they were feeding them canary seed. Not exactly ideal.

 

[Pent]

I know where to get turkey starter, its what I used to feed my coturnix, trouble is I can't get over there until Monday or Tuesday.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

honestly they would probably be fine on just the ground rat food, my gbs is close to that @ 24% protein, 3.5% fat, 6% fiber. maybe any leafy greens you have around. But i'd stay away from all the vit and other things. The worms are fine and so is the seeds, if its just for a few days i'd just stick with that.

make sure the turkey starter you can get isn't medicated. as those feeds are medicated for 30 lbs birds, not 3oz

 

[Pent]

alrighty then, I got the rest of my quail, now I just need to work on their big setup. for now, 30 gallon tank will do, but the 75 gallon awaits. On the food thing, the place I get food from didn't have turkey starter, just chicken starter. 20% protein. I'm combining that with the rat food and the freeze dried bloodworm. With insects sometimes.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

you could probably drop the rat food and just add in worms and some seed, i know quailladyoffortmyers uses finch seed in her mix for buttons.

20% chick starter is pretty good so you don't have to far to go. Honestly i'd check with your feed store to see who they get feed from, mine is OMC(Orangeburg Milling Company). I went to their site to see what they make. Went to my feed store and told them what i wanted w/o giving them the chance to say they can't get it. "mofo i talked to your feed company, they said they got it"

 

[TheWeeBee]

I've been feeding mine chick starter crumble (20% protein), mixed in with egg food (17% protein) and some millet. Then I'll add a dozen mealworms and a sprinkle of dried greens and hi-cal grit to their dish. They have been doing well on it. Two out of my three adult hens lay eggs every day, and the shells are nice and hard (I feed them to my cat every morning).

I keep this stuff on hand for all of my birds, quail and budgie alike. When my budgies are moulting I'll add this to their food just to give them a nutritional boost.

http://www.petco.com/product/14860/Quiko-Classic-Egg-Food-Supplement-For-All-Birds.aspx