No feed for Texas A&M Quail - What can I give them?

[Stubbshouse317]

Hello guys,

I'm a new member to the forum but have used it and found it very helpful with the incubation of my eggs over the past couple of weeks. I now have 13 chicks ranging from 1.5 to 0.5 days old .

I had made the assumption that they could be fed crushed corn, but after a little reading understand this to be a no go. I am unable to get my hands on any propper game feed until tomorrow and so would like to know what I could feed them that I have in the house.

I have read that the chicks need protein, could I feed them soaked cat biscuits? Other ideas are porridge, egg yolk, or bread.

I would appreciate quick responses.

Thanks all.

PS. Not to sound ungrateful, but I'm only looking for recommendations based on experience or certain knowledge. "Maybe X will be ok" isn't good enough and this is why I'm asking

 

[Silkies~Polishes]

I've never tried this but I found this:
"If you don't have chick food when your mail order chicks arrive, they can be fed flaked baby cereal, if you have some on hand, for no more than two days. Another emergency food option for your new baby chicks is to put some instant oatmeal, or other whole grain cereal, in a food processor and blend slightly. It's not a good idea to blend the food completely into a powder for your baby chicks, a slight texture is best"
From http://voices.yahoo.com/what-feed-baby-chicks-3092886.html?cat=53
I have tried the oatmeal option though and it seems fine

 

[GAQuail]

You can feed them finely crumbled egg yolks from hard boiled eggs. When you buy feed make sure you get a high protein game bird or turkey starter that has at least 28% protein. Chicken starters are to low in protein for quail. If the crumbles are too large for your quail to eat you may need to run the feed through a blender or food processor to make it small enough for them to eat.

 

[cmtigger]

The other ideas are good, but they are less than 3 days old so they should be able to wait until tomorrow. But I've always had to run the game bird starter through the blender for the first week or so. Chick starter can be okay for a day or two if you have it on hand, but not for long term, and again will need to be ground down.