Quail Snacks...

[TheMartianChick]

No, I'm not looking for recipes that use quail as an ingredient in snack food, but for actual snacks that I can feed to my birds. They are basically grown at 4 weeks old and so far, they have had things like meal worms, tuna, boiled egg and ricotta cheese as snacks. Soo...what do your quail like?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Mine like worms of any sort. They also seem to love millet, either the millet sprays or just the seeds. I usually get a 3 lb. bag of parakeet seed for them, it's cheaper and there are more seeds in it

 

[cawooduck]

Monarc told me about sliced up apples, i tried it and they love them!! I also throw a few leaves of romaine lettuce in the pen and they devour that as well. I threw some bread in and they picked it a bit, but not like chickens would!! I am going to try cantaloupe and watermelon as well...............Jason

 

[cawooduck]

Quote:
Oh ya, they absolutely LOVE millet spray!!!!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Oh ya, they absolutely LOVE millet spray!!!!

I agree, but at my local walmart, the only millet spray comes in a pack of about 8-10 sprays. That would last my quail like a day

That's why I get the parakeet seed, it is mostly millet seeds, and the same price for a 3 lb. bag as the 8-10 ct. millet sprays are.

 

[TheMartianChick]

Thank you for the replies. It sounds like millet is the hands down winner. I will definitely try birdseed with a lot of millet in it. I did give them birdseed once about 2 weeks ago, but I was never sure if they actually ate it. (I also didn't look closely to see exactly what was in it) I have apples in the house right now, so I will be trying that in a few minutes.

I tried some iceberg lettuce scraps this morning when I was putting veggie scraps in with the meal worms, but the quail wouldn't touch it. That is when I decided that I would have to post the question here. Keep the ideas coming... I would really like to be able to recycle as many table scraps as possible to the birds.

Edited to add: I just tried the apple, but they seem to be more confused by it. They are eating it, but not with the same enthusiasm that they had with the eggs and tuna. I chopped it up into very tiny pieces. How does everyone else serve apples to the quail? Do you mash them?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Iceberg lettuce has little to no nutritional value, so it's probably a good thing that they didn't eat it, since it would fill their tiny bellies for nothing! If you do try greens, make sure they are dark leafy veggies, like spinach or romaine or kale.

 

[TheMartianChick]

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The piece of iceberg was very tiny. I only shared it with them because the meal worm farm is below their cage and they thought that I was giving them (the quail) a treat instead. I felt badly because I didn't have anything else to offer at the moment. I had to make sure that the meal worms got the more substantial stuff, because iceberg lettuce doesn't do anything for them, either.

 

[SandraMort]

How much snack food can you feed the quail a day and how much of the actual gamebird food do you need to give them? In my crack dreams, I'd like to raise worms to feed them for a nice solid protein boost, but that isn't in this week's budget. I'm definitely interested in raising big ones for meat, not just for eggs. TY!!!

 

[monarc23]

When quail are first getting used to apples they do do that but once they realize they're getting apples they'll be crying for it (least mine do)


now i just throw up apple slices/wedges

They go mad over them

Its almost like you have to train them to apples then once htey realize they are edible they go mad

did anyone mention boiled eggs, mealworms, waxworms, redworms, ummm minnows, crickets, ......*mind blank* fresh grass, millet germinated and then offered YUM