Questions about what quail can eat.

[potatoyay]

I'm curious, how old is your oldest quail? I haven't seen the insides of a quail that has been overfed on mealworms, but I have opened up one that was much fatter than my others and there was a lot of fat inside, the liver looked grey, and the meat was an off colour. I didn't eat it.

Probably 3 months. She's a regular weight however.

 

[Nabiki]

Probably 3 months. She's a regular weight however.

3 months is still quite young. I would be very interested to see how she's doing 9-12 months from now. There's nothing like actual experience to show how things go.

Just a note, a person or animal can be normal weight and still be malnourished. A person or animal can even be overweight and still be malnourished. Weight is an indicator, but is not the only thing to be looking at.

 

[potatoyay]

@potatoyay I’ve seen it repeated a lot that they’re too high in fat which causes health issues, the fat content goes up with the size of the worm so I harvest mine when they’re small to reduce the risk.

I’ve also read that fat is good for them so not sure what to believe, mine were getting the choice between mealworms calci worms and crickets but they didn’t like the crickets so I stopped getting them, they don’t like calci worms much either so I probably won’t get more of them either when they run out.

Apparently it’s illegal to give them mealworms or calci worms here in the uk unless you raise them yourself and I don’t like the idea of keeping calci worms so that’s also a factor to consider, I’ve been raising Dubia roaches instead which have a good nutritional profile and they like eating them.

Is that an English/dotted white in your pic? I just ordered some eggs because they were advertised as being calm and friendly towards each other, do you find that with yours?

Yes, dubia roaches are a very good choice of insect protein. We raise them for our lizards but haven't given them to our quail, so we probably should. The dotted white is certainly more docile and calmer towards the other quail, I have not had an issue with him fighting. Yet he is also the most timid..

 

[potatoyay]

3 months is still quite young. I would be very interested to see how she's doing 9-12 months from now. There's nothing like actual experience to show how things go.

Just a note, a person or animal can be normal weight and still be malnourished. A person or animal can even be overweight and still be malnourished. Weight is an indicator, but is not the only thing to be looking at.

Alright. We mainly give them other bugs though.. such as grasshoppers in the summer.. we have been only giving them many mealworms as a good boost of fat and protein during the winter when they need it. We will begin to give them dubia roaches and red wigglers too, however.

 

[Ital]

@potatoyay Good to hear about the dotted whites being docile, I’m hoping to keep a bachelor group of them together because the spare males are so hard to re home and I’ve not got it in me to kill them.

Be a bit careful with the Dubia, their nutritional requirement changes a lot depending on gender pregnancy and age, any excess protein gets stored as uric acid which causes gout in whatever eats them.

If they don’t get enough protein it causes infertility and birth defects that can span generations even after being corrected.

I feed mine a ground mixed blend of seed and grain with soya flakes provided separately so they can self regulate their intake.
They won’t over consume it if given the choice.