STILL confused about quail food...

[Buttercup Chillin]

Cool. JJMR will tell you. Those boys each need 3 or 4 gals to keep them happy. And I believe him after seeing my crowd.

Besides you need more birds to fill those big cages.
Can you tell I have a hatch going on and am keeping my fingers busy on the key board and away from that bator. Or I would find all kinds of reasons to keep opening it and checking and that's a no no.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

LoL yeah. I don't have a bator yet or I would be doing the same thing! LOL

I am looking for 4 more, two for each, but if I get offered more, hey I won't turn them down.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Well, if you get them boys some females. Your going to want to hatch some eggs. You better just go ahead and plan on that and put an incubator in the old budget.

I still haven't figured out what it is about these little ones that get to ya. But once you have them - you just end up wanting more. Besides the babies are sooooo cute. I just love watching them. And they are good for food.

Yes, I checked out your web site. You need a bator.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Joe123 I know you aren't kidding, but your kidding, they actually call a 12.5% protein a game bird feed. That has to be a maintenance or a flight conditioner feed, for the true gamebirds.

But it just goes to show, we have to really pay attention when we are out there buying our feed. I totally agree that there is more to the feed than what the protein % is.

You are correct my friend on at least 3 counts!

#1: I'm not joking!

#2:The 12.5% protein game bird feed is a maintenance ration. (I have no use for it). and
#3: Defiantly pay attention when buying feed of any kind! The only #4 that I can think of is...never take feed advice from anyone that works in/owns a feed store!

I'm thinking the quaillady, and wifezillia may be onto something! GBS all around may be the best thing, but I know nothing about chicken, ducks or magpie nutrition, so I didn't want to say.

For the record: I raise coturnix quail, and only said quail. I feed 30% GBS to them first meal to last meal. I'm a very boring, non-conflicted, person regarding feed. Also, sense, I have about 150, a 50# bag of feed ain't nothing to me now, but do remember the 6 bird days.

 

[JJMR794]

Gbs Starter Is All I Feed To My Quail From Hatch To Dispatch, Also My Pheasants, And All Chicks No Matter The Speces. I Feed My Wood Ducks A 40-40-20 Mix Of Gbs, Chicken Layer, And Scratch. I Go Through 1000lbs A Month Of Gbs, And About 700-800 A Month Of Layer

 

[Shellepup]

I am having a really hard time getting quail/gamebird food here in my small town. We have one small feed store, and they keep giving me the run-around about ordering some. They are putting in a Tractor Supply store, scheduled to open November 20 and I'm fully expecting the feed store to go out of business when that happens. I think Tractor Supply doesn't stock Purina gamebird starter (maybe they would special order it for me, I don't know) but they do carry this: http://www.tractorsupply.com/livest...umor-reg-chick-starter-24-feed-50-lb--5078197 DuMor brand Chick Starter which is a 24% protein feed, and they claim it's good for turkey, quail, pheasant and chukar chicks from 0 to 6 weeks of age. Anybody here ever used this brand with Coturnix? Is 24% enough? And once they reach laying age, should I keep them on starter, or transition to another formula? Tractor Supply also has a starter/grower 20% and a layer 16% formula, but that doesn't sound like enough protein to me. Of course, I'm new to all this and don't really know much YET. I offer oyster shell free choice. Most of my birds are about 4 weeks old now but I have a few 6 week old ones that have started laying. I also have 3 bobwhites and 3 button quail. (And yes, I know the buttons need seed as well.

)

 

[pascopol]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy :

Quote:
They need at least 28 % protein. I'd say 30 %

Common misconception:

Quail need 30% protein for growth, once they are mature about 20% or even less protein is suffitient, if kept outdoors in winter then they need a supplement of carbs (grains) to keep warm (like other bird species).​

 

[Rozzie]

As for gamebird feed, the only types I can find most of the time are
Manna Pro -- at Orschelns & TSC. Five pound bags ONLY. Starter only. So, the button quail get fed this exclusively - babies, adults, you name it. The adults have cuttlebones, as well, and occasionally a bit of fine oyster shell.

One TSC in the area has 24% dumor gamebird starter in 50 pound sacks. A store over an hour (almost 90 minutes) from me has Turkey grower--locally milled mix, I believe. I did find a 22% gamebird mix somewhere else one time. It's also labeled as starter feed. I also found a starter at Orscheln's but I lost the tag so can't tell you the %. The birds did NOT like it though. My younger coturnix will hardly TOUCH it so it's back to the 50 pound bag of turkey starter.

I'm to the point that I just feed whatever Turkey Grower or Game Bird Starter I can get my hands on. My goal is to get a 24% protein, minimum. However, I'll take what I can get. Most of the shops I called didn't know what the hell I meant when I said Game Bird feed & said they didn't have turkey feed at all. So...well, ya gotta feed what you have available.

Slower growth is okay with me so long as they eventually get there. I'm not going to be butchering anyway.

 

[peewee]

Everybody here is fed a GBS as chicks. No matter who they are. I have never had any problem feeding this to my chicks from day old to about "teens". Then depending on who they are some (chickens) are started on a gamebird maintenance feed that is 24-28%. While everybody else is given a gamebird maintenance of 30% with a scoop of 4-5 grain scratch to go with it.
Good luck with you pretty boys!

 

[Kwartel]

I feed GBS from Atwoods at 28% protein. The only other game bird feed I have seen in my area is Purina Mills Startena (sp?), which I have always heard is good, but is $4 higher per bag. That's all I feed to my coturnix and they seem fat and happy with it.