The A&M's are home!! (And making rabbit feeders work)

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

Dunh dunh duh DUNNNNNNNN!

Here I am! Sorry for the delay, dog was hurt and I had to take him to the vet, which turned into an all day affair. Every try to shave a corgi/beagle mix? Whew. That's a LOT of hair.

I snapped a few pics, I'll go upload them now.


ETA pic of modified rabbit feeder

 

[CARS]

Thanks for the pictures. I had made assumptions so I did exactly what you did. Ya know what? The 1/2 hour I spent out there before my meeting, all I heard was the pooping, not feed (very distinctive difference when you hear all the money you spend on food going on the floor BEFORE it passes the intestines).

Thanks for the idea and I will share this tip onto others!!!

Hope the pooch is fine!

 

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

Quote:

Yay! I hope it works well for you! I, too, HATED looking into the cages and seeing cups and cups of food spilled out onto the ground.

I've found that my browns are still spilling food from the sides of the feeder (not as much as without the tape, of course), so I'm going to put a piece of tape over the sides, essentially making a duct tape box, hoping they'll keep all the food in the feeder or in their mouths!

 

[CARS]

I didn't even have to fill the feeders this morning!!!

I think this is going to work!!! Thanks again for the idea!!!!

So, rabbit feeders work great when modified for quail. I think I paid 3.80ish for each 5 1/2" wide feeder and about 4 feed of duct tape. CHEAP

Now Chickadeedle, you get full credit for this but do you think I should form some metal "shields" that people could attach to the feeders? (I own a body shop with alot of fabrication equipment) Drill a couple holes and screw or rivit it on the feeder. Should be very do-able. The only downside I can see is there is a dozen different size feeders out there and the quality of those manufactures. I'm sure if they build a feeder that is 1/4" off the advertised dimensions they don't throw it away.

 

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

Quote:
I think that would be great. The major difference between the duct tape and the metal is that the duct tape shield will yield to pressure, allowing the quail to rest their throats on it while they eat, but then raises back to its original position when they lift their heads and try to bill out food. I don't know if I'm explaining it adequately...I'm about 3 quarts low on caffeine.

ETA: Oh, and the dog is recovering nicely. Thanks for the well-wishes!

 

[CARS]

You might be right about the metal. It may make it too hard for them to feed.

Maybe I will build a couple and do some tests.

 

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

Maybe if it angled backwards toward the food? Of course, not enough to become buried under the food, but enough for them to be able to comfortably reach the food but not able to bill it out. The feeders would probably have to be set low enough to allow them to reach the food.

 

[Southernbelle]

I saw a feeder once where someone stretched a bottle holder over it (those clear plastic dividers that hold a six-pack of soda cans or bottles together) She just streched it over the opening and kinda clipped it together underneath and it was spaced so they could get their mouths in there to eat, but not bill the feed side to side or get in there with their feet. Good luck!

 

[farmertank]

I didn't read all the post, because I'm running late for work, but just wanted to say Nice set-up. I also use the rabbit feeders with great sucess and I use rabbit waterers too. I think they keep it cleaner and they seem to like it.

 

[rachel]

Yeah, cheerfulchaos, another Phoenix quail person, did the 6-pack rings stretched over the feeder. Here's a link to the thread that illustrates it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2032774

I'm very curious about how well the birds do on 18% layer. I can't get organic gamebird feed, but I can get organic layer. Has anyone else tried this successfully? I don't want to deny my birds protein that they need.... Did your son's class start them on 28% and then switch when they began laying?

ETA: Oh yeah, big congrats on the A&M score!!!!! How cool.