Giving the quail "treats"

[GalloSiSupieras]

So... does anyone know of BPA-free plastic quail waterer?

EDIT: Just found one!
http://www.lixit.com/node/858

 

[chrishel]

I give my quail apple slices, oranges, millet, lettuce, carrot peelings, corn on the cob, salad greens, pears. I would not give them onions, garlic, avocado, or chocolate.

The funniest was when it was Fall and they were getting lots of apples and I ran out so I gave them an orange. If quail could make faces, they did. Eventually, they ate it, but they were really expecting apples!

 

[Sharment]

Oh wow - great to know! DH uses ACV to keep his acid reflux under control, and I use it a lot for my gluten free baking needs. Now I can use it to help with the odor from my little indoor flock? Awesome.

Btw - on the subject of treats, how early is too early to start with treats of any sort? My little guys are approaching 4 weeks. (They are already getting some grit from the sand I put in their dust bathing box, and have oyster shell ready to go for when I start giving them stuff other than the GB starter they are already eating).

 

[Peacerose]

You can start them now on boiled eggs, fruits, vegetables, and the oyster shells.

 

[quailchick]

Oh wow - great to know! DH uses ACV to keep his acid reflux under control, and I use it a lot for my gluten free baking needs. Now I can use it to help with the odor from my little indoor flock? Awesome.

Btw - on the subject of treats, how early is too early to start with treats of any sort? My little guys are approaching 4 weeks. (They are already getting some grit from the sand I put in their dust bathing box, and have oyster shell ready to go for when I start giving them stuff other than the GB starter they are already eating).

Be careful, there is wheat in the Game bird feed, we have dust all over the house from our quail (they are in our dining room)...so far we haven't got glutened that I can tell...I have gluten sensitivity, but my son has full blown celiac disease and was very ill for a long time, but he is doing great now after being gluten free for 10 years. So I have to be very careful, I make sure to wash the kitchen surfaces really well before preparing food. I wish they made gluten free game bird feed!

I was wondering though, vinegar is an acid, so how does it help with your husband's acid reflux? I used to get it a lot before I went gluten free, but I don't get it anymore. I just remember I would get terrible acid reflux from anything with vinegar in it. I couldn't eat salad dressing, pickles, etc. Does apple cider vinegar do something different from regular vinegar?

 

[Sharment]

I hadn't even thought to check the label of their feed for gluten - thanks for that! (I am Celiac, husband is G-intolerant.)

The general assumption everyone makes when they start having reflux problems is that they have too much acid, and take a Rx acid suppressor/OTC antacid, etc. Turns out for a lot of people though, the opposite is the real problem. If your stomach doesn't have enough at the beginning of your meal, you get into trouble fast. One Tbsp of ACV in half a cup of water about 10 mins before a meal 'primes' your stomach for your meal. DH is good about doing that before lunch and dinner, and is now completely off the prescription meds with scary long term side effects.

(That is, of course, after eliminating an H. Pilori infection he had apparently had for years, and dropping foods from his diet he has dietary sensitivities to.)

As people get older, we stop producing adequate stomach acid. My 83 y/o grandmother has that problem pretty bad, but again, the ACV is all she needs to manage it completely.

 

[quailchick]

I hadn't even thought to check the label of their feed for gluten - thanks for that! (I am Celiac, husband is G-intolerant.)
The general assumption everyone makes when they start having reflux problems is that they have too much acid, and take a Rx acid suppressor/OTC antacid, etc. Turns out for a lot of people though, the opposite is the real problem. If your stomach doesn't have enough at the beginning of your meal, you get into trouble fast. One Tbsp of ACV in half a cup of water about 10 mins before a meal 'primes' your stomach for your meal. DH is good about doing that before lunch and dinner, and is now completely off the prescription meds with scary long term side effects.

(That is, of course, after eliminating an H. Pilori infection he had apparently had for years, and dropping foods from his diet he has dietary sensitivities to.)
As people get older, we stop producing adequate stomach acid. My 83 y/o grandmother has that problem pretty bad, but again, the ACV is all she needs to manage it completely.

Wow, what a coincidence, I had H Pylori too! It was very painful, and I still have stomach pains, but not as bad as before. I took the course of antibiotics and prevacid a few years ago, that might be another reason why I don't have the acid reflux anymore. I don't know where I got the H Pylori from, but it is possible I got it from my dad when I was little. (He died when I was 9, and he had such severe ulcers that he had most of his stomach removed) I read most people get it when they are young. What most people don't realize is that it is an infectious bacterial infection and it is transmitted through kissing and sharing food, which is why it runs in families. I hope you have had your whole family tested including your children and yourself?

 

[Beckey2054]

Love all the great ideas and info! The birds to love their treats!! We occasionally buy them meal worms (too expensive to give them very often) and they love those.. Found out that our Bobs love frozen watermelon... They also seem to like frozen bananas. And we give them a scrambled egg every once in a while.. Haven't tried carrots or other fruits/produce.. Does anyone give their birds dandelion greens? Our backyard has an abundance of them and the kids wanted to pull some up to feed to the birds (their bunnies LOVE dandelion.. so they thought the birds might too). The hubby also goes out "earwig huntin" every few days.. He collects 30- 40 of the agly things and then gives them to the birds.. (we now have 6 - 10wk old bobs, 17 - 4 week old bobs, and 11 - 1wk old Cots.. with 45 more Cots in the bator) The birds (even the babies.. now that they are not scared to death of them.. to funny the first time they see an earwig..lol) LOVE the earwigs.. 40 are usually eaten up in 2-3 minutes.. The oldest birds will actually chase my husband if he is holding an earwig they want it so bad... I need to get it on video.. so funny..

Something else we do, is put the game bird feed (we buy a 27% protein feed from IFA) into the blender and process it to a much finer grind. Seems the quail are much happier if its smaller.. They still waste, but not nearly as much, once its so much finer. Not completely sure why this is, but I was given the idea by a local farmer here that raises cots. She said they seem to get upset with the larger grind, and so tend to scratch at it more. She has a grain mill she buys her feed from that is nearly 3 hours away from us, but their grind is very fine. She only goes every other month to buy her feed, but next time she goes she will pick me up some as its already super fine so I won't have to throw it into the blender anymore. And thank you to Leyla (TwoCrowsRanch) for the info about the ACV. I have had the worst troubles with my babys water bottle smelling.. I use nipple watering system for all of the birds once they are 3-4 days old (only because I keep the newborns in a small brooder the bottle/nipple waterer does not fit into it..) and they never smell. I have now started adding the acv at 1 tbsp per gallon to their water and it does not smell hardly at all anymore!! I still change it 3-4 times a day, but before the acv addition the bottle would smell like a dead skunk.. ick! I have also started adding it into the nipple watering system we have for the other birds, just because of the added benefits that I have now read all about.

Well, now off to take care of quail cadges.. acv may help with smell.. but it does not eliminate the "poop"... darnit.. lol.. and as we have all our birds (except the babies) on an upper deck, I still have to paper line the poop tray so my deck is not ruined.. Couple weeks and the birds go into the back yard so I only have to rake it up once a week or so.. instead of changing paper every day.. Cannot wait for that

 

[quailchick]

Love all the great ideas and info! The birds to love their treats!! We occasionally buy them meal worms (too expensive to give them very often) and they love those.. Found out that our Bobs love frozen watermelon... They also seem to like frozen bananas. And we give them a scrambled egg every once in a while.. Haven't tried carrots or other fruits/produce.. Does anyone give their birds dandelion greens? Our backyard has an abundance of them and the kids wanted to pull some up to feed to the birds (their bunnies LOVE dandelion.. so they thought the birds might too). The hubby also goes out "earwig huntin" every few days.. He collects 30- 40 of the agly things and then gives them to the birds.. (we now have 6 - 10wk old bobs, 17 - 4 week old bobs, and 11 - 1wk old Cots.. with 45 more Cots in the bator) The birds (even the babies.. now that they are not scared to death of them.. to funny the first time they see an earwig..lol) LOVE the earwigs.. 40 are usually eaten up in 2-3 minutes.. The oldest birds will actually chase my husband if he is holding an earwig they want it so bad... I need to get it on video.. so funny..

Something else we do, is put the game bird feed (we buy a 27% protein feed from IFA) into the blender and process it to a much finer grind. Seems the quail are much happier if its smaller.. They still waste, but not nearly as much, once its so much finer. Not completely sure why this is, but I was given the idea by a local farmer here that raises cots. She said they seem to get upset with the larger grind, and so tend to scratch at it more. She has a grain mill she buys her feed from that is nearly 3 hours away from us, but their grind is very fine. She only goes every other month to buy her feed, but next time she goes she will pick me up some as its already super fine so I won't have to throw it into the blender anymore. And thank you to Leyla (TwoCrowsRanch) for the info about the ACV. I have had the worst troubles with my babys water bottle smelling.. I use nipple watering system for all of the birds once they are 3-4 days old (only because I keep the newborns in a small brooder the bottle/nipple waterer does not fit into it..) and they never smell. I have now started adding the acv at 1 tbsp per gallon to their water and it does not smell hardly at all anymore!! I still change it 3-4 times a day, but before the acv addition the bottle would smell like a dead skunk.. ick! I have also started adding it into the nipple watering system we have for the other birds, just because of the added benefits that I have now read all about.

Well, now off to take care of quail cadges.. acv may help with smell.. but it does not eliminate the "poop"... darnit.. lol.. and as we have all our birds (except the babies) on an upper deck, I still have to paper line the poop tray so my deck is not ruined.. Couple weeks and the birds go into the back yard so I only have to rake it up once a week or so.. instead of changing paper every day.. Cannot wait for that

Hi, What are you using to line their cage? I am using the wood pellets and that is what they walk on. If you have them on wire, you could put the pellets down below them to control the smell. My birds have never smelled bad and I change their pellets once per week. I think the pine shavings are softer on their feet, so I give them a little to the side to snuggle in. The feed store uses the pellets for their chicken babies, so I thought I would try it. The birds really like it, because some of it gets a little dusty and they like to dust bathe in it. It is a lot less messier than the pine shavings I was using!

 

[Beckey2054]

Hi, What are you using to line their cage? I am using the wood pellets and that is what they walk on. If you have them on wire, you could put the pellets down below them to control the smell. My birds have never smelled bad and I change their pellets once per week. I think the pine shavings are softer on their feet, so I give them a little to the side to snuggle in. The feed store uses the pellets for their chicken babies, so I thought I would try it. The birds really like it, because some of it gets a little dusty and they like to dust bathe in it. It is a lot less messier than the pine shavings I was using!

All but the new hatchlings are in wire bottom cages (1/2" x 1/2") with a tray underneath to catch the droppings. We are getting ready to move the older birds out to the garden area so we can let the droppings onto the ground for a few days, then rake them into the compost pile. The new babies go into a paper towel lined brooder for the first week, then into a bigger brooder with wire bottom (1/4"x1/4"). We tried the corn cob "litter" and also some other pellets and found it was just harder for us to clean and deal with. We line the tray(below the wire bottom) with newspaper for now so we can just lift up paper, change it out, then add new paper. Only change paper every other day but with the droppings, little bit of water they waste, and sometimes food they scatter the smell can get bad if we do not change the paper at least every other day. the babies on paper towels get changed every day.. sometimes twice a day.. just so they are not walking in poo. I also give all my birds a "dust bin" with sand in it for them to play and "bathe" in. Even the babies love that.