Baby Quail Feed -- Can someone look at what I'm feeding my baby quail and tell me if it's okay?

[meepANDpeep]

I blended my baby quails a feed with the following ingredients into small/fine bits:

1. Manna Pro Organic Starter Crumble Complete Feed - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I41XZP4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

• This wasn't enough protein, so I created my own formula and added the following things

2. Dried Black Soldier Fly Larvae - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08N3DF931/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3. Organic Alfalfa Sprouting Seed - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N8MU0C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

4. Mix of Organic Sprouting Seeds - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ADE7LJ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

5. Dried Mealworms - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EUP8ZG6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6. Sprouting Organic Pea Seeds - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010XT2U0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

7. Ancestral Supplements Hoki Fish Eggs (just a sprinkle of this in their food since I take it myself - I think it's enough since they're so small) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0866DMBC5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are only two of them and they are so tiny (only about a day old). I want to make sure I'm feeding them alright, and didn't want to buy a 50 lb bag of gamebird starter. I just read somewhere, however, that they should only have grains, not insects (or small amounts of fish egg powder), so I'm wondering if I've made a mistake. Other places say it's good for them to have insects in their diet, so I just wanted to hear multiple opinions.

Thanks in advance!

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

We have a hard time getting gamebird starter regularly here. I feed mine unmedicated chick starter mixed with ground peanuts and ground dried mealworm to boost the protein. They grow up fine.

 

[meepANDpeep]

Okay, have you ever tried black soldier fly larvae? I thought of those, becasue I feed them to my bearded dragons who have lots of fat (and other) sensitivities, so I just thought it might be a good fit for birds, too

 

[Nabiki]

I would go light on the mealworms. They're high in protein, but also high in fat. I'm not sure of the nutrition information in all of these items, but I don't see anything else that jumps out as a possible problem.

 

[ButtonHoarder]

I haven't tried that, but it sounds ok to me. I agree with @Nabiki though, not too many mealworms.

 

[meepANDpeep]

Okay, so BSF larvae are low in fat and high in protein and calcium, so I'll just do more of those than mealworms

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Dried mealworms have a much higher fat content than fresh, about 35%.

Protein content is about 50% however. Peanuts aren't quite as high in protein, about 25% by weight. It is pretty hard to get a 20% protein starter feed to become 30%. I agree that 50# of gamebird starter is a huge purchase for 2 chicks. FWIW, now that I was able to get gamebird starter, I'm not that impressed. I won't buy it again. I'll stick to chick starter, mealworms and peanuts. The starter is too much protein for the adults and I've had to scale back on its use.

 

[Bumperchicken]

Just chiming in for interest's sake to follow this post - as a long-time insect rearer for reptile and chicken feeders, I am certainly considering supplementing upcoming quail chicks with home-grown insects as you are considering. Soldier flies are a neat composting powerhouse and definitely on the to-do list when we have a bit more space again. We've reared them small-scale before but would be very interested in doing a home-grown quail feed with added insect protein, and then doing a feed composition analysis against game bird feed to see how they stack up along with some trials to refine things.

Soon! For science!

 

[meepANDpeep]

Just chiming in for interest's sake to follow this post - as a long-time insect rearer for reptile and chicken feeders, I am certainly considering supplementing upcoming quail chicks with home-grown insects as you are considering. Soldier flies are a neat composting powerhouse and definitely on the to-do list when we have a bit more space again. We've reared them small-scale before but would be very interested in doing a home-grown quail feed with added insect protein, and then doing a feed composition analysis against game bird feed to see how they stack up along with some trials to refine things.

Soon! For science!

My birds are extremely healthy on the soldier fly larvae. I, too, got into them from reptile rearing. I feed them to all my birds now, quails and chickens alike, as part of their diet. With the quail, I give higher percentages than the chickens. And chicks/juveniles of both types I give higher percentages than their adult counterparts. I have no overweight birds doing this. They seem to need less food as well which is a plus

 

[meepANDpeep]

I don’t do the above formula anymore either I should mention. I did that for two really special quail because I was still trying to work out what could substitute game bird feed. Now I just blend black soldier fly larvae with scratch and peck starter and grower feeds and I add some turmeric because I read some good research on that.