Does Any One Feed Thier Quail Cat Food?

[Little_Bigfoot]

I Was Researching The Stickys To Brush Up On Raising Coturnix And Bobwhites (it Has Been About 12 Years) And I Saw An Interesting Idea On One Of The Stickys It Says To Feed Your Quail Ground Up Cat Food Once A Month To Give Them Fat For The Cold Weather As Well As Other Health Benifits, I Was Mixing Up My Starter With The Calcium Supliment And I Figured I Might As Well Add Some Cat Food To The Mix As Well As Thier Parakeet Seeds (as A Treat), So I Groung It Up And They All Loved It I Have An Adult Pair, A Lone Adult Male, A Three Week Old Juvinile, And A Pair Of Two Week Old Todlers (all Button Quail) The Todlers Didnt Get The Seed Just The Calcium,starter, And Cat Food, Well Let Me Know If You Have Had Any Luck, Or Ill-luck With This.

 

[mhwc56]

my understanding is that some people give ground cat food as a protein boost but that it is VERY BAD for their livers (i think it said livers) And that the salts in catfood are harmful to quail. I have only heard of it being fed to the bigger quail.I would think it would be more dangerous to tiny little Buttons.

 

[Little_Bigfoot]

THIS POSTED BY MONARCH23{ I also reccomend grinding up kitten food (kibble or canned) and feed that to them atleast once a week if you can. It's best to feed chicks kitten kibble and adult quail cat kibble as too much fat in kitten food can really harm quail. A breder of 30 years told me that adult quail should only really be supplimented with cat food in the colder months because they need fat to burn for energy to keep warm, but in the summer months it can harm them (too much fat that they can have trouble processing).}I AM LOWERING THE HEAT LEVEL IN THE BROODERS AND IT HAS BEEN A LITTLE COLD THE LAST FEW NIGHTS SO I FIGURED WHY NOT. ALSO I GET MY CAT FOOD FROM THE LOCAL VET AND ITS MAIN INGREDIENTS ARE MEATS AND VEGGIES NOT CORN PRODUCT LIKE MOST CAT FOODS BUT YES YOU ARE PROB. RIGHT IT IS MOST LIKLEY AN UN-NEEDED PROCESS FOR BUTTONS, BUT I LIVE IN A RAINY COLD AREA 10 MONTHS A YEAR SO DO YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE ELIMINATED OR JUST USED SPARINGLY WHEN IT COMES TO COTURNIX AND BOBS?

 

[Stellar]

Cat food and kibble is for cats, not birds. Different body composition and diet. I would stick to gamebird feed and calcium (finch seed added in is fine too). I don't know what person would feed quail cat food, that is aiming salt toxicity and other issues to the poor birds.

 

[millebantam]

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This is sage advice. For the life of me I can't understand why there are so many threads everywhere dedicated to "can I feed my chicken, rabbit, quail, etc., this or that stuff?". Universities and independent labs have been studying and formulating animal feeds for a hundred years or more. You are guaranteed today that if you buy a bag of quality feed, specifically produced for the animal that you are raising, that 100% of everything that the animal needs to not only survive, but thrive, is in the bag. Now if you decide to supplement INTELLIGENTLY, with some greens, or natural meat or insect protien, or whole grains, then fine. but rest assured, your "treats" that you feed are more for your benefit than the animal's.

There is always someone trying to outsmart the people who have dedicated their lives to animal nutrition. People need to remind themselves of that whenever they feel the need to ask "Can I feed my kangaroo PopTarts and Scotch Whiskey?".

 

[FeatheredObsessions]

I have in the past when the feed store ran out of my high protein food. I do not use it for the fats. I would not personally reccomend it on a routine basis. I think if you are able to purchase a high protein gamebird or turkey starter you should be good and not need to add cat food. I mix all of my foods. The quail get a mix with the gamebird crumble, calcium oyster shell, and bird seeds. Hemp seeds (not for the Chinese blue breasted) have one of the largest amounts of vitamins, protein , oils ect and are incredibly benificial if you are needing to add something instead of cat food.

 

[Little_Bigfoot]

Ok Thanks Guys Yeah Now That You Put It That Way It Does Sound A Little Retarded.

 

[thekid]

you can feed swans cat food

 

[millebantam]

You can also feed them Tootsie Rolls, thumbtacks, and Draino, but it doesn't mean that it's beneficial to them. Where are all the threads about feeding gamebird feed to cats? We need some balance here, lol!

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[Lostbody]

Sorry to butt in. I keep chickens (no quail yet), but have been wondering about this cat food thing.
So, on a tangential note...
My neighbors and I house our birds in the same coop and split feed costs. On of my neighbors is convinced that the girls NEED extra protein in the Winter (not that we really have winter here in CA) and has been throwing cat food down with the scratch EVERY DAY. Se also uses the communal feed money to buy a brand of cat food that is... let's just say I wouldn't feed it to my cat.
Any suggestions on how I could politely get her to stop doing this? She's been keeping chickens a lot longer than I have, and I don't want to ruffle feathers... so to speak.