Feeding Adult Quail ?

[babieblues]

We're very limited to the types of food available around here. No game bird feeds of any kind and all the poultry/turkey crumbles are medicated. Turkey grower pellets are available (22% protein) but they are too large for my birds to eat. I've tried making the pellets smaller by grinding them in a coffee mill and a food processor but end up with mostly powder which the birds won't eat. We can get poultry layer crumbles but they are only 17% protein.
My question is: what can be added to the layer crumbles to bring the protein levels up. I know you can add all kinds of things to their diet (mealworms, etc) but I'm looking for something that can be premixed into their food. Something that can also be adjusted for various protein percentages as we have a few different types of quails with different requirements. Would it be possible to add something like fishmeal or sunflower seeds to make the protein levels correct?

 

[monarc23]

yes

higher protien cat food (kibble), and fishmeal sounds appropriate too...also isnt there a such thing as powdered egg? Just some thoughts

 

[CheerfulChaos]

I'm kind of surprised that your adult quail won't eat the powdered crumbles! The last bag of turkey starter I got was much finer ground than the previous bag, powder instead of crumbles and my birds (coturnix) gobbled it up without a pause. Sorry about the difficulty trying to find the right protein %. I live where it is common to raise turkey's so every feed store has turkey starter and grower (un-medicated) and it is still hard to find one with the right protein %. It seems everybody has a different idea of what the perfect protein % for turkeys is, so it makes it even tougher when you need the very high percentage for game birds like quail.

 

[babieblues]

Thank you both for answering

It's okay to feed quails cat food? Didn't know that. I'll check around and see what's available in that and the fishmeal.

Not one of them will touch the powdered pellets. Fussy birds

All anyone has is starter (medicated only) and grower (pellets).

 

[Boyd]

they like chopped hard boiled eggs also

 

[babieblues]

Found what's call Poultry Supplement, it's a crumble and has 35 % protein. You're supposed to add it to wheat to create a complete feed for laying birds. You add different amounts of the supplement for different protein levels. Comparing the Guaranteed Analysis on the Layer Diet and the Poultry Supplement labels they have all the same things - fat, fibre, vitamins, etc but the Supplement also has iron, iodine, copper, manganese, and zinc.
Would it be alright to feed the Supplement, without adding wheat, as a complete feed or is the protein level now too high? If it's too high would I be able to add the 17 % layer diet to it somehow to lower it?

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
Oh gosh I wish i could help ya here you might wanna ask this in teh feeding area for chickens someone might be able to give you more input... I woul dlove to have that stuff though! i'd surely feed it to mine!!!

 

[babieblues]

Quote:
Sounds like great stuff, I think

But now I've gone from not enough protein to what I think is probably quite a bit too much. Be nice to just walk into a store and find bobwhite quail food on one shelf, button quail on another, etc. Would make life so much simpler lol

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
Sounds like great stuff, I think

But now I've gone from not enough protein to what I think is probably quite a bit too much. Be nice to just walk into a store and find bobwhite quail food on one shelf, button quail on another, etc. Would make life so much simpler lol

oh but only in a perfect world