Questions about what quail can eat.

[Avian Egg Farms]

Hello! We are going to get probably 6 quail and we are going to make food for them. We've consulted a vet and it's going to mainly consist of corn, with insects and vegetables. I have a few questions though about certain things to add.
So we've got old tea bags that are decaffinated and I'm curious if I can add it to the quail feed. One just has peppermint leaves, and the other is decaf chai (so it's got decaf black teas,cinnamon, ginger root, allspice, natural cinnamon flavor, clove, clove bud oil, and cardamom oil.) so can quail eat these things and will it flavor the eggs? Are these any beneficial to the health and how much to give them daily or weekly.

Also can I add certain foraged things to the quail food and what would these foraged things replace in the diet? (cattail, dandelion)

Thanks so much and I want to make sure it won't flavor the eggs.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You may find this useful.

The ingredients you suggest above will not allow you to hit those targets, absent a tremendous amount of insect protein - some of your proposed ingredients are essentially devoid of useful levels of nutrients, and exist primarily as buzzwords to humans rather than key ingredients in your quail's daily diet.

Quail, on average, need nutritionally denser (protein, particularly) diets than chickens, of differing amino acid profile. It is almost impossible for a person to make a nutritionally complete chicken feed at home* economically. It is that much harder to do if one has to meet a quail's recommends.

Note that there are a LOT of feed recipes on the internet for chickens. Most look only at crude protein, and don't pretend to get anything else right. Many of those don't even reach the crude protein levels they claim.

Making quality feed is HARD. I suggest you would benefit from more reading before you jump in with both feet, at likely detriment to your birds. Possibly consider a vet with more experience in avian feed formulation (practice and theory), as well.

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

Adding to U_Stormcrow's great response: all vets are not created equal. If you're bound & determined to do this, I suggest finding a board-certified avian veterinarian and discussing your venture with them.

 

[Avian Egg Farms]

You may find this useful.

The ingredients you suggest above will not allow you to hit those targets, absent a tremendous amount of insect protein - some of your proposed ingredients are essentially devoid of useful levels of nutrients, and exist primarily as buzzwords to humans rather than key ingredients in your quail's daily diet.

Quail, on average, need nutritionally denser (protein, particularly) diets than chickens, of differing amino acid profile. It is almost impossible for a person to make a nutritionally complete chicken feed at home* economically. It is that much harder to do if one has to meet a quail's recommends.

Note that there are a LOT of feed recipes on the internet for chickens. Most look only at crude protein, and don't pretend to get anything else right. Many of those don't even reach the crude protein levels they claim.

Making quality feed is HARD. I suggest you would benefit from more reading before you jump in with both feet, at likely detriment to your birds. Possibly consider a vet with more experience in avian feed formulation (practice and theory), as well.

I'm sorry, i did not specify the whole diet. it contains commercial quail scratch, sunflower seeds, pea protein, insects, calcium powder, vegetables, etc

 

[Kiki]

I'm sorry, i did not specify the whole diet. it contains commercial quail scratch, sunflower seeds, pea protein, insects, calcium powder, vegetables, etc

What is commercial quail scratch?

I highly recommend not trying to make up your own feed. It is so much cheaper to just buy a commercially made feed. So much cheaper, easier and actually safer because it is a balanced feed for the bird.

 

[Nabiki]

I'm sorry, i did not specify the whole diet. it contains commercial quail scratch, sunflower seeds, pea protein, insects, calcium powder, vegetables, etc

That doesn't sound like a good diet for them. It sounds like a lot of treats in there that shouldn't be more than 10% of their diet. I'm curious as to what's in quail scratch as well.

 

[Avian Egg Farms]

That doesn't sound like a good diet for them. It sounds like a lot of treats in there that shouldn't be more than 10% of their diet. I'm curious as to what's in quail scratch as well.

which ones are treats? also the commercial quail stratch contains cracked corn, whole milo,and whole wheat

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The recommendations I linked above generally suggested feeds of about 20% protein with high amounts of methionine for the various quail varieties.

Corn has around 8% protein, and averages just 0.2% Methionine.
Sorghum (whole milo) is around 10% protein, and around 0.17% methionine
Whole wheat varies a lot, I'm going to assume they are using "soft" wheat, its cheaper and more abundant. Soft wheets vary quite a bit, but are often averaged around 12% protein, and 0.2% Methionine.

Every one of those ingredients moves their combined diet away from targets.

So why are they used in otherwise complete feeds? Because they work to balance out other, more expensive ingredients (like Soy Meal), and to provide base calories, mostly.

You can no more balance a birds diet by starting with a complete meal and adding half again as much "quail scratch" as you could balance your own diet by starting with a complete meal and adding half again as much garlic bread. Sure, its tasty, but over the long term, it becomes clear the diet is imbalanced. Actually, the garlic bread for yourself is probably better than the scratch, since there's a good chance it was made from enriched white bread, and nobody is enriching the "scratch".

Note that most of the other ingredients you initially listed, i.e. veggies and decaf tea bags with the hint of varius buzz words, are nutritionally less valuable even than the scratch.

 

[Nabiki]

which ones are treats? also the commercial quail stratch contains cracked corn, whole milo,and whole wheat

Oh, my. It sounds like almost 100% of that diet is treats and not balanced at all. I really would recommend just getting a good commercial game bird maintenance feed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Oh, my. It sounds like almost 100% of that diet is treats and not balanced at all. I really would recommend just getting a good commercial game bird maintenance feed.

I don't believe the OP intended it as the diet, though it appears they have been advised that birds need scratch, and bought into that claim.

Most of us of greater experience, when we wish to encourage scratching behaviors, simply throw some of the bird's complete feed at the ground. Though it seems unlikely, throwing the feed seems to make it far more attractive to my dinsaurs than simply pouring it in the bowl.

I can even take feed in the bowl which they are ignoring and scatter that, watch them stampede with eagerness to consume it. "Bird brains"...