*Sigh* Some people...

[therealsilkiechick]

the reason his were dieing due to the chicken feed is because he didn't have enough protein in their diet to componsate for their rappid growth or he fed them medicated.

and why would no turner mean eggs won't hatch, lmbo what an idiot. don't take it personal he just doesn't know what he is doing,lol.

 

[Bettacreek]

Thanks everyone.

Maybe poultry people are just smarter than snake people? Lol. (Joke, btw).
So far, I really haven't been able to find any valid reason that I can't feed quail to the snakes. The only one that keeps coming up is "but they're made to eat rats". Hopefully I can downsize and only keep pet rats now, and just use quail for the snakes. Be MUCH easier on me, I won't have to worry about timing the breedings perfectly to get the right size at the right time, or having too small of a litter, or having a huge litter that takes forever to get up to size, etc, etc. I can just pop some eggs into the bator, then move them to the hatcher, and voila, perfectly timed birds. I'll probably keep extra buttons around just in case, since they won't get too big for the balls, so that if for some reason I can't hatch for awhile, I'll still have some that won't grow too big.

That's another thing with the rats. The size requirements are such a pain, they're either too big or too small, or you end up with too many or too few, etc. Besides, if I don't have to breed rats, then I can get rid of the Queen Nasty and not worry about getting blood drawn when doing regular maintenance.

 

[monarc23]

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[CountryMom]

Ok, maybe I am the only one that doesn't like the Dumor feeds?

I never had any massive die off, but I did have slower feathering from hatchlings and feather eating by the jrs. when I bought a bag of that stuff. I had started with Purina's gamebird chick starter and they ran out at the feed store. So since I was in a bind I picked up a Dumor chick starter - 24%. Figured it would work just fine. Nope. I now only feed the Purina Gamebird and even add some to the chickens feed - especially the babies. They feather out fast. I guess it is just my experience. I sure wouldn't go bashing someone for using it or cause a fight like this guy. I am just more curious why I had such a bad experience?

As for turners in the bator, I personally love mine, but didn't have one to start with. They hatched fine without turning as long as the newly hatched chicks didn't play soccer with the rest of the eggs. LOLOL

Great idea for quail being snake food. Have to remember that one for any future customers that ask.

 

[monarc23]

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yep and great for raw feeders too

 

[CountryMom]

See I only ever supplemented this winter with some cracked corn for them and a bit of ground calf manna (mind you my grown birds outside.) I figured the extra protein would help them with the cold. I never have had a need to supplement the Gamebird from Purina otherwise. Since I buy all my feeds from my local Purina dealer I think I will just stick with it. I can imagine for some it isn't always that easy of an option. Kinda like the rabbit feed I use for our guinea pigs. Can't find decent guinea pig feed in bulk so I use what I can get locally and it works great.

I think quail are WAY easier to incubate and hatch than chickens though. LOL No matter how you go about it - hand turning or with an egg turner - they do great.

 

[therealsilkiechick]

there is nothing wrong with feeding them quail. when i had my ball pythons i used rats because the petstore was the only places here to get anything for feeding. we bred our own rats after awhile i was tired of paying 5-8 ea and the store was always running out of em.

to be honest quails would be better main reason being i've seen what a live rat will do to a ball. i had a juv rat rip one to shreds and chew it down to cartlidge like spine thing(forgive me can't remember what it's called). i didn't know she was gonna shed and threw it in before i went to town, they would only eat lives. came back 2 hours later she had 11 bad chewed spots.

so personally if i had it to do all over again i'd never feed them anything but quail. it is way cheaper also and u can hatch when getting low instead of all them babies and the mess of rats, sometimes they r down right mean also to the breeder.

when i had quail i had them on game bird and soybean meal and meal worms for protien snacks also. chicken feed is alright as long as they r suplimented but if not shouldn't be a regular diet. if ur in a pinch it is fine long as it is not for an extended period of time.

 

[Bettacreek]

Yup. The one breeder here hatches out a TON of them. He just set a gross, and sets every two weeks. The vast majority of them are tossed into the freezer for snake breeders to pick up. In fact, he rarely sells them to "hobbiests", and when I went to pick mine up, he had almost frozen them off before I came to get them! Lol. Lucky little buttons that he didn't (lucky me too, frozen buttons wouldn't be very entertaining pets). Some people even use them for ferrets. I was thinking about switching Kitty to a raw diet, but the only thing I'd really have would be the quail, and I doubt that they would make a very balanced diet with JUST them.

 

[monarc23]

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believe me if my tractor supply stores sold purina game bird (or anyother game bird feed for that matter) i'd buy it for my quails and buy my chickens something different and I wouldnt have to suppliment as much then.

However I have fun supplimenting them so it's really not a big deal, so for now and maybe forever im happy with Dumor and supplimenting

Esp when I suppliment mealworms and crickets

the birds go crazy!

 

[monarc23]

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not to mention if you're like me and have your quails in your room where your cats also have access it's not too smart (atleast it wasnt in my case) to let them have a suicided button quail, and then a few weeks later my male cat raid the button quail brooder and steal out a button....he didnt kill it, but it died later from a bite wound.....*MY* fault im a lot more careful now.

I would feed my cats and dogs raw again, but the stress of keeping them on a ballanced diet and the COST is just too great ....i miss it though. For now my cats are on Wellness CORE it's high protien, but also high in fat...but my cats arent gaining any extra weight so obviously they're active enough

My one cat needs to be on this special of a diet but the others are fine.... it would be nice if you could get away with only feeding quail...maybe you could but i assume you couldnt???