What do i feed my newly hatched button quail?? HELP!!

[Pumpkan]

OK they are hatching I have two...I have four more eggs we will see what happens!! But what do I feed them I have some ground up chicken chow in there now the feed store told me I need chick hash and I need to feed them with a surringe????? I've never heard of this!!! ???? Can't I just sprinkle the chick hash on the ground??? Do I need to add water to it??? Please help...

 

[TheRealTimShady]

button quail are much smaller yes. I feed my 1 day old coturnix chicks regular old gamebird starter. But for buttons i've heard the norm is just putting some in a a dish with a little water to where its kinda mushy.

chick starter will work(i am guessing thats what you mean) but I highly suggest getting some high protien feed, 24% or higher. Most chick starters are around the 18% range. Most any feed store can get SOME sort of GBS(they all are around 24%+)

 

[jbobs]

kay the feed store is full of you know what, they obviously don't know what button quail are and don't realize they are precocious. They should have a high protien game bird or turkey starter, dry in a low dish or on the floor of the brooder. But it comes to mind that you've had at least 16 days to think about this and probably should have been on it two weeks ago instead of waiting till your babies were newly hatched and hungry. You need to get some decent food into them ASAP - I would start with boiled egg mashed up really really fine.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

X2 on the boiled egg, tho i'd mix it in with w/e feed you got so they don't get "off" feed.

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

We just give them the more powdery part of our pheasant crumbles.

 

[Pumpkan]

@ jbobs I have been told just to use the feed i have, grounded in a food processor which i have done that is what i was planning on using!! But I wanted to make sure that was ok so that's why I alway's ask for more then one opinion! ....... @ everyone: I can boil egg for them that's not a problem should i just give them the yolk or the whites too, the yolk tends to be a softer and smaller texture!! I have water in drink caps with stones and I have some chicken chow (etc) in another cap softned with some water and some ground to powder food scattered on the bottom ... Anything else? Also it looks like one of them (sally) the one under the seal has one foot that the toes seem to not go out straight on their own is this going to be a problem for her as she grows up? It's just the one foot! She is smaller then McQueen (the darker one)....Any thoughts?

 

[TheRealTimShady]

curled foot usually isn't an issue unless the bird is more then a few days old(in which case best thing to do is to take the furniture feet pads, the ones with the sticky side, spread their foot out and stick it on there, i've heard it works good). If you were stuck in an egg for 17 days your feet would be a little messed up too.

as far as the food, you should be fine, I do the same thing, the food processor, if the feed is to big as well. The eggs, you can give them the whole thing, i just take them and put in food processor and blend down until feed size, they eat it up like crazy.

only thing i suggest is finding a 24%+ feed, whether it be GBS or turkey starter it doesn't mattter, as long as its NON-MEDICATED. This is the only important part with button quails. I am a firm believer in not giving medicated feed, some do, i don't. You usually won't find any GBS that is medicated, but if you go for a turkey starter they are usually medicated. Its not good for buttons b/c those feeds are medicated in accordance to being fed to 40lbs birds, not 6oz birds, the medicated i believe it to much for such a small body, some people have said it causes sterility in male. I just stay away from medicated feeds altogether.

hope it helps. and hope you got my PM

 

[jbobs]

I won't use anything BUT medicated feed, personally. Never had an issue. The dosage of anything is based on mg/kg, and whether a bird is 40 lbs or 6 ounces the dose should be the same. if anything, animals with a bigger body mass often require less mg/kg of certain drugs. The treatment for coccidiosis in poultry for calves is 0.012% in the drinking water for five days; the treatment using the same product (amprolium) for broilers is double that. So a 5 lb chicken gets double the dosage that a 100 pound calf gets. It would take a huge concentration of the stuff to have any negative affect on the physiology of the animal.

Sorry Pumpkan I didn't mean to sound cross at you But whoever told you that chicken food would do for baby buttons was mistaken, they need something higher protien than that if they are to do well.

 

[Pumpkan]

Ok so I just got a 30% protein GBP and ground it up I think we are good to go!!!

 

[TheRealTimShady]

yep, if you got 30% you won't have to supplement with anything.