Whats everyone feeding their quail?

[Home Grown Poultry]

Hi guys! Its been a while since I've posted anything on here but I do check in from time to time.

So we're getting back into quail. I don't have them yet but I do have a local source of what appears to be Jumbo cotirnix quail.

I went to the feed mill today and started looking into what gamebird feeds are available. Of course there's Purina but I'm actually wanting to try something different, maybe more economical and better in the long run.

Looking into Masterfeeds.

I'm guna start with masterfeeds 28% turkey pheasant starter. Although their website says its a vegetable diet and gamebirds eat lots of insects. I think its a typo, the stores literature didn't say anything about all vegetable diet. She did however tell me to check the website for the latest info. Its like $10 cheaper than the purina gambird starter.

Theres a 22% turkey/pheasant grower I would use to finish quail for the freezer. This also says all vegetable but again I think its a typo. Gamebirds are not vegetarian.

I'm thinking I'm going to use masterfeeds 18% AV Layer crumble. It is marketed as all vegetable and that might be ok for chickens (not mine!)

Gamebirds need animal protein and so I think I found a solution for that and also for the other missing ingredients gamebirds like quail need that is missing from turkey or chicken feeds. Masterfeeds Sweetlix gamebird and fowl block. It has the missing ingredients quails need, Lysine and Methionine in the same amount as in the purina gambird layer.

I think I have a plan figured out.

Whats everyone feeding their quail?

[Killerbunny]

Hi Al! Hugs to the family!

[Jaye]

Hi Al!
We feed ours a mix of turkey pheasant starter and chicken layer crumb, because I haven't been able to source any gamebird feed in our area, other than Purina, which we tried, but stopped using. We found that it makes their really reek, so I'm assuming it's full of cheap junk ingredients that aren't necessarily all that healthy for the birds.
We do the mix of turkey pheasant starter (or grower if the feed store is out of starter) and chicken chicken layer crumb because there isn't near enough calcium in the turkey pheasant starter for our layers.

[Home Grown Poultry]

Hi KB its good to hear from ya!

Thanks Jaye! Your one of the people I was reaching out to, are you using masterfeeds? Have you heard of or tried that sweetlix gamebird nutrient block? It seems to be masterfeeds solution for the missing nutrients gamebirds need to thrive and lay. I just found it on the website so I don't know how much they are or if it works.

I was also thinking about mixing the feeds like you do until I compared purinas gamebird layer to the masterfeeds layer hen crumble, its very similar but missing those important ingredients.

So my feedmill lady is awesome and understood where I was coming from, she brought out all the books for me. I said I like masterfeeds, I used them for turkeys and she told me that masterfeeds has separate facilities all over the place to avoid cross contamination. In Ontario, everything sold in Ontario, is made in Ontario, in separate facilities that are in seperate cities and its the same with the other provinces. Which I think is awesome.

Thanks for the info.

[Jaye]

...

So Yeah Jaye are you using masterfeeds? Have you heard of or tried that sweetlix gamebird nutrient block? It seems to be masterfeeds solution for the missing nutrients gamebirds need to thrive and lay. I just found it on the website so I don't know how much they are or if it works.

I was also thinking about mixing the feeds like you do until I compared purinas gamebird layer to the masterfeeds layer hen crumble, its very similar but missing those important ingredients.

...

Yes, we use Masterfeeds - our feedstore is a distributor for Mastereeds and Dodds and Erwin (feed mill located in Perth). I haven't tried the Sweetlix nutrient block, mostly because it's not something that feedstores around here have in stock. We do give them fermented lay mash in the mornings, as well as greens in season, and as a treat, they get cardinal or songbird bird seed mix - they love it! Oh, and they like freeze-dried mealworms as a special treat too. They aren't that keen on BSFL, though.
We mix the two feeds because the so the turkey feed boosts the protein percentage of the chicken crumb, which is a bit low. Sorry, I can't remember what the percentage of the crumb is, but the turkey starter is 28% as I recall. I did the math on mixing the two 1:1 and it brings the percentage up to what I consider decent. Like I said earlier though, the biggest reason for not feeding just turkey starter is the calcium levels - not acceptable, and before we started adding chicken layer crumb, it caused problems with their eggshells, even though we supplemented with free-choice calcium. Some people feed just chicken layer crumb and their birds seem to do just fine. I personally like to give ours the extra protein boost because they don't get a lot of bugs in their diet, which they would if they were out in the wild.

[Home Grown Poultry]

Awesome info Jaye, thanks! I truly appreciate it!

[Home Grown Poultry]

Heck yeah! After 5 weeks of feeding my quail Masterfeeds 28% turkey/gamebird starter they have started to lay! They are also really big and around a Lb, I haven't weighed them recently but I will once they get moved into there new cage.

Also after they get moved I will switch the feed to Masterfeeds 18% Layer Crumble. I have not found a solution for Lysine and Methionine yet though, sweetlix seems to be discontinued.