Many new farmers immediately ask the question: what and how to feed the quail from birth, so that all birds grow strong and healthy? After all, the diet for newborns, grown up quail, males and females is very different. There are many important nuances to be aware of.
What feed quail?
Small quail will be kept in specially equipped cages, where there are small feeders and drinking bowls. And food is regulated so that the chicks can develop well.
Conditionally, the lives of these babies are divided into 3 periods:
- From birth to the end of the first week.
- From the second week to the end of the first month.
- From the fifth week.
There are different positions regarding feeding. Some farmers believe that quails need to be given special feed mixtures from the first days. Others are of the opinion that it is better to eat natural products with additives.
Poultry tested mixes:
- Compound feed "Start". Contains all the necessary vitamins, supplements and minerals.
- Combined feed options PC 6-6 or PC 3-8 for young animals (from 4-5 weeks of life) will be ideal.
- The cheapest mixture: in equal shares, corn, soy, alfalfa or meat and bone meal.
- You can vitaminize the diet by adding to the food the grown chicks of worms and maggots.
In the first weeks of life, it is better to replace feed with premixes and additives with proteins and minerals. And grown chicks are given starter mixtures containing:
- corn;
- sunflower meal;
- soybean meal;
- wheat
- fodder yeast.
From 8 to 21 days you can give feed for young animals PK 5-41, which include corn, wheat, proteins, vitamins and minerals. It is advisable to take food with a high protein content.
Since quails are very sensitive to feed changes, experienced poultry farmers advise gradually expanding the menu.
Feeding steps
From birth, each chick needs 5 g of food per day. Over a month, their weight increases 15 times. Monthly quail already consumes up to 30 g of feed.
Feed | 1-5 days | 6-10 days | 11-20 days | 21-30 |
Corn | — | 8 g | 20 g | 30 g |
Wheat bran | 4 g | 5 g | 5 g | 10 g |
Greenery | — | 10 g | 15 g | 20 g |
Skimmed milk | 5 g | 10 g | 10 g | 15 g |
Cottage cheese | — | 10 g | 10 g | — |
Eggs | 3 g | — | — | — |
Shellfish | — | 0.5 g | 0.7 g | 1, 7 g |
Post hatching nutrition
Quail should eat well almost immediately after birth, so it is important to consider such points:
- Water only with boiled water, the first three days you can breed a couple of potassium permanganate crystals in it.
- Daily babies eat only protein, grind boiled eggs. Best of all - quail, in shell, but chicken will do, only without shell.
- You can add boiled millet, feed on ground corn.
- If you are too lazy to mess with cooking, give food for chickens or turkey poults.
Feeding daily subsistence quail
It is believed that not all quail eat natural products well, therefore, it is easier and more reliable to replace them with special compound feed. It is only necessary to grind it thoroughly. Suitable food for monthly poultry.
Important tips:
- The eggs in the first day of life of the chick are important, from birth to 5 days, the quail eats 1 piece per day. And from 6 to 10 days, one egg is enough to feed ten.
- One day, kids can be given a mixture of bran, yolks, herbs, boiled grated carrots and ant pupae.
- Food is wiped in a grid with cells not less than 3 by 3 mm.
- In cold babies, quails are recommended to be transferred to grated carrots with white crackers: 2 g each.
If you buy feed, then you need to choose a composition with a high percentage of protein. Be sure to grind.
Feeding from 2nd to 7th day
When distributing feeds, it is important to consider that from the second day of life they will quail, some feeds need to be reduced.
Highlights:
- Add cottage cheese for 2 days - 2 g each.
- On day 3, introduce fresh greens: onion feathers, dandelion leaves. You can put the nettle, only scald it and cool it first. If there is no greens, replace with grated carrots.
- On day 4, new products are not introduced, but the eggs are replaced with cottage cheese. You can feed with fish oil, up to 7 days.
- On day 5, add boiled grated carrots, ground grain, boiled fish.
They keep such a diet for a week, they need to feed the quail 6 times a day, at regular intervals, and at night, including. Food temperature should be the same as air temperature. It is recommended to put a feeder with chopped shells, chalk and grated shells, such an additive will complement the complex of minerals.
Instead of flooring, do not put sand! Quail dogs begin to eat it, which often leads to death.
Feeding two week old chicks
With the beginning of the second week, the life of the owners is a little easier, since feeding the babies is already enough 4 times a day. Protein can be reduced, but not less than 25%. It is more profitable to take ready-made compound feed, in which there should be crushed corn, oats and wheat. Such a mixture can boast such a mixture as PK 5-41 (for chicks 1-3 weeks old).
If there is no way to buy ready-made food, the ration is, including:
- porridge;
- cottage cheese;
- eggs
- boiled fish;
- greens: spinach, clover, nettle, tops;
- grated beets and carrots;
- cabbage;
- mineral and protein supplements.
Mineral additives can replace crushed chalk, shell rock and gravel, they not only saturate with the necessary components, but also clean the stomach of the chicks. The diet should gain 280 kcal, of which 25% - protein.
The approximate composition of the menu for quail from the age of a week to a month is proposed as follows:
Feed | Quantity in% |
Wheat | 11 |
Corn | 40 |
Soya Sprat | 31,6 |
Fodder yeast | 1,9 |
Bone flour | 2,9 |
Cheese whey (dry) | 10 |
Feed chalk | 0,9 |
Premix broiler PK-5-1 | 1 |
Salt | 0,2 |
When the quails are 2-3 weeks old, they are put in a cage with sand after eating. It is important for chicks to swim in it and to clean feathers, goiter.
Gravel needs to be poured separately, it improves digestion of food.
Nutrition 5-6 weekly quail
When the quail is one month old, you can feed them only three times a day and transfer them to food for adults. This should be done carefully, for 5-6 days. Protein in feed should be reduced by 15%. And the percentage of crushed grain - on the contrary, gradually increase.
The approximate composition of the feed, if you do it yourself:
Products | % in the composition |
Wheat | 15-20 |
Corn | 42-40 |
Bran | 6 |
Sunflower meal | 9-10 |
Soybean meal | 11-20 |
Meat and bone meal | 2-3 |
Fodder yeast | 3-5 |
Cheese whey (dry) | 4 |
Feed chalk | 2-6 |
Many poultry farmers also make a mixture of ground wheat and corn, with the addition of protein, minerals and vitamins. You can increase the protein content by adding meat or bone meal, soybean meal, cottage cheese, and boiled fish. It is best to focus on the composition in compound feeds, if there is no way to constantly buy them, and choose the right diet.
Some farmers buy food separately for males and females:
- Broilers are more suitable for PC 6-6.
- Layers - PC 1-24.
Advice from experts: if it is difficult to measure a portion of the feed, then you can measure with a matchbox, 10 g of the mixture is placed in one.
Weakened Quail
If the babies are weak, the feeding scheme needs a different one.
Approximate composition:
- First day. Cool boiled chopped chicken or quail eggs, you need to grind with the shell.
- Second day. Cottage cheese is added to the eggs, 2 g to each chick per day.
- The third day. Chopped greens are added.
- Fourth day. The number of eggs is reduced, and the curd is increased.
- The fifth day. Ground wheat grits and small worms are added to the food. You can replace them in a mixture of boiled low-fat fish.
Greens are required, nettle, onion feathers, dandelions, lettuce are suitable. The more succulent feed, the faster the quail gets stronger.
You need to feed 5-6 times a day, and only with a fresh mash, remove the old remains. Feed for broiler chickens is allowed.
If the farm is large, you can simplify the task and buy ready-made turkey mixes by mixing ground grain with them.
What is the regimen for feeding the chicks?
The quail is fed, taking into account the age, babies - 5-6 times a day, 5 g of feed per individual, and older - three times a day. But most importantly - at regular intervals! You can give bread, but then the benefits of the daily diet are reduced.
A few tips:
- Feeders do not fill to the brim, enough to fill in two-thirds. The reason is that quail is eaten sloppy and scatter food, which is then crushed.
- In the first week they feed 5 times a day, for 2 and 3 weeks the number is reduced to 4. From the fourth week, food is given three times a day.
- Quail eggs from 5 weeks old are given 22-30 g per individual. And the chicks of meat and egg breeds receive 25 g each.
- Younger kids can be given whole pears and apples, fruits can be squeezed between the rods, and the chicks willingly peck them.
If you comply with all the conditions of feeding and growing in the first 4 weeks of life, the survival rate of young animals is 95-98%, and in the second 4 weeks - 98%.
Diet for females
When the quail is one month old and transferred to adult food, many poultry farmers advise them to divide the young by sex in order to make the right diet. There should be a quarter of raw protein and enough protein in a laying meal. Otherwise, they will rush weaker, and the yolks in the eggs will turn out to be enlarged or even double. But these are not suitable for masonry.
Basic products for the stirrer:
- cottage cheese;
- a fish;
- seeds;
- grain - 12 g per day for each individual.
The norm for a female from 6 months is 10 kg of feed per year. If he eats more or less, you need to pay attention to lighting, the temperature in the cells. Quail are very sensitive to living conditions, which immediately affects their appetite.
You can determine the daily norm by goiter: its length is increased by 3 times, and they are guided by the figure obtained.
Diet for males
When the baby cheerfully overcame the threshold of life in six months, he needs to make amendments to the diet as well as laying hens. To grow and grow up faster, the farmer will have to stock up more with different grains.
Basic products for the stirrer:
- barley;
- millet;
- insects
- boiled fish;
- crushed legumes;
- poppy;
- oats;
- boiled eggs;
- canary seed.
What is important to consider when feeding male quail:
- Exclude rye completely.
- Legumes give in the form of cereals or boiled.
- Pour poppy 5-7 g per individual.
- Add vetch by mixing with oats.
- Change the water in the drinker at least 2 times a day.
You can buy special food for male quail. If this is not found, it is permissible to replace it with food for parrots.
The role of products in the development of quail
The basis of the menu of these kids is corn, it contains a lot of starch, it is considered a high-energy product. The only negative is the lack of vitamin B, amino acids and minerals that will need to be compensated. This is easily done by adding meat and bone meal, fish and meal to the mixture.
Features of other products in mixers:
- Oats Dietary food, before giving the quail, the grain is cleaned from film and crushed.
- Wheat. Nutritious and healthy. It is ground into flour, dried. Do not put in wet mixtures, since the flour turns into an adhesive stick, sticking to the beak. Therefore, kids should not be given such food.
- Carrot. Forms vitamin A in the body of birds, rich in carotene.
- Yeast. A lot of vitamin B. Proteins obtained from yeast digest quail better than proteins from plants.
- Cottage cheese. Provides protein. You can not replace milk, it can cause indigestion in birds.
- Legumes: millet, colza, rape. Contain a lot of amino acids.
How to feed quail?
Before launching the kids, the cells need to be properly equipped. It is important to consider that most chicks themselves find food in the feeder, but if the quails are lost, you need to attract their attention by tapping the stick with a stick on the tray. They perceive it as mother’s call, and resort to nibble.
Important tips:
- Feeders are made from cardboard trays, but for quail from the age of 1 week. Tiny food is poured on a napkin or cardboard, because the sides will interfere with them. On the third day of life, chicks can put lids on cans.
- Since the quail is eaten very sloppy, it is better to make feeders such that only the head crawls through. Then food will not be scattered, and dirt and stool will not get into it. A tray made of drywall with a grid is suitable, where there are large cells. The sharp edges are bent, and the net is well fixed so that the chicks are not tangled.
- Quail to drink, you need to learn, not everyone knows how. To do this, you can tap on the drinking bowl or bring a chick to it and tilt its beak to the water.
- Water needs to be changed often, the purity of the liquid is well ensured by nipple drinkers, but they have a significant minus - they leak, and dampness arises in the cell. Therefore, it is best to put deep vacuum drinking bowls.
- Quails should not be malnourished, it is even dangerous in the first 3 weeks.
- You can’t leave food if, after 2 hours after feeding, the portion has not been eaten, it is poured out and the feeders are cleaned.
A little trick: to attract attention quail to the feeder or drinking bowls will help set near the clock with a second hand.
Requirements for drinking places
Such a necessary item for kids, like a drinking bowl, can become a source of danger for them. If the tank is deep, the chicks go swimming and often drown.
Drinking bowls should be:
- Capacious, but not deep.
- Made from materials that are easy to clean from dirt and food debris. Food grade plastic or stainless steel will do.
- Installed so that the kids could not get inside.
To the migrants up to a month of life they are given only boiled and cooled water.
Do quail need vitamins and other supplements?
Many beginners are wondering: do quaillings really need vitamin supplements? Indeed, in grain and greens they are also enough. The question is how much the owner is concerned about the rapid growth and weight gain of the brood. If you want the quail to grow strong and healthy, then you can not do without minerals. Moreover, mineral supplements are not so expensive. And most importantly, they can be replaced with available products:
- Eggshell. Boil and grind.
- Seashells. They are also washed and crushed, the particles should be 0.5 mm each.
- Greenery. Helps improve digestion. Experienced farmers say that at first the quail eat it extremely reluctantly. But, having tried it, they completely sweep it out of the feeders.
- Cake, meal, meat and bone and fish meal. Provide protein and lysine.
- Drinking solutions. Once a week you need to add a weak solution of potassium permanganate to the drinkers, you can alternate with a solution of selenium.
- Vitamin C. Once every 10 days it is recommended to mix it in the waters. Enough 1-2 tablets per liter of liquid.
- Vitamins B add separately.
You cannot mix different vitamin supplements in water, they can “kill” each other during a chemical reaction in a liquid.
What is strictly forbidden to feed?
Although quails are considered omnivorous, and are not particularly capricious in food, there are still products that are strictly forbidden to be given to them. Otherwise, the risk of injuring the chicks stomach increases, as a result of which the baby may not survive.
It is forbidden to give:
- Sprouted potatoes. It contains a dangerous poison - solanine.
- The water in which the potatoes were boiled.
- Leftover food from the table, in particular bread and sausage.
- Unpeeled oats and barley.
- Silage, sauerkraut.
- Compound feed for pigs.
Quail feed recipes
For farmers who find it inconvenient or expensive to buy food, self-cooking recipes for quail are suitable.
The easiest ways:
- Mix wheat or corn grits with yogurt and boiled egg. Grate well. After the third day, nettle, cottage cheese and carrots, all chopped and grated, are placed in this mixture.
- Mix boiled eggs in shell with oat or wheat groats or porridge, yogurt. In a ratio of 4 to 1.
There are more complex recipes, close to the composition of high-quality feed for quail.It is better to give such mixtures from 4-5 weeks of life.
Recipe 1
Ingredients:
- Barley groats or barley - 100 g
- Corn grits - 400 g
- Meat and bone meal - 1 tsp.
- Unrefined vegetable oil - 0.5 tsp.
- Minced fish or meat - 50 g
- Cottage cheese - 50 g
- Greens - 50 g
Preparation: chop greens, grind with other ingredients.
Recipe for Layers
Ingredients:
- Corn - 200 g
- Wheat - 200 g
- Premix for layers, 10% - 80 g
- Roasted Sunflower Cake - 90 g
- Meat and bone meal - 45 g
- Soybean meal - 90 g
- Fodder Yeast - 45 g
- Peas - 30 g
- Vegetable oil - 10 g
Preparation: boil peas, corn and wheat, grind, mix with ingredients.
Recipe 3
Ingredients:
- Carrots - 100 g
- Wheat - 200 g
- Sunflower meal - 100 g
- Soybean meal - 50 g
- Meat and bone meal - 30 g
- Fodder Yeast - 30 g
- Sunflower oil - 10 g
Preparation: boil carrots, grind, grind wheat. Mix with other products, grind well.
Useful Tips
At first glance, feeding the quail seems complicated, requiring attention and strict regimen. But over time, the owner will get used to such events.
Some important tips:
- If there is no special feed, you can compensate for the lack of important substances in the diet by increasing protein, greens, carrots and cabbage.
- Do not collect greens for quail along the roads, there is no benefit in it, but there is harm.
- Minced fish and minced meat for mixtures should be stored at a minus temperature of 1-3 degrees, and no longer than six months. It is better for large farms to purchase in batches.
- For mixing minced meat with other products, it is more convenient to use a meat grinder. Both manual and electric will do.
- In the spring, you can diversify the food with a feed mixture for parrots and canaries. If the young growth is breeding, it is better to remove factory feed from the diet for a month during the breeding season.
- It is impossible to give milk in its pure form, but adding 1-2 tablespoons to the serving instead of cottage cheese is quite acceptable.
- The quail food should be at the same temperature as indoor air.
Always carefully study the expiration date of feed, if you buy a batch for future use!
The problem of how and what to feed the quail is solvable, although it requires some effort. The main thing is to teach children from the first days to a balanced diet so that they do not act up when introducing unfamiliar food into the diet. It is only important to observe the dosage and not to overdo it with supplements. If you manage to cope with the young for the first time, then everything will turn out easier and simpler. In any case, everything is known only through experience!
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