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At this point, many people are beginning to take an interest in breeding birds. They are especially interested in quails. And if you are reading this article, you are probably interested in it too. The thing is that quails are unpretentious and do not require much space for their content. But there are a lot of benefits from them. Everyone knows how useful quail eggs are. And their meat is tender and tasty. The breeding of these birds is very profitable.
However, in the process you will have many questions, one of which is how to feed the quail at home? This is logical, because a lot of things depend on the diet of the birds. From this article, you will find out what the composition of food for quails is, how many times a day they can be fed, seasonal feeding, and much more.
Industrial compound feed
The first option that you may have is feeding with compound feed. This is a great option, since they contain a complex of useful vitamins for both laying hens and meat quails. Depending on this, the composition of the compound feed for quails changes. If we talk about branded compound feeds, then several types can be noted:
- The well-known compound feed PK-5... Its main part is corn and wheat. There is a small part of fishmeal, animal fat and soybean or sunflower meal. Salt, chalk and various kinds of phosphates are used as mineral additives. Lysine among the components must be present without fail. The percentage of the components is as follows: proteins - 35% not less, minerals - 5%, the amount of grains - 60%. Given the composition of the compound feed for quails, you need to feed each quail about 30 g throughout the day.
- PC-1 and PC-2... It contains corn and wheat, as well as a small amount of chalk and salt. In the role of a protein base, fish or bone flour and soybean meal. Wheat bran or a little barley is added to this type of feed. PC-1 and PC-2 are considered one of the simple and cheap compositions for quails. The daily norm for one adult bird is 27 g.
- PC-2.2, PC-6 and PC-4... The feed is used for already matured adult quails. The percentage of the components is as follows: cereals - 60%, protein - 30% and minerals - 10%. Corn, wheat and barley are added as grain in equal proportions. The protein is fish meal, meal, lysine and feed yeast. The minerals include chalk, salt and phosphate. Sometimes wheat flour, bran and seashells are added to the composition.
Compound feed for quails of own production
Many experienced poultry farmers have gained extensive experience in feeding quail. Thanks to this, they have developed their own feed recipes that are ideal for quail. As usual, the main ingredient is cereals. Additional elements are fruits and vegetables or cleaning from them. During production, the products are washed well, all spoiled parts are removed. After that, the composition is boiled for about 40 minutes. After cooling, everything is crushed to make a porridge.
Vegetables and fruits in the feed are an excellent source of micronutrients. Thanks to them, quails receive a healthy diet, and as a result, their meat becomes even tastier, and the quality of eggs increases. You can even add vegetables to commercial feeds.
Making compound feed for quails with your own hands is quite simple:
- Crush 1 kg wheat, 400 g corn and 100 g barley.
- Add 1 tsp to the composition. bone meal and half a tsp. unrefined vegetable oil.
- To saturate the food with minerals, add 1 tsp. salt, chalk and shells.
- The resulting feed is enough to feed one head for 1.5 months. You can give the quails dry food or rinse it with water to a state of gruel.
- A source of protein can be cottage cheese, fish or minced meat. Use fresh herbs and crushed eggshells as vitamins and minerals in DIY quail feed.
In fact, the food eaten by quails can be different. All ingredients in the recipe can change, it depends on the situation.
Keeping and feeding quails in season
What you feed the quail plays an important role. Some people fatten their quails until they fall so that they grow faster. But, this is not always correct. You need to feed the quails regularly, 3-4 times a day. This is done at regular intervals. You can't put the daily feed rate into the trough and go on business. If you are feeding growing quails, then you need to make sure that they eat enough. They grow quickly and cannot tolerate interruptions in feeding.
The first week of the quail should be fed with boiled eggs. They need to be rubbed with the shell. On the second day, 2 g of cottage cheese is added to the feed for each bird. On the third day, include fresh herbs in the feed. On the fourth day, the number of eggs must be reduced by adding more cottage cheese to the feed. Young animals must be fed at least 5 times a day. Starting from the second week, you can give the young stock the usual compound feed for quails.
It is necessary to distribute food for adult quails so that most of it remains for evening feeding. For this, grain feed is suitable, which takes longer to digest. This way, the birds will always be full. There must be water in the drinker. The table below shows how many and what elements a quail should receive from feed.
Feeding hens
Layer feed must be selected very carefully. It should contain a balanced amount of essential vitamins and minerals. Layers need adequate amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fat. Taking all this into account when selecting feed, you can achieve high egg production results.
Layers should have 25% protein in their diet. This is very important for the proper formation of eggs. Also, with such a diet, the number of eggs laid will increase significantly. The daily rate of compound feed for laying quails is 25–30 g. If the amount of feed is insufficient, the quails will simply stop rushing. Usually, the highest production of layers lasts up to 11 months of age. It is not advisable to keep quails longer. So they are slaughtered for meat up to a year.
Fattening quail for meat
Quails with physical defects are usually fed for meat, quails after laying or individuals specially raised for this. This feeding is introduced gradually. The dramatically increased amount of food can even kill the bird. Males and females must be kept separately, preferably in separate cages.
To feed quail chicks, use the same amount of feed as for a large bird. Gradually add more fat and corn to the quail feed.You can prepare feed from compound feed for broilers and peas (about 20%). Boil the peas for 30-40 minutes.
Remember that you can completely transfer quails to a new feed only after 4 days. For the first few days, you just need to add new feed to the old one, gradually increasing its amount. This feeding should continue for a month. During this time, the amount of feed consumed should increase by 8%. If all requirements are met, the fat quail should weigh about 150–160 grams.
Checking the correctness of the diet
To check if the quails are eating properly, you need to weigh the birds from time to time. Attention! Regular quail should weigh about 100 grams by 2 months, and meat poultry - 160 grams.
Subject to the rules of feeding, the quail should have a large amount of subcutaneous fat on the chest. If the indicators after weighing do not coincide, it is worth revising the composition of the feed or replacing it with another.
Conclusion
So, we saw how to properly feed quails at home, learned how to independently prepare food for chicks, layers and adults. As the data shows, quails grow very quickly and do not need large amounts of feed. The main rule is to feed the quail often and use the correct feed. The feed should contain all the substances necessary for growth and weight gain. Birds should always be well-fed, the number of eggs laid by layers depends on this. Observing such simple rules, you can achieve success in growing quail.
Thanks for the intelligibly written information. I was just about to breed quail in my summer cottage.