Quail food: composition, norm, recipe and price. How to make quail food with your own hands?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Own home garden for many has become a symbol of their own vegetables and fruits, which allow you to diversify your table with fresh and environmentally friendly products. Some raise chickens, geese and ducks to provide themselves with meat as well.

But today, quails are increasingly entering the scene. They are quite unpretentious, take up little space, give high-quality meat and eggs. It’s just that bad luck can come out with feed, since compound feed designed specifically for these types of birds is far from being sold everywhere. Therefore, today we will talk about how you can make your own food for quails, and also discuss options produced by the industry.

What are they even fed?

As a rule, beginners do not have such problems: they buy only a few individuals, which are fed with the same products that are used to feed chickens. If you live in a more or less large city, then the nearest pet store probably has special food for quails. As a rule, it is produced by the usualmixing cereals, whole grains and bran. But there are several typical recipes that are used in large farms that are engaged in the industrial breeding of these birds.

Industrial feed types

PK-5 variant. This production recipe necessarily includes corn, sunflower or soybean meal (the latter is used less often), fishmeal and wheat, as well as animal fats. Include there and table s alt, as well as phosphates and chalk. Lysine serves to cover the need for amino acids. The composition of PC-5 should contain 35% of the protein component, at least 5% of minerals, as well as 60% of cereals or grains. In this case, the feed rate for quails is about 30 grams. If you breed meat breeds, then the amount of feed should be increased by approximately 8%

PK-2-1 variant. It also mainly includes corn and wheat. As a protein base, fishmeal and soybean meal are taken. To cover the need for macronutrients, table s alt and chalk are added to the composition of this feed. Since this is the simplest and most inexpensive food for quails, it is used to feed the main livestock. If during the laying period in the body of birds there is a shortage of some elements, then it is compensated by special premixes

Other options

An analogue of the above recipe is a variation of PK-2-2. It differs somewhat in the content of mineral additives and protein, and therefore is intended exclusively for feeding quails, which are already more than onemonth.

As usual, the basic composition of another feed - PC-1 - also includes all the same corn and wheat. Unlike the previous version, barley and some wheat bran are also added to it. In addition, the protein component in this case is 40% of the feed: approximately 2/3 of these percentages are fishmeal, and the remaining third is filled with bone meal.

Attention! Due to the high content of the protein component, special attention must be paid to the storage conditions of this feed, as if the temperature and humidity are not appropriate, it can deteriorate and become poisonous to birds.

This feed composition is suitable for laying quails during the period of intensive egg-laying, as it contains a huge amount of protein, is balanced in vitamins and trace elements.

All these feeds are the most common in both private farms and industrial enterprises. It is generally accepted that the norm of all these types of feed is about 27 grams per day per bird. Young animals are fed on demand, as they eat much more adult birds in terms of their weight.

These compound feeds are well suited even for four to five day old chicks, but when they are served, the mixture needs to be soaked in slightly warm water for a couple of hours. By the way, we remind you: regardless of age, physiological state and breed, birds should have water at any time.

Food specifically for adult birds

PK-6, PK-2-2, PK-4 brands are produced especially for adult birds.

• Type PC-6. It contains 60% mixture of corn, wheat and barley (1:1:1). The protein part (30%) is represented by meals, lysine, fishmeal and fodder yeast. 5% is occupied by chalk and phosphates. Of course, they add ordinary table s alt to this quail food.
• Recipe PC-4. The grain component includes the same cereals as in the above case. In addition to them, the food contains wheat flour and some bran. Finely crushed seashells, chalk and table s alt are also added there. Note that these compositions and norms have remained since Soviet times. Now there are many companies that produce their own varieties of food. You can find out about them at the nearest branch of Zoovetsnab in your region.

Attention! You should buy food only from those who have all the necessary hygienic certificates of conformity.

How much does it cost?

If you keep a couple of quails "for the soul", then you probably don't pay much attention to the cost of feed. But in the case when your goal is large-scale breeding of these birds, it is advisable to know about the composition of the feed (as we wrote above). Knowing the composition, you can easily distinguish really high-quality feed from banal premixes, which are sold at absolutely exorbitant prices.

On average in the country, quail feed, the price of which we will now describe, is sold under the same conditions. In different cities, the cost of feed can vary from 5 to 30 rubles per kilogram. So, in Moscow and Kazan youyou can buy compound feed for 12-15 rubles, in Novgorod you can find it for only 9 rubles.

Do-it-yourself compound feed

Almost all experienced farmers advise preparing food for quails with their own hands. Fortunately, there are no secrets in this matter: put more grain, which quails never refuse! Many owners also use banal peelings of vegetables and fruits to prepare feed. Once washed and boiled, they are excellent for this purpose.

To make do-it-yourself quail food from food waste, you need to carefully remove all rotten and moldy parts from them, and then put them on the boil for at least 40-50 minutes. They do this so that the bacteria contained in the waste cannot harm the he alth of your bird.

The cooled mixture is thoroughly crushed, crushing it with hands, or a meat grinder is used for this purpose. You should know that compound feed should be given only in the form of a small gruel. By the way, the peel from garlic or onions should not get into the food in any case, since the throat of quails is small, and they can simply choke and die.

In addition, the husk often simply clogs the esophagus, which also leads to death. Thus, when making do-it-yourself quail food, choose very carefully from the products intended for the preparation of the mixture, all impurities.

Benefits of food waste food

Why is this food so useful? First, the leftover vegetables and fruitsare an environmentally friendly product. Secondly, they contain a huge amount of vitamins and minerals, which are extremely important for the he alth of birds.

In addition, all trace elements have a positive effect on the quality of meat and eggs. If you are using industrial compound feed, then such a home-made slurry can be added to it in small portions. Note that finely crushed shells from quail or chicken eggs can also be added there. This is especially true when you are making feed for laying quails.

But such a mixture cannot rightly be called compound feed. Therefore, now we will tell you about one recipe that largely repeats industrial varieties.

Homemade feed

Consider the simplest composition of quail food. You will need to mix a kilogram of feed wheat, barley and corn in a ratio of 1:4 (100 and 400 grams). Use a special crusher for grinding. Add a quarter teaspoon of bone meal and a full teaspoon of unrefined sunflower oil to the mixture. Then s alt everything by pouring half a teaspoon of table s alt into it.

It is necessary to thoroughly mix the resulting composition. This amount of food is enough for one quail for exactly 45 days. To calculate the amount of compound feed you need, multiply the number of your quail population by the weight of each feed component.

Second recipe

Let's give the second recipe for quail food. Take 700grams of corn grain, and then mix them with 400 grams of wheat and 100 grams of grain of any legume. Using a crusher, grind the feed. Then add a teaspoon of unrefined sunflower oil to the resulting mixture, add a teaspoon of crushed seashells, as well as a teaspoon of chalk and table s alt.

The advantage of this food is that it can be used not only in a dry state, but also in the form of a liquid slurry, properly mixed with water. By the way, quails are very fond of water, so the latter option will be especially to their liking.

As in the previous case, all components are designed to prepare a portion of feed that one quail can eat for 45 days.

Notes on storage conditions

Attention! All feeds that contain sunflower oil or cake in their recipes need special storage conditions. The fact is that vegetable fats in conditions of elevated temperature and exposure to direct sunlight quickly begin to oxidize, which leads to an instant loss of all nutritional value. Moreover, the compound feed acquires an unpleasant smell and taste, and large doses of it can easily lead to the death of a bird that will eat this feed.

Finally

In a word, these birds are very undemanding to the conditions of feeding, so they can cook food from almost everything that you have at hand. Most importantly, do not forget to include minerals in home-made feed or cereals. Especially thisconcerns maternal stock during the period of intensive oviposition. At this time, the body of females requires a huge amount of calcium and phosphorus.

If they are not provided with all these substances with food, then the consequences can be very different: from the mass death of quails, ending with massive cases of eating their eggs.

This is how quail food is made by hand. There is absolutely nothing complicated in this, but it is necessary to observe all the proportions given in the article as accurately as possible.