That Quail Place Forum
Raising Gamebirds => General Discussion => Topic started by: potshooter on October 09, 2004, 07:20:28 PM
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Does anybody have or know where I can find a recipe for making our own feed, such has how much corn ect. and what all needs to go into it.
Thanks :lol:
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I've seen a few pdf's online that describe what is believed to be the necessary nutrients for quail. Google search for them if you're really interested. If none have a specific 'recipe', you'll then need to sort out what levels of nutrients the common grains have, and try to match it.
You'll likely have to end up using some sort of alfalfa meal or soybean meal or something to get the protein levels you need.
But the truth is that it is very likely to be cheaper and much, much simpler to purchase a ready made game bird or turkey feed for your birds than to muck about trying to make your own.
Best of luck,
CA
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Potshooter, I emailed you with our recipe :D contains everything the birds need.
Casnyder, I am sorry to argue with you but it is much cheaper to mix our own food than to buy the ready mixed kind. We will use the Purenia Layena for Game Birds for breeding times and the Starter grower for the chicks but the birds are bigger and the feathers healthier with the mixture we have. Mixing our own has saved us about 150.00 per month in feed costs also it lasts longer because you are buying more for less money so the fuel cost to go to town to get feed is reduced also. ( I will tell you tho grain price is market driven but still for 200 pounds of feed we are spending at the most 20 dollars and it lasts longer, in fact we have not spent over 17 dollars, last purchase) :D The last batch of birds that I butchered were no less than 6 oz with the largest bird being 11 oz. we were not getting that kind of weight with the flight conditioner or maintenance feed, also the waste is much less and we can customize the feed to what the birds are needing right now, for example, when it is hot they do not want cracked corn, creates heat, but lately they have been eating less wheat, so we can tailor the feed to what they need, thereby creating less waste.
I am a full time student (job sent overseas) :x and my husband (union carpenter) is laid off right now until they get the job ready for them, and unemployment only goes so far so saving money anywhere we can is a big issue, also I hate waste, the worse thing is to pour feed out that the birds are not using. Anyway...hope I have not offended anyone, but this works for us.
Have a great day Lori :D
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Don't be sorry. I'm willing to be educated. You weren't arguing with me anyway. merely offering a different point of view.
I've never had that many animals to go through that amount of feed. I'd be curious to hear more details of how you do it.
Thanks,
Chris
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Fivehollers, I wouldn't mind having your recipe if possible....any money that I can save these days is worth it....it could really help out in the ol' gas tank!! Thanks !!!
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Me too, I need to save where I can always! If you don't mind send me the mixture you use for summer and winter, sounds like you guys have figured it out with those weights. Thanks in advance
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Thank you Lori for the quick reply and good advice. We are going to give it a try. Sounds like you have a few more fans lookin for you recipe.
Many thanks, :wink:
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Well I never thought it would be this popular so here it is;
We decided (mainly because we were spending a ton of money on Purina Flight Conditioner and Maintenance) to look into what the birds need for optimal health, and we noticed that the birds we were going to use as food, are larger, and healthier than the birds that we had strictly on the Purina foods (those birds we use only for breeding, they are the largest and healthiest and best egg layers). The birds we butcher we feed grains to, not the Purina feed, so if it is good for them why feed it to everybody. The most important issue to the birds is protein, they need the other nutrients as well but protein is what gives you good birds. I got on line and looked up the protein content of wheat, milo, cracked corn and soy meal and found that that mixture will equal out what the crumbles contain plus, essential oils for good feathers etc. I will tell you if it is warm where you are limit the amount of corn given because corn basically gives the birds heat, that is why deer, quail, squirrles, rabbits etc. eat corn in the winter because it is a source of heat. Anyway...I will shut up.
We get these grains from the elevator directly and they are market driven as to price. But in the amount we buy it is far cheaper (by 150.00 a month to do it this way)
50 pounds of Milo (some places clean it some don't, the birds don't care but my husband does)
50 pounds of Wheat
50 pounds of cracked corn
50 pounds of soy meal (only plant source of a complete protein)
During the hot months he mixes bag for bag with the wheat, milo, and soy meal, then adds about 1/3 bag of corn. The birds will let you know what they are needing at the time. Right now the birds are eating corn, milo and the soy meal but leaving the wheat. A week ago they were eating the wheat, milo, soy meal but leaving all the corn. (okay they are finicky esp. when you give them a choice) He mixes it all together and puts it in great big "tupperware" type containers with tight fitting lids, to keep mice and other critters out of it. You can always add more of anything and the beauty of doing it this way is that you can customize their diet according to need. We will still use the Purina Layena for game birds because they lay better with that and we will still use the Starter Grower for the chicks but otherwise this is the recipe. When I dressed out the birds last time they were anywhere from 6 oz to 11 oz. per bird, nice white breast meat and really meaty legs (that was at 16 to 18 weeks of age). I will tell you we were purchasing "scratch feed" which has all the above except for soy meal, but the birds were wasting so much corn, (I put the leftovers in my bird feeders as long as it is clean, without any poop) and the ratio of wheat to milo was deficient and with the addition of soy meal the protein ratio is correct with flight conditioner and maintenance.
We butchered another 24 quail Sunday they were about 12 to 13 weeks old, we needed the space for some pheasants we are getting, they were not quite as large as the 16 to 18 week old birds but dressed out the smallest one was 4 oz. the largest being 8oz. so they are putting on great weight and the feathers are really shiny and healthy.
Some might disagree and I am not a nutrition expert, I am just looking for ways to keep the hobby going and still be able to afford our own food. Play around with the recipie because different areas need different mixtures and seasons vary but as long as they are getting the protein and fats they will be healthy.
Lori :D
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Lori,
Just out of curiousity... how many birds do you have!? ... :)
I only have 12 cortunix (after I butchered the excess testosterone a couple weeks ago), and a few bobs that I've been able to hatch, I should have *alot* more this weekend with some coming ready to hatch, but it looks like you are way beyond anything I would ever try to do.
Ned
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well after this next weekend we will be down to about 200 give or take. we have many different ages so we can butcher all winter long if needed. we will keep about 100 for breeding stock next year we eventually want to have about 500 hanging around all the time along with pheasants it takes time to get good birds and this year we have to get some eggs from somewhere else so we are not inbreeding. :D
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Very nice, and thank you for sharing. That's definitely more breeders that I've ever worked with, regardless of species.
You feed the pheasants the same thing? I'll save the recipe in case I ever find myself working with a lot more birds.
CA
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I've been thinking about this. I priced soy meal and alfalfa meal at the feed store. Surprisingly inexpensive, for the soy meal.
Do you mix any salts or minerals into the feed? What sort of grit, if any, do you provide to the birds? Are they on the ground or on wire?
I'm just looking to make sure I'm not missing something that you might be doing / giving to your birds and not necessarily even realizing it.
Thanks again for being willing to share your experiences.
CA
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We keep the birds in cages that are about 3 to4 feet off the ground and are 6 foot by 20 feet long we have 2 rows of electric fencing because of the critters around here who like to eat quail as much as we do. We have the breeding/hospital area which is a converted chicken coop with the breeding cages which we use right now as a hospital for when the birds do not play well together. All together we have 6 of the large pens and 4 smaller versions.
Every week I give all the birds the opportunity to bathe in a sand/dirt mixture that I put in a kitty litter pan, does them a lot of good and they usually wait at the door of the pens when it is their turn, I have had them land on my hands while I am putting the pan in the cages just so they can get a turn. They eat the sand and that seems to do the trick for them. The last time I gave them a bath we put some powdered mite/parasite stuff in the sand the vet said it would not harm them if they ate it and if they did have any parasites on their skin this would eliminate it. (we have never had any problem with their feathers except for being overly dry from lack of oil in the diet but after reading some of the postings on this site about feathers falling out and all of that I thought prevention might be in order.
I was spraying them down with water in a household squirt bottle, they like their little shower but now it is getting colder so I am not doing that anymore.
That is about it, we are taking out the garden so I will give them as much green food as they can tolerate, they love crabgrass and chickweed along with carrots, broccoli, all types of leaf lettuce. I have not thought of giving them crickets but I might try it just to see what they do with the little critters, we gave them nightcrawlers once and thought they were going to kill each other over them, did not do that one again. :shock:
The feed we get from the elevator lasts us about a month and a half to two months, as I said before this weekend we are butchering another 20 25 birds so the food should last longer than that. They are eating everything, ALL GONE, it is seldom that that happens but I think it is going to be a cold winter.
The birds we let go this summer have returned, they are eating around the cages and sleeping behind the breeding house, they leave for short periods during the day but I think they feel safe and of course dont' have to forage for food. We have not determined if this is a good or bad thing yet but they are beautiful, LARGE, bobwhites, healthy and in groups of 7 or 8 birds (we let about 50 go)
anyway...this is a constant learning process and what works for us might not work for everybody, it is the most interesting hobby we have ever participated in (sometimes frustrating) and I would be sad if someone were to tell me we could not do this anymore or if somone were to regulate us out of the hobby, (we are not ready to become commercial yet and I don't really think that is something we want to do) but governing bodies, and tree huggers could put a hurt on the hobby, with election time coming up it is important for all of us in this business to pay attention to what folks are doing to regulatem or potentially stop us from breeding, raising, selling, eating and hunting these wonderful birds, for that matter deer, rabbits, coyotes, etc...all could fall under the hatchet of legislation.
Enough of that crap, be proactive and take care of your own.
Lori :D
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Thanks once again.
I've read elsewhere information from bluebird enthusiasts who raise mealworms by the thousands to feed to wild bluebirds. It strikes me as a potentially interesting addition to a quail's diet.
The mealworms can be raised easily on the same things that your quail are eating. A quart of your feed mix should sustain a healthy population of mealworms for a long, long time. The mealworms pretty much need a carbohydrate source of some sort, and produce most of the vitamins their own bodies need. It could help keep the diet balanced to include them.
Thanks,
CA
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I have read about mealworms, I think somewhere on this site, and the hubby has tried them with great success and we use them for ice fishing also, I did not know we could keep them in a bucket of feed tho, we are raising nightcrawlers for fishing in a styrofoam container, I hate to spend money on something you get from the ground. Anyway, I will inform him that we can keep them alive like that and see what he says. We did try the crickets and that was great fun but for each one the birds actually caught and ate 20 jumped away so... :lol:
Do you know the amount of protein in a mealworm?
Lori
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http://www.dbs.nus.edu.sg/research/fish/livefood/mealwm.html
The above listed site suggests that they weigh in at around 50% protein. They're quite easy to raise.
Redworms are easy to grow indoors on vegetable kitchen waste as well. I assume they have an equally high protein content. Worm farm instructions are available many places on line, as are starter packages of redworms. Basically you put moist newspaper and some vegetable trimmings in a plastic box, throw in some worms, and you get out more worms, and the finest fertilizer you can find. They reduce the vegetable matter to what looks and smells like good, black, dirt. I assume it is all worm poop though.
Anyway, there's two easy to raise "bugs" that you could feed to quail. They both can eat what is more or less waste, and provide a boatload of protein.
Be well,
Chris
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Here's a link to a site about people feeding mealworms to songbirds.
http://www.beautifulbritain.co.uk/htm/wildlife_gardening/mealworm_feeder.htm
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Thanks, might be good for fishing also. Hummmm....will visit the sites as soon as I get the opportunity. I am on the school computer right now. :shock:
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i read in a post that you mix this and that and sometimes they eat more of this than that so you mix it differently why can't you just set out 4 feeders each with it's own food and let the birds eat what they want ? can this be done?
:?:
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I supppose you could do that, we just mix it and go with that there is always a small amount of waste, but right now they are eating about 95% of everything leaving just a small amount of soy meal in the bottom of the feeders. To each his own if that works for your birds then go for it all I am looking at is the overall protein they need to be healthy how you go about getting them that protein is up to you. Let me know if your method works. :D
Lori
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Overhere in Australia we are so far behind the eight ball when it comes to quail feed, the southern states have abit more to choose from, but I'am in a northern state in which we don't have one particular type of quail or gamebird mix what so ever, so blending your own sound a great way to go, would you roughly know with the mix that you make up the % of protein you are getting also with your milo and wheat is it whole or crush?
Thanks Joip
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If I understand your question correctly the only things that are crushed are the cracked corn and the soy meal, the wheat and milo are whole and the birds love it that way, I have also been giving them Thistle seed, which is what the Finches here eat all the time but the Bob's love it. If that is not your question let me know.
Lori
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I am sorry the protein % is 19. That is the requirement across the board for Bobwhites, except for the young un's, and we will continue to feed them the starter grower. I sure hope this helps you :D
Lori
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You got both my questions, very much appreciated
Thanks Joip