cortunix quail Feed Question

[mark]

I have 60 Quail in a Flight Pen. My problem is my 5 Lbs feeders I have 10 of them in the Pen and I fill them everyday in the morning and everyday when I get home from work, I cant believe they eat that much Feed none of it is spilled. Any Suggestions would be helpful.

Mark

[CharlieHorse]

50-100 lb of feed per day for 60 birds??   Wowww!!  :eek:  That is a problem!  Are they mixed with ostrich?    I don't know that I use 5lb/day for 100 birds.

What are you feeding them?

Mice, groundmoles, wild birds, etc. will up your consumption too.

[MtBullion Gamebirds]

Mark:  I would suspect you have mice.  A lot of them.  There is no way that those birds are eating that much.  Try sneaking in with a flashlight at night.  I bet you will see what it eating all that food.

[mark]

Since the posting, I was outside watching my birds and behold the birds ate one whole feeder. So I dont think its mice.

Mark

[wildergamebirds]

60 Coturnix that haven't eaten since sundown may well be able to polish off several pounds of feed in short order.  But then what?  You have 60 full Quail, and 9 full feeders.

  I have one pen with sixty some Quail (Bobwhites).  They eat something less than 5 pounds per day, fairly high protein.

  Another pen with about 25 Coturnix.  A scoop of 16% layer crumbles lasts most of the day.  Every third day, or so, I let them empty the trough, to utilize the extra fine particles, and allows me to clean the trough without wasting feed.  When I refill it they act like they've been starved a whole week, rather than a couple of hours (these are adult birds).  They don't eat more than 1/3 (maybe a pound), before backing off.

  Try feed you know is fresh ground.  If you have birds eating a pound of feed per day, slaughter them, and start over.

[CharlieHorse]

:oops:

What are you feeding them?  Bread crumbs, oats, crackers, cracked corn, gamebird crumble, what %%  ::

[mark]

22% Game Bird Finisher is what I feed my birds

Mark

[aKirA]

I have never heard of nor seen birds eat that much either.

I know the bigger varient of quails like XLD1/2's and Butler/Georgian Giant bobwhites will eat close to that ratio per size while they are chicks but have never seen that much consumption while matured. They will tend to eat more during winter to put on fat layers though.

Let's hope your birds get as big as chickens...if not, I'd butcher them. Im still curious to know if they are infact eating 50lb a day?