That Quail Place Forum
Raising Gamebirds => Brooding and Raising => Feed-Discussion pertaining to various types of feeds, brands, what to feed and when. => Topic started by: chewchew on August 11, 2007, 09:50:24 PM
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i know i read it be for on here.. but i cant find it. how much food do bobs eat per day? trying to see how much i should buy to last 3-4 weeks.
thank you
sam
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how many do u have?
Ryan S.
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im looking for a per.bird per week.. i dont know how many im going to have.
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I've never had the need to calculate food consumption. A 50# bag of feed lasts quite a while feeding around 20 Bobs.
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i found that from 1 day old -too- 1 month old bobs eat about 1 pound of feed. from 1 month -too- 2 months they will eat about 1.5lbs. that sound about right?? so a 50lb bag will last you about 1 month with 50 bobs.. from day old to month old.. i think?
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I've read something like 3.5 to 4 oz. per week the first 6-8 weeks, and 1/2 pound per week from then to 16 weeks. I figure about 1.5 pounds of starter (I feed 30%) to 8 weeks, and 4.5 pounds to 20 weeks (I stay up around 28%, to cut down on number of varieties of feed). This is a little on the long side, unless they mature in cold weather, outside. If you feed less than 24% protein, you may need to feed more. In this heat, there will, of course, be some left over. Feed containing BMD 50 (bacitracin) does help with early weight gain (not size at maturity) I like this, especially in cooler weather. As far as I know only Bobwhites gain weight faster with it, and that benefit is only for the first 5 weeks.
So, one bag of starter per week, for 250 birds, and 24 bags for 250 birds from then to 20 weeks old, or so. Unless you will be adding birds every 10 weeks, or more often, I would just feed the bag of starter until it's gone. It won't hurt them any to have the higher protein. For meat birds, you would need lower protein, higher carbohydrate levels to put fat on them, after 10-12 weeks. I've never ran short, when using these figures to plan feed purchases, multiplying this by 1.5 for Chukar, but after 16 to 20 weeks, Chukar can begin to eat more than this.
This is not exact science, of course, but should keep you from running short, or having a ton of starter left over, as long as you have a good survival rate.