Ready-made food for quails. Recipes and composition of compound feed for quails, prepared with your own hands, cheaply, quickly, nutritiously. Recipes for laying hens

Breeding quails at home is considered a profitable business. The popularity of keeping them is also explained by the fact that these small birds require very little space, and you can feed them with both industrial and home-made quail food.

In this article we will talk about the composition of feed for quails and offer you several recipes for feed for young animals and laying hens.

What types of feed are there?

Novice poultry farmers are most often afraid to prepare food for their pets on their own, so they buy ready-made products that contain a balance of all vitamins and minerals. Experienced farmers also use industrial feed, but many of them prepare their own feed. In this case, in order for the birds’ diet to be nutritious and healthy, the poultry farmer himself has to balance the components.

Industrial quail feed is sold in special packaging and consists mainly of ground corn and wheat grain, vegetable and grain additives.

Stores offer three types of food:

Starting necessary for newly born babies. They feed young animals up to three weeks of age.
Rostova introduced into the diet from the twenty-first day and fed to birds until about one and a half months of age.
Specially formulated food for laying hens, given to quails in the second month of their life.

If poultry is raised for the purpose of producing meat, growth feed is replaced with special finishing feed.

Industrial feed

It is quite difficult to prepare starter feed, which is why even experienced farmers prefer to buy them. The costs for them are small, since small quails eat very little. Young animals are demanding of their diet, which must be balanced and nutritious. Even the slightest deviation from the correct composition can negatively affect the growth and survival of the bird.

Feed for chicks:

Before feeding young animals, any food must be soaked in water.

Compound feed for adult birds:

PK-6– in addition to corn and wheat, it also contains barley. Fish oil, sunflower cake, and yeast are added as protein. The phosphate, chalk, and lysine included in the composition are minerals.
PC-4– compound feed consisting of corn, barley, wheat, fish oil, sunflower cake, yeast, salt, shells and limestone.
PK-2-2– contains all the same ingredients as PC-2-1, only in a different percentage.
DK-52-3– compound feed used for fattening quails. It consists of 20% of a special high-protein feed product, 35% of wheat, and the rest is corn, wheat bran, sunflower meal, premix, Bacell enzyme, salt, lysine, soda, monocalcium phosphate, shell flour, methionine, fish oil, fish flour.

Feed recipes for quails

There are no particular difficulties in preparing quail feed with your own hands. If at first poultry farmers prepare it based on the recipes of experienced farmers, then over time they come up with their own compositions. Those who have kept quail for a long time claim that it is much more profitable to keep the bird with home-produced feed than if you feed it with purchased feed.

The basis of any diet is grain crops, to which vegetables, fruits, and minerals are added. The main thing is to properly prepare all the ingredients first:

clean thoroughly, especially from rot;
rinse in water and cook for about 45 minutes, changing the water periodically;
cool and grind to obtain a porridge consistency.

Garlic and onion peels, which can clog the bird’s esophagus, are not allowed into the feed.

A simple recipe for young quails

Required components:

wheat cereal – 100 grams;
corn – 400 grams;
barley – 100 grams.

All ingredients are mixed, half a teaspoon of unrefined sunflower oil and a teaspoon of bone meal, chalk, and salt are added to them.

This amount of feed should be enough for one chick for a whole month. It can be given dry or soaked in water. It is the basis of the diet. It is recommended to periodically add to it:

Vitamins in the form of greens (parsley, dill), crushed eggshells.
Protein can be fish or minced meat, low-fat cottage cheese.

Two-week-old chicks can be fed small shells and gravel.

Recipe for laying hens

Quails that lay eggs should eat at least 30 grams of feed per day. For quail eggs to be of high quality, the feed must contain 26% protein.

Ingredients of the universal recipe:

If quails have problems with the digestive system, then rice is added to the feed. Curdled milk is very useful for birds. Adult quails can be given milk for starter culture.

Composition of feed for adult quails

Complete food for birds should consist not only of corn and wheat, but also protein (22%), sodium, phosphorus, and calcium.

To prepare one kilogram of feed, you will need the following components:

crushed wheat - 300 grams;
cake – 170 grams;
crushed corn and barley grains - 150 grams each;
wheat bran – 70 grams;
feed yeast and small shells - 30 grams each;
meat and bone meal, fish meal, peas and unrefined sunflower oil – 20 grams each;
chalk – 13 grams;
premix – 10 grams;
salt – 2 grams.

The ingredients are thoroughly mixed and given to the quails in the form of both wet and dry mash. To prepare wet mash, water or curdled milk is added immediately before feeding. A kilogram of such food will be enough for one bird for forty days.

At this time of year there is a lot of fresh greens, which are a source of microelements and vitamins. Therefore, it is very easy to prepare nutritious quail food with your own hands. Thoroughly crushed green mass should be added to it, which the bird should swallow without problems.

In addition, the summer diet should include vegetables in the form of cabbage, beets, and spinach. Chicks and adults benefit from adding earthworms.

Winter feed

In winter, foods contain few vitamins and no greens, so you will need to add fortified ingredients to your homemade quail feed. Its composition may be as follows:

wheat, barley, oatmeal – 12 grams each;
fish, minced meat or cottage cheese – 12 grams;
microelements (chalk, shell or others) – 3 grams;
vitamins in the form of cabbage, greens, carrots, lettuce leaves - in any quantity;
sunflower meal.

To increase vitamins in the diet, add dried herbs(nettle, alfalfa, clover), millet, sprouted oats, green onions.

To understand whether you are feeding your pets correctly and whether their diet is sufficiently complete, you can do a control weighing. In a quail, the amount of subcutaneous fat in the chest area should be normal.

The feeding schedule is very important for birds. They should be fed three to four times a day.. Feed is given at regular intervals at the same time every day. The grain takes a long time to digest, so it should be given at night. In this case, the birds will not be hungry until the morning.

All the recipes are quite simple, so even a novice poultry farmer can prepare food for quails with his own hands. To ensure that birds receive the required balance of nutrients, experienced farmers recommend periodically mixing home-prepared feed with industrial feed.

Attention, TODAY only!

For many, owning a personal garden has become a symbol of owning vegetables and fruits, which allow you to diversify your table with fresh and environmentally friendly products. Some geese and ducks, in order to also provide themselves with meat.

But today quails are increasingly appearing on the scene. They are quite unpretentious, take up little space, and produce high-quality meat and eggs. But it can be a problem with food, since feed intended specifically for these types of birds is not sold everywhere. Therefore, today we will talk about how you can make your own food for quails, and also discuss industrially produced options.

What do they even feed them?

As a rule, such problems do not arise for beginners: 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 your nearest pet store probably has special food for quails. As a rule, it is produced by the usual mixing of cereals, whole grains and bran. But there are several standard recipes used in large farms that engage in industrial breeding of these birds.

Industrial types of feed

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

Option PC-2-1. It also mainly contains corn and wheat. Soybean meal is also used as a protein base. To cover the need for macroelements, table salt and chalk are added to this feed. Since this is the simplest and most inexpensive food for quails, it is used to feed the main stock. If during the egg-laying period a shortage of some elements occurs in the birds’ bodies, it is compensated for by special premixes.

Other options

An analogue of the above recipe is the PK-2-2 variety. It differs slightly in the content of mineral supplements and protein, and therefore is intended exclusively for feeding quails that are more than one month old.

As usual, the basic composition of another food - PK-1 - also includes the same corn and wheat. Unlike the previous option, barley and some wheat bran are also added to it. In addition, the protein component in this case makes up 40% of the feed: approximately 2/3 of this percentage is fish meal, and the remaining third is filled with bone meal.

Attention! Due to the high content of the protein component, you need to pay special attention to the storage conditions of this feed, since if the temperature and humidity are inappropriate, it can deteriorate and become toxic 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 and is balanced in vitamins and microelements.

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

These feeds are quite suitable even for four- to five-day-old chicks, but when feeding them, 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 condition and breed, birds should have water at any time.

Feed specifically for adult birds

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

Attention! You should buy feed 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 hobby,” 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 about above). Knowing the composition, you can easily distinguish truly high-quality food from banal premixes that are sold at absolutely exorbitant prices.

On average throughout 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 you 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 your own hands. Fortunately, there are no secrets in this matter: add more grain, which the quail never refuse! Many owners also use banal peelings of vegetables and fruits to prepare food. Once washed and boiled, they are perfect for these purposes.

To make quail food with your own hands from food waste, you need to carefully remove all rotten and moldy parts from it, and then let it cook for at least 40-50 minutes. They do this so that the bacteria contained in the waste cannot harm the health of your bird.

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

In addition, the husk often simply clogs the esophagus, which also leads to death. Thus, when making food for quails with your own hands, very carefully select all foreign impurities from the products intended for preparing the mixture.

Benefits of feeding from food waste

Why is this food so useful? Firstly, leftover vegetables and fruits are an environmentally friendly product. Secondly, they contain a huge amount of vitamins and microelements, which are extremely important for the health of birds.

In addition, all trace elements have a positive effect on the quality of meat and eggs. If you use commercially produced feed, then such homemade gruel can be added to it in small portions. Note that you can also add finely crushed shells from quail or chicken eggs. This is especially true when you are making feed for laying quails.

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

Homemade feed

Let's look at the simplest composition of quail feed. 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 crushing. Add a quarter teaspoon and a full teaspoon of oil to the mixture. Then salt everything by pouring half a teaspoon of table salt into it.

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

Second recipe

Here is the second recipe for quail food. Take 700 grams of corn grain, and then mix it with 400 grams of wheat and 100 grams of any legume grain. Using a crusher, grind the feed. Then add a teaspoon to the resulting mixture, add a teaspoon of crushed and also a teaspoon of chalk and table salt.

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 love water very much, so they will especially like the last option.

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

Notes on storage conditions

Attention! All foods containing sunflower oil or cake in their recipes require special storage conditions. The fact is that in conditions of elevated temperature and direct sunlight, the best quickly begin to oxidize, which leads to an immediate loss of all nutritional value. Moreover, the compound feed acquires an unpleasant smell and taste, and large doses can easily lead to the death of a bird that eats this feed.

In conclusion

In a word, these birds are very undemanding when it comes to feeding conditions, so you can prepare their food from almost everything that you have on hand. Most importantly, do not forget to include minerals in homemade feed or cereals. This is especially true for maternal stock during the period of intensive egg laying. At this time, the female body 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: starting from the mass death of quails, ending with mass cases of them eating their eggs.

This is how you make quail food with your own hands. There is absolutely nothing complicated about this, but it is necessary to strictly observe all the proportions given in the article.

Domestic quails spend absolutely all their time in cages. They do not have the ability to independently obtain food and water. Therefore, the quality of eggs and meat depends entirely on the feeding provided.

A complete quail diet should include the following components:

proteins;
carbohydrates;
vitamins;
minerals;
water.

Protein products should make up approximately one third of the total feed. Due to a lack of proteins, the number and size of eggs laid decrease, and there is a risk of pecking (eating one’s own egg). Excess protein causes eggs with two yolks, unable to develop further.

On a note! Proteins are mainly necessary for good egg production. Old females, as well as decorative quails, need enough vegetable protein from grain feed.

Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for birds and should make up about 60% of the total feed. Thanks to vitamins, the bird grows healthy, as the risk of many diseases is reduced. Minerals are needed for good egg shells and digestive system function.

Quails are fed 2 to 3 times a day with equal breaks, strictly according to the regimen. The largest part of the daily portion (about 40%) is given in the evening. As a rule, it is grain-based, since grains take longer to digest - the bird does not feel hungry all night.

On average, a healthy laying hen should eat from 22 to 27 g of feed per day.

On a note! Under no circumstances should laying females starve, but they should not be overfed either. Otherwise, the bird becomes lethargic and lays eggs less often.

Industrial feed

The most convenient and economical feeding option is definitely purchased ready-made food. Preference should be given to special complete feed for quails. Its advantage over analogues is the highest percentage of protein - from 21 to 23%. Feed for laying hens can serve as a good replacement, but in this case protein supplements are required.

An alternative such as parrot food is acceptable, but it must be supplemented with proteins (12 g/day), vitamins and minerals.

Own food

Homemade feed mixture may include the following components:

Component	Description
Carbohydrates	In the form of cereals, barley and wheat; millet; crushed corn; oats; in general, canary seed, sorghum, rapeseed; boiled buckwheat; boiled potatoes (and peeling)
Animal proteins	Minced meat or fish (including from waste); cottage cheese; milk; various worms, pupae and larvae; premixes; powdered or fermented milk (fresh quickly sours); fresh blood from a slaughtered bird, boiled and crushed (infrequently, as it is poorly absorbed); protein flour; boiled mashed eggs
Plant proteins	In finely crushed form: boiled peas, vetch, lentils, lupine, beans, soybeans. Cake, meal, flax and hemp seeds
Vitamins	Any non-poisonous vegetable leaves; spinach, nettle, clover, etc.; tops; carrot; cabbage. Everything in crushed or grated form
Other additives (if there is a sufficient amount of protein feed and greens are not needed)	Vitamin or protein premixes, yeast, etc.

Minerals

The digestive process of many bird species is closely related to minerals. Once in the stomach, small stones grind food and ensure the absorption of nutrients. Quails are given gravel or quartz sand separately from the food. The gravel must be washed.

Chalk should be used exclusively as feed chalk. You can feed quails with it constantly or from time to time. Calcium should also be included in the diet.

Table salt is a source of sodium and chlorine, so it should be present in the feed, but in very small quantities (no more than 0.3%). In large quantities it is poisonous to quails.

The main mineral food is sea or river shell. You can buy it in a store or assemble it yourself. In the second case, the shell should be treated with boiling water.

Water and drinking bowls

The bird must have constant access to clean water. Vacuum drinkers are considered to be the most protected from contamination. In reality, they also get dirty quickly, but they are the most difficult to wash. A more convenient option is ordinary cups and mugs, as well as used cans - they are very easy to wash, moreover, you can boil them. Such drinking bowls are installed on the outside of the cages away from feeders and sand baths.

For a large number of quails, it makes sense to buy nipple drinkers. This type of drinker is really very difficult to get dirty, and they have to be washed much less often.

Regardless of their design, drinkers should be washed every time after changing the water.

Feeders

Ordinary trough-shaped containers, which are installed on the outside of the cages, are used as feeders. During feeding, quails heavily pollute not only the cage, but also the drinking bowls that are nearby. The problem is solved as follows:

Preference is given to deep feeders.
The edges of the feeder are bent inward.
Do not fill the feeder more than 2/3 full.
Open drinking bowls are located at a great distance from the feeders.

Measuring cups simplify and speed up the feeding process. You can make several of these from available materials.

It is advisable to feed a large number of birds using a hopper - an automatic feeder, which needs to be replenished no more than once a day.

It is necessary to monitor the cleanliness of the feeder. Litter or any other litter must be removed immediately - this way you will prevent many diseases.

Note: When feeding birds with worms, a tray must be installed. Quails often fail to swallow their prey, which scatters everywhere after escaping.

Features of feeding in winter

In winter, due to the lack of greenery, the quail’s need for vitamins increases significantly. The most accessible sources are carrots and cabbage. Therefore, you should stock up on these products. If possible, it would be good to leave at least some greens in the diet. You can, for example, germinate millet grains yourself and feed them to the birds when green sprouts appear.

Video - Food for quails

A few important nuances

Change the composition of the feed gradually. Quails do not tolerate sudden changes in diet.
Do not use potato broth in food preparation - this will lead to serious digestive disorders.
Meat, fish or bone meal can be easily tested for suitability. Pour boiling water over the powder and leave for half an hour. If there is a strong smell of rot, throw away everything that remains.
Avoid collecting greens near roads or other polluted areas. Make sure that there is no bird droppings on the grass or leaves - this is a carrier of the disease.
Be sure to grind raw fish waste with bones, otherwise a hungry bird may be injured.
Quails love hemp and flaxseeds, but they should be given rarely. The first increases the risk of obesity, impairs vision and contains narcotic substances, and the second sometimes accumulates hydrocyanic acid. Moreover, this is not practical due to the high price of both feeds.
After or during stressful situations and illnesses, quail especially need vitamins - the amount of greens in the diet should be increased.

What you need to know about feeding young animals?

Chicks need shallow drinkers - up to 5 mm deep, otherwise they may drown. An example of a cheap and convenient drinking bowl: a lid from a glass jar. It is advisable to boil water to avoid infection. This is most important for young animals, since in warm conditions raw water quickly becomes unusable.

Quail food should contain a lot of animal protein. Most often they feed boiled pureed eggs - the most complete protein product. After a week, you can add grain feed. Very finely crushed corn or wheat grits will do. The leaves of young nettle are useful for young quails - they contain a lot of vitamins and vegetable protein.

Milk is an easily digestible source of protein, but it should only be given in fermented form. Fresh milk quickly sours and sticks together the plumage. A good substitute for milk would be cottage cheese or yogurt.

Features of fattening

Regardless of when the quails were selected for fattening, the birds are transferred to a special feed only in the last 10 days before slaughter. The classic food is a mixture of broiler feed and peas (well boiled and crushed). They continue to provide greens, and without restrictions.

The transition to a new food should be smooth. Gradually, new food is added to the old food until it is completely replaced. They also begin to include feed fat in the feed, but not more than 5%. It makes sense to increase the amount of carrots in the diet - this will have a beneficial effect on the color of the meat. Fish products, garlic and onions, on the contrary, can have a bad effect on the quality of meat - they should be excluded.

Fattening quails and the approximate composition of the feed mixture

The feeding regimen does not need to be changed, although some experts advise adding 1-2 meals per day.

Conclusion

Feeding quails does not require special funds, knowledge or effort. It is quite easy to create the right diet, and all the necessary components are easily accessible. With automatic feeders and nipple drinkers, the entire feeding process comes down to monitoring the availability of food and water and updating them as needed.

Any owner, before getting poultry, always thinks about its nutrition, especially when it comes to quails. These small and decorative birds are very popular at home; their meat and eggs are incredibly valuable and nutritious for the human body. This breed is easy to keep and breed, especially since they do not require much space.

Basically, all quails are kept in cages, so the main attention must be given to the bird’s nutrition. Just imagine that this miniature bird can surpass almost all productive chickens in egg production. In a year, she can lay more than 300 eggs, and this is a colossal load on the bird’s body. In order for her to lay eggs well, not get sick, and for her eggs to have a hard shell, rich color and quality, laying quails need to be fed properly.

This bird eats quite a bit – it’s 35 grams per day; their diet is quite demanding. If fed improperly, quails' egg production sharply decreases and they may become ill. For example, if you overfeed an individual, it quickly begins to fatten, as a result there are no eggs. The same situation happens when birds are malnourished and their diet has a very poor supply of vitamins and amino acids. Today there are many options for industrial feed, which are designed for the age of the bird and take into account all its needs during a given period. Beginners in this business most often prefer store-bought food, because they do not yet risk preparing it with their own hands, citing the fact that they will select the wrong composition. But with large-scale quail breeding, it is more profitable to buy industrial feed, because it saves a lot of time and effort, and such a purchase will quickly be repaid. And when the number of livestock is from 150 to 300 individuals, it is still more profitable to prepare the feed yourself. But here everyone decides for themselves and chooses the most convenient method of feeding for themselves.

In this article we will look at all the intricacies of feeding quails, find out the composition of the feed, how to properly organize the daily diet and what characteristics the premix and feed have.

What to feed birds for high egg production?

According to experts, it is best for quails to choose commercial food that is made exclusively for their needs. But many poultry farmers buy regular chicken feed to save money. But such feed and premix are very poor in protein, which quails greatly need, and therefore in this case you will still have to prepare the feed yourself. Let's highlight some features of feeding this breed.

Birds can eat different foods without losing their productivity; the main thing is the freshness and quality of the food offered.
Do not feed exclusively dry food.
Wet food must be of a certain consistency and crumbly, for example, if you prepare a dough-like mixture, it will have a bad effect on the health of the quail.
Wet mash should be kept in feeders for no more than two hours, otherwise the food will oxidize, which can cause serious disorders in the birds' digestive system.
When making food with your own hands, you must add cereals to it, such as semolina, oatmeal, buckwheat, rice and others.
The diet mainly consists of proteins and proteins.

Main types of feed for quails

Such feed must be chosen taking into account the age of the bird; feed is divided into two types. The first is for young individuals, and the second is for mature quails. So, let's look at the composition of feed for young animals:

Feed PK-1 contains most of corn and wheat, as well as a lot of grains, barley and bran. This form contains a good content of bone meal, which is very important for intensive growth and development of the brood, as well as mineral components;
PK-2 feed still has the same base of corn and wheat, but the composition is more useful for young animals, there are a lot of protein products and a high percentage of mineral additives;
most often for young broods they choose PK-5 brand compound feed, although it is more expensive, its composition is best suited for birds, 60 percent of it consists of corn and grain crops, fat, meal, fish products and mineral additives in the form of lysine, phosphate , calcium, chalk, salt and so on.

For adult birds, compound feed of the PK-2.2, PK-4 and PK-6 brands is already used. The main part of these feeds consists of barley, corn and wheat; they differ only in the amount of fat and mineral components.

Vitamin supplements

This is the main basis for proper feeding of laying hens. Even if the feed is prepared with your own hands, it is additionally necessary to include a special premix that will fortify the bird’s body. This premix can be purchased at any pet store. How to properly feed such food, its composition, and what quantity should fill the daily diet is indicated on the packaging. But situations may arise when it is not possible to buy industrial vitamins, then regular multivitamins from the pharmacy are perfect. They must be crushed or diluted with water. Vitamin D must be given throughout life; quails really need it, because they most often live in captivity and cannot contact the sun.

Productive females need not only vitamins, but also minerals. It is best to equip additional feeders with chalk, shells, shell rock, gravel, and so on.

Quails eat green plants with pleasure; if you prepare the mash with your own hands, then the presence of various herbs in it is mandatory both in summer and in winter. If in warm weather getting greens is not a problem, then in winter this need must be taken care of in advance. You can prepare dried herbal mixture and germinate grain crops. All greens are cut very finely and large and hard stems are removed, because quail can choke. But there is no need to overuse such food; all feeding should be balanced. If you overdo it with green food, the eggs will be very small or the females will stop laying altogether.

Required diet

In general, three periods of a quail’s life can be distinguished, and in each it is necessary to place emphasis on certain products so that the young animals develop well; in the first period of life (seven days) the composition of the mixture is as follows:

for the first days they give finely chopped eggs (chicken can be used) and shells;
on the third day, low-fat cottage cheese is introduced, which I pass through a sieve;
greens are introduced by 4-5 days and chopped very finely, it is best to use a blender;

After reaching a week of age, feed and premix are introduced - this is the second period of life, which lasts up to one month. In the third period, young birds can already be fed like an adult bird, as usual, the diet is no longer changed, such a mash can be prepared with your own hands, the composition of the daily feeding is as follows:

cereals 60 grams;
35 grams of protein in the form of cottage cheese, minced fish, bone meal;
four grams of mineral components (salt, chalk, shell, shell);
Greens must be added to the prepared food; it is best to use lettuce and nettle.

For good productivity of quails, it is necessary to purchase high-quality feed and premix. You can prepare such food with your own hands; here you need to crush and mix the grains of wheat, corn, millet, barley, oats and various types of small cereals; protein is also added (at least 26 percent for females).

Particular attention should be paid to carbohydrates; to replenish their supply, you need to add lentils, peas and soybeans to the mash. The daily ration of such additives is 15 percent of the total weight. When it is not possible to add herbs, you can use dill and cabbage leaves.

In the summer, you can mix in boiled carrots, potatoes and sugar beets, and give dandelions and clover.

Quails are fed three or four times a day, it is advisable to offer food at the same time. All portions should be uniform and balanced. For female quails, it is necessary to provide the required amount of protein. If there is not enough of it, then the females do not lay eggs, and when there is an excess, the eggs turn out to be very small. A regular premix contains a small amount of protein, so it must be added to the feed yourself.

Particular attention is paid to amino acids; if the diet is poor, this immediately affects the productivity of the quail and the condition of its body as a whole. Substances such as lysine, tryptophan, methionine and cystine should be included in the diet every day. There is a vitamin premix that already includes all the necessary amino acids; if you cook with your own hands, then it is best to purchase such food and be sure that the nutrition is balanced.

Waste from a person’s table can also be suitable for quail, but it should not include concentrates, harmful additives and sugar. Most often, ordinary waste from vegetables and cereals is used. Particular attention should be paid to onion peels; they should not be allowed to get into food; they can cause blockage in the digestive tract or the bird may simply choke. At home, it is very difficult to calculate the correct ratio of all the necessary additives for quails, so it is best to buy a special vitamin premix, especially in winter.

If they follow all the rules of feeding and keeping, quails will delight their owners with high quality eggs and tasty meat. Females lay eggs intensively only in the first year of life, and then fatten them for meat.

Those who breed pets and birds understand how important it is to properly feed their feathered charges. The composition of quail food is simple and you can prepare it yourself. In this article we would like to discuss how to prepare the correct diet for these birds, what recipes exist, etc.

Complete feed for quails ensures the health of the bird.

Quail eggs in our grocery stores are noticeably more expensive than traditional chicken eggs. The meat of these birds is also superior to chicken in its nutritional and dietary properties and is in special demand. It becomes clear why quail breeding on domestic farms has become a very profitable activity in recent years.

Most often, birds of the Japanese breed are purchased for this purpose, since their productivity is noticeably higher. But in order for quail eggs and meat to be of high quality, you need a well-chosen composition of quail feed, and it’s easier to make it yourself.

To feed these birds, two types of quail food are used:

Industrial. It can be purchased in specialized stores. In this food, all the required vitamins and minerals are balanced according to the recommendations of veterinarians.
Cooked by yourself. In this case, in order to get maximum benefit from the feed, the farmer has to balance the useful components himself.

In addition to the food itself, other factors are, of course, important. First of all, you need to ensure:

proper bird care. For example, the cages must have drinking bowls that do not run out of fresh water, the room is maintained at a comfortable temperature, etc.;
following a daily routine. Birds must be fed strictly on a schedule, at the same time - usually four times a day;
thoughtful feeding diet. Feathered wards should always eat enough and not feel hungry until the next feeding. Adults will need one diet, chicks another.

Advice. Experienced “poultry keepers” do not recommend filling bird feeders to the brim, since the birds will constantly scatter it, littering their cages. It is best to have feeders (by making them yourself), the edges of which are bent inward - this way you will have to clean much less often.

Feeders should not be filled completely. This way the bird will not scatter food.

The lion's share of concerns when breeding quails falls on nutritious food. If you want to get healthy and strong birds, you will have to make sure that:

the chicks were gaining weight well;
there were no violations in the feeding regime;
the food was high-calorie and high-quality, high in protein.

Feeding the young

Protein is generally very important in bird nutrition. If its concentration is high, even such food must be stored following certain instructions, otherwise the product may deteriorate. For example, it is useful for chicks and young animals to eat earthworms, which contain a huge amount of pure protein.

To feed young animals, foods high in protein are needed.

Let's talk about the chicks' diet in more detail:

When chicks just hatch from eggs, it is better to feed them boiled chicken eggs - yolks, finely grating them through a mesh and adding crushed shells - calcium is very important for the formation of their skeletons. This feeding regimen lasts throughout the first week.
After a day or two, you can add wheat or oatmeal to the eggs in the proportion: one serving for three eggs. Later, millet porridge and yogurt are introduced.
On the third or fourth day, cottage cheese is added to the chicks’ food, approximately two grams for each individual. A little later, you can add fresh herbs and carrots to the food, but, again, finely grated through a mesh.
After another couple of days, the amount of egg yolk begins to be reduced, adding more cottage cheese.
In the second week of life, the chicks are gradually transferred to food for adult birds. You will have to feed them five times a day as they grow and therefore eat more than adults. The fifth feeding is made the most abundant, adding grains that will take longer to digest.

The rules for caring for chicks related to their feeding include:

from time to time give them a solution of potassium permanganate;
warm food to room temperature;
Do not leave food in the feeders for more than two hours.

The feeding regimen for babies is as follows:

the first week they are given food five times a day;
in the second week, feeding is reduced to four times;
in the third week the number of feedings is increased to three.

Self-production of feed

Experienced farmers claim that preparing compound feed for quails with your own hands turns out to be more profitable and more practical than purchasing store-bought analogues. There are no particular difficulties here, and gradually, with experience, many farmers even develop their own recipes.

Important. Whatever recipe you choose, make sure that the main portion is wheat, oats and millet. Fruits and vegetables (or their peelings) are already added to the grain crops.

The components collected for quail feed should be prepared. For this:

it is cleaned, removing all rot;
wash in water, change the water and cook for about 45 minutes;
The boiled food is allowed to cool, then crushed to the consistency of porridge.

When preparing food, make sure that no fragments of onion or garlic peels get into it - such peelings may well get stuck in the bird’s throat or clog the esophagus.

By the way, even when purchasing industrial compound feed, you can easily “improve” it by adding vegetables and fruits for quails at home using the above method. They not only contain vitamins and microelements that are beneficial for birds, but thanks to fresh products, quail meat acquires a better taste.

If you prepare food for quails yourself, you can choose the optimal composition of ingredients.

Recipe for chicks

Here is a simple recipe for mixed feed, which is enough for one chick for 30 - 35 days. When the chick is already a month old, it should be gradually transferred to adult food.

To prepare the feed you need:

kilo of wheat cereal;
100 g barley cereal;
400 g corn grits.

The prepared food can be fed to the chicks in dry form, although water can be added to its composition. The further stages of cooking will be as follows:

Having prepared all the ingredients, pour them into a common container;
add ½ teaspoon of sunflower oil, but only unrefined;
add salt, chalk and bone meal a teaspoon at a time.

Special attention must be paid to feeding young animals.

It is better, of course, not to limit yourself to this simple recipe for quail food, but to use it as a base, from time to time adding other components or modifying the composition. For example, it will be useful to include products containing:

Protein . Most often, cottage cheese, minced meat or fish are used for this.
Vitamins. The same crushed eggshells and herbs - dill and parsley - are suitable for this purpose.

Two weeks after birth, it is permissible to add fine gravel and shells to the chicks’ food.

Recipe for adults

Here is a recipe for food containing the required amount of nutrients, so it can be considered a complete food for birds. The feed ration for laying hens should contain:

22% dry protein;
2% calcium;
1.6% phosphorus;
0.6% sodium.

To prepare one kilogram you will need:

150 g dry corn kernels;
300 g wheat;
70 g wheat bran;
150 g barley;
170 g cake;
23 g peas;
20 g each of fish and meat and bone meal;
30 g small shell;
2 g salt;
10 g premix;
13 g chalk;
30 g feed yeast;
20 g unrefined sunflower oil.

All grains are first finely crushed, then the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. The product can be given dry or in the form of a wet crumbly mash, for example, based on yogurt. The indicated amount is enough to feed one adult quail for 40 days.

You can add water or yogurt to the feed mixture.

For laying hens, it is worth adding foods containing vitamin E. These include sauerkraut, finely grated carrots and apples.

Winter diet

The main difference between winter and summer products is that they contain fewer vitamins. If you prepare feed for quails yourself, you will have to specially add foods rich in vitamins to the food. The approximate composition of a portion for one winter day for one adult quail should be as follows:

12 g of grains and flour from oatmeal, barley and wheat;
12 g of high protein foods: cottage cheese, minced meat and fish;
foods rich in vitamins, such as lettuce leaves, carrots, greens and cabbage, are given in any quantity;
3 g of crushed shells, chalk or other substances containing trace elements;
sunflower meal.

To increase the amount of vitamins, the following are suitable:

green onions;
sprouted oats;
millet;
dried herbs, preferably clover, alfalfa or nettle.

Greens are introduced into the diet of quails from the first days.

Summer diet

During this period, there is enough greenery to feed quails. Greens not only contain the necessary vitamins and microelements, but thanks to them, the quails’ digestive process improves.

You should definitely add clover flowers and fresh leaves to the green mass:

beets;
cabbage;
spinach

The green mass is thoroughly crushed so that the quail can swallow it. It is useful to add earthworms to the diet, as we mentioned earlier - they are useful not only for chicks, but also for adults.

Important! Whatever food you give to your charges, from time to time you need to check whether it is enough for proper nutrition. To do this, a control weighing of a bird selected at random is carried out. If the food is chosen correctly, the amount of subcutaneous fat in the chest area of the quail will correspond to the norm.

Recipe for laying hens

The content of feed for laying quails should be such that each individual in the flock eats at least 30 grams of food per day. Of course, all requirements for nutritional value and quality of feed remain in force. It is easy to prepare it yourself for this group of birds. Nutrient feed for laying quails must contain up to 26% protein, since it affects the quality of laid quail eggs.

The universal food recipe is simple:

take regular cereal or mixed feed;
the composition is supplemented with crushed egg shells;
the amount of protein required can be increased by adding peas, lentils or soybeans, or the blood of slaughtered poultry.

The diet of laying hens should contain 26% protein.

Additional components

Since feeding quails needs to be varied, experts recommend adding additional components to the feed. These can be:

barley grains, ground into flour;
peas, lentils, soybeans;
weed seeds;
rice – useful if birds have problems with their digestive system;
maggots and meat-bone flies;
deboned fish, fish offal, fish roe.

We mentioned earlier about yogurt, which is beneficial for chicks. Adults are also given milk for starter culture. Good mineral supplements include yeast and shells.

If your birds clearly lack vitamins, preparing a special “vitaminized food” will come to the rescue. It includes:

potato;
cabbage;
carrot.

The latter, by the way, contains a lot of carotene, which gives the quail carcass an attractive color. You can use this “trick” by making it a rule to add carrots to your birds’ food before slaughter.

The quality and composition of feed affect the health of the bird and slaughter weight.

Summary

Quail grows quickly, and chickens produce a lot of eggs only if the feed composition prepared for quail contains everything necessary. We hope that our advice will help both the novice farmer and those who are just interested in raising quail at home.

To make your business profitable, it is cheaper to prepare quail feed yourself. The main requirement is to balance proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins so that their composition matches the age of the birds. Chicks are more voracious than adults, but adults have an increased metabolism. So it turns out that all quails require high-quality and high-calorie food.