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At home, quails have been kept for several centuries. The small bird is prized for its fast growth, high egg production and tasty meat. Quail eggs are known for their rich composition, which includes vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. There is an opinion that quail eggs do not cause allergies and increase human immunity. To ensure high productivity, the poultry farmer needs to establish adequate feeding at all stages of the quail's development. The article describes in detail how to feed quails so that the bird grows quickly and rushes regularly, as well as what grass can be given to quails in summer.
What do quails eat in nature
The wild quail feeds on grains of cereals and grass seeds, various insects, and herbs. Fruit may also be present in the diet.
Knowing what quails eat in nature, it is easier for a poultry farmer to compose a home ration for a bird. For chicks, choose a highly nutritious food with a high protein content. An adult bird is cooked a meal that is less saturated, but rich in vitamins.
Feeding chickens
They replace bugs and worms in the diet of little ones, they quail boiled egg and cottage cheese. Quail or chicken eggs are hard-boiled and crushed without removing the shell. Food is scattered on the feeders, nimble minke whales quickly understand where the food is and find a food source themselves. To prevent a wet egg from turning into a sticky single mass, it is lightly sprinkled with fine corn grits.
Cottage cheese - food for chickens
From day 2, chicks begin to give cottage cheese. It is better if it is dried and separated from the whey as much as possible.
It is much easier to use ready-made compound feed for quail. Starter food is suitable for babies from the first day of life. The share of protein in it should be at least 26 - 28%. It is enough to pour dry feed pellets into the feeders once a day, which is very convenient if a large livestock is being raised.
In the absence of compound feed, the quail is fed with a mixture of corn and wheat groats in a ratio of 3: 1. Be sure to add cottage cheese or boiled meat at 2 - 4 g per individual. A premix is added to the grain mixture according to the instructions or a complex of vitamins is added to the drinking water.
Is it possible to give grass to small quails
Already from 3 days of life, chicks should be offered finely chopped greens. Plants choose succulent and nutritious: quinoa, woodlice, clover, alfalfa, dandelion. From the 7th day, green onions are added to the menu, which is a good antiseptic and strengthens the bird's immunity.
Alfalfa for quail
In winter, the bird is given herbal meal.You can buy it at feed stores (it is often sold in pellets) or you can make it yourself. To do this, the dried grass is crushed to a state of dust and mixed with feed.
What and how often to feed quail hens at home
From 7 weeks of age, the quail begins to rush intensively. The egg production of quails of egg breeds reaches 300 - 320 eggs per year, that is, one egg every day with a break for molting. Such productivity is possible only with complete and balanced feeding.
The most convenient option for feeding hens will be the use of high-quality compound feed. It is balanced in composition, it contains all the necessary vitamins. It is convenient to pour the compound feed 1 time a day into the feeders, in dry form it does not sour and does not deteriorate. Using bunker feeders, you can add two or three days of food pellets at once, which makes it easier to care for the bird.
What do quails eat if there is no special feed
The breeder will have to prepare the feed mixture himself. For an adult layer, a mixture is suitable, 100 g of which contains 20 - 22% protein.
Approximate feed composition for laying quail:
- crushed grain (corn, wheat, peas, soybeans, millet) - 50%;
- sunflower cake - 20 - 25%;
- cottage cheese, boiled meat or fish, fish meal - 7 - 8%;
- feed yeast - 4 - 6%;
- herbal flour - 5%;
- chalk, sea crushed shell, crushed shell - 6%;
- salt - 0.2%.
From grains, corn, peas and wheat should be preferred, as these are the most nutritious and easily digestible cereals.
It is imperative that a vitamin and mineral complex is added to the home feed to enrich it with the necessary substances. Only in this way will the quail run well.
What grass can be given to quails in summer
As an addition to the main diet, even if the bird receives a balanced compound feed, it is useful to give fresh grass and some vegetables and fruits.
Carrots - good to give to the bird
Young greens of quinoa, shiritsa, dnyti, plantain are suitable for quails.
It is useful for a bird to give carrots, pumpkins, apples.
For an adult bird, bundles of grass are tied and suspended inside the cages, and the young are crushed. Vegetables are grated.
Features of feeding quail males
Those males that are in the same cage with females eat the same food as the layers. Excess young males are separated and prepared for fattening for meat. Their food should be high in protein. You can use compound feed for broiler chickens or prepare a mixture from:
- shredded corn, peas and wheat (60%);
- cake or meal (20%);
- fish and meat and bone meal (8%);
- premix.
How much feed does a quail consume: norms
It is important to start feeding the quail correctly.
The approximate consumption of feed per day for one quail depends on its age and productivity. Youngsters up to 4 weeks old are fed from 4 to 12 g of grain feed (fresh grass is not included in this rate). From a month, the bird is divided into groups: meat feeding and growing until an egg is obtained. Fattening quails retain a high nutritional value of feed and calculate the daily dose of 16 - 20 g with a subsequent increase to 30 g. Future layers are enriched with vitamins and retained the food volume of 16 - 17 g per individual. Laying hens in the midst of egg-laying are fed 22 - 28 g of compound feed.
Vitamins
On sale there are special premixes for quails of different ages (Salvit, Compound, Purina, Felutsen). If it is not possible to buy them, you can use premixes or BMVD for broilers.
BMVD for broilers.
You can add vitamins to your drink. The scheme of drinking is as follows: for 5 days in a row, a vitamin solution is added to the water, followed by a monthly break. The following vitamins are suitable: chiktonic, tetrahydrovit, gamavit, and gammatonic.
Clean water should be readily available to birds. To prevent the quails from turning the bowls and bowls over, use autodrinkers. The water temperature for quails is comfortable at 18-20 ° С.
Once every 3 weeks, drinkers should be washed with detergents to remove sediment and algae.
As a conclusion, it is worth noting that quails are not so whimsical and capricious birds in food, as some farmers claim. The main thing is to immediately remember that it is categorically impossible to give, and what, on the contrary, should be emphasized when making up the diet. That, perhaps, is all!
