How to feed daily quail: diet from the first days at home and care

Raising quails is labor intensive, as the females do not incubate eggs in captivity. To raise chicks, clutches are transferred to an incubator, and hatched quails are transferred to a brooder. In addition to the microclimate, birds need to be provided with proper nutrition every day. How to make a daily allowance and how to feed weekly quails depends on the experience of the farmer and the preferences of the birds. But, in general, feeding schemes and menu composition are typical for farm birds.

What to feed quail from the first days of life

The development of chicks after hatching is divided into four periods:

• first week or 7 days;
• 14-28 days;
• 35-42 days;
• 43rd day and older.

The first day is separated separately after the quails are freed from the shell.

Nutrition after hatching

Hatched chicks are transferred from the incubator to a preheated brooder. They weigh 6-8 grams and need warmth. Therefore, the temperature in a closed cage must be at least 37 degrees.

How to feed newborn chicks:

• in the first two hours, the brood gets used to new conditions, so there is no need to rush to feed;
• finely chop and mash boiled quail or chicken eggs;
• sprinkle on the floor of the brooder or on a lined sheet of paper for easy cleaning.

The quails are fed every two hours. In the next serving, you can add wheat porridge, finely ground corn grains to eggs.

Followers of intensive rearing recommend immediately accustoming hatched quail to starter feed. Expensive specialized formulas can be replaced with chick prestarters. But on the first day, it will be easier for quails to absorb soft egg white and yolk. It is advisable to introduce combined feeds on the second or third day.

What to feed daily quails

Features of nutrition of chicks after biting:

• boiled eggs, wheat porridge or corn remain the basis of the feed;
• new ingredients - fat-free cottage cheese, soybean meal;
• components should be added in turn, after 1-2 feedings, and watch how the chicks eat them;
• if the new mixture is not eaten well, replace the ingredients with nutritionally similar ones: cottage cheese - for skimmed milk, soybeans - for dandelion leaves;
• Additional ingredients for the winter - boiled carrots and white bread crackers.

Chicks eat 5 grams of food a day. The frequency of feeding is every two hours. The diet includes the main types of food that adult quails eat - protein cereals, greens and animal products.

If quail eggs are added to the mixture, they are kneaded unpeeled. The shell serves as a mineral supplement. But the particles must be very small. With chicken eggs, this technique is not used because of the hard shell. To bring the food into a homogeneous mass, it is rubbed through a strainer or mesh from a children's nibbler.

Feeding Days 2 to 7

Difficulty in compiling food will be quailed on the second day - keeping the proportions of some ingredients:

• weight of cottage cheese per chick - 2 grams;
• on the third day they add variety to the green food - scalded nettle leaves, onion feathers;
• 4th day - add fish oil;
• 5th day - add boiled fish pieces, mix ingredients in fish broth.

Frequency of feeding - 6 times a day with equal intervals, even if the meal is in the early morning or late at night. Food should be warmed to room temperature, but not cold. The ground shells are placed in a cage in a separate bowl. Also, chicks should be given crushed chalk, shells.

The hard particles of the shell, shell shells help digest food. But you can’t use sand as such an additive and pour it instead of bedding.

In practice, poultry farmers are faced with the fact that quails do not eat natural products well, choose the pieces they like, and ignore the rest. The problem is solved with the help of compound feed. The granules are crushed, softened in zero-fat milk or broth.Thanks to the flavoring additives, the chicks willingly eat the ready-made mixture, and it is difficult to accustom them back to natural food.

Feeding two week old chicks

Starting from the fifteenth day, the proportion of protein in the diet of quail should not be lower than 25 percent. In order not to be mistaken with proportions, it is easier to combine compound feed with natural herbs, vegetables and mineral supplements. Compound feed for quails PK-5-41 is suitable for young animals aged from one to three weeks and weighing 8-80 grams. It contains 27 percent crude protein. One chick needs 4-13 grams per day. The number of feedings is reduced to four. If preference is given to natural feeding, the mixture is made independently, but a vitamin premix must be included.

Indicative list of ingredients:

Corn40 Soybean, hemp or sunflower meal31.6Crushed wheat 11Whey powder10Bone meal2.9Yeast Premix PK-5-1 for broilers Chalk S alt

Name	Percentage
1,9
1
0.9
0.2

New components:

• bone meal - a product of processing fish, beef bones, contains amino acids and calcium;
• yeast - prevent the development of beriberi, strengthen the immune system and promote weight gain.

Feed yeasting is carried out from the end of November to March, when the need for vitamins increases, but there is no fresh greens to replenish them.In summer, yeast is not included in the diet of birds, as it causes fermentation of herbs in the stomach and diarrhea. For better digestion, the chicks are given feeders with fine gravel.

Feeding 5-6 week old quail

In one month, birds eat 30 grams of feed per day. Their diet almost corresponds to that of adult quails. On the fifth week, the number of feedings is reduced to three, the quails are divided according to productivity - into broilers and laying hens. In accordance with the "specialization", they change the diet of birds. For fattening, a ready-made mix PC-6-6 is used. Compound feed PK-1-24 increases egg production.

Homemade formula requirement - less protein (15 percent), more crushed cereals. Quail intended for fattening are fed with bran, beans, and alfalfa. Laying hens are given dairy, fish products, bone meal. Within two months after hatching, the weight of chicks on a balanced diet increases 20 times.

Weakened Chicks

If the quail were born weak, in the first week they are fed according to the following scheme:

• first day - boiled quail eggs with shell;
• second day - eggs and 2 grams of fat-free cottage cheese per individual;
• third day - egg-curd mixture with soybean meal, herbs;
• fourth day - put less eggs and more cottage cheese;
• fifth day - add wheat porridge, chopped boiled fish fillet.

Insects serve as a source of protein for he althy and weak quails: bloodworms, maggots, flour and earthworms. The key ingredients for restoring the strength of quail are meal and herbs. In addition to nettles and dandelions, lettuce leaves are given to birds.They contain iron, zinc, manganese, selenium and essential vitamins that contribute to the growth and normal development of chicks.

What not to give?

Prohibited products for quail:

• sprouted raw potatoes;
• sausages;
• whole, unrefined grains;
• sauerkraut, pickles.

Green potatoes contain toxins. In feeding quails, only meat production waste is used - bone meal, sometimes the blood of quail carcasses. The sausage contains food additives and dyes that are harmful to birds. Instead of broth, you can not use water after cooking vegetables - the soup also absorbs toxic substances.

Compound feed for chickens and turkeys is suitable for quails, but not ready-made mixtures for pigs or cattle. They are high in protein and vitamins. Instead of well-fed birds in a short time, you can get sick livestock on such feed.

Drinking Rules

How to water chicks at different stages of development:

• during the first three days, give a weak solution of manganese as a drink;
• in subsequent periods, boiled or settled tap water is poured into the drinkers, adding manganese every ten days;
• don't give cold water, only at room temperature.

Quails need plenty of water. But deep drinkers cause the death of small chicks - they fall into them and choke. For drinking bowls, shallow plastic containers or stainless steel are suitable. Water is changed twice a day, and more often if necessary.

Use of vitamins and other supplements

Grains, herbs and vegetables contain the main trace elements necessary for the he alth and normal development of quail. If the birds are raised for decorative purposes, they have enough vitamins in their daily diet.

If the purpose of quail breeding is the sale of meat and eggs, high productivity cannot be achieved in a short time without special premixes. Vitamin concentrates stimulate appetite and growth in chicks, weight gain and high egg production in young quails.

Compound feed already contains vitamins, stimulants and antibiotics. To independently strengthen immunity in winter, small quails add ascorbic acid to the water - one tablet per liter.

Natural mineral and vitamin supplements - chalk, shell rock, eggshell, fruit.

Supplements available at pharmacies:

• fish oil;
• oily solution of vitamin D2, D3;
• multivitamins "Undevit".

Ready-made premixes must be carefully measured. Overdose causes behavioral changes, liver enlargement, loss of plumage and lack of egg production.

Chick care rules

How to feed and care for quails at home:

• in the first week of life, chicks are given feeders without sides, put food on paper napkins, in plastic lids;
• from the second week they put plasterboard trays with sides and a protective mesh with large cells. Quail chicks eat with their heads in the holes and do not scatter food on the floor of the cage;
• feeders are removed after 2 hours, even with half-eaten portions. Fresh food is placed at each feeding;
• to measure a portion of 10 grams, use a matchbox;
• grown up quails are given apples and pears - insert raw pieces between the bars of the cage;
• if the chicks do not notice the food, they develop a conditioned reflex - they knock on the feeder.

Proper nutrition and care increases the survival rate of young animals up to 98 percent.

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