Features of the composition of compound feed for quails
When keeping any poultry, good nutrition plays a decisive role, but a doubly optimal diet is needed for medium-sized fast-growing quails. Compound feed for quails is an ideal solution that allows you not only to simplify the preparation of the menu many times over, but also to facilitate the care of pets.
Chicks will quickly gain in height and weight, and adults will carry and reproduce if they constantly and in abundance receive the required amount of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins.
All these components are necessarily included in complete feed for quails, the composition of which is specially selected and balanced in accordance with the tastes and needs of the bird.
Composition of compound feed for quails
Today, there are both universal mixtures and age-oriented ones. This is due to a change in the needs of the body of growing chicks, young meat or laying hens.
One of the most important components is proteins, which are especially necessary for a bird up to one month of age, while the chick is actively growing, and then for layers, so that egg-laying cannot adversely affect the health of the bird and is maintained at a high level for a long time:
- From the moment of hatching from an egg to 30 days of life, quails should receive feed mixtures containing about 24–27% proteins, not only of plant and animal origin.
- For the next two weeks, the birds are offered slightly reduced protein feed. It is good if the compound feed for quails contains from 17 to 24% protein.
- Adult livestock for meat is fed with a mixture of 16-17% protein.
- Layers receive about 21% of the total feed protein.
The amount of carbohydrates determines the energy that the bird receives from food. If the feed is selected incorrectly, and the proposed diet is low in calories, it is difficult to expect that young quails will please with their growth rates, and adults will begin to actively produce offspring.
Cereals are the main source of nutrients and energy in compound feed for quail. Of the common grains, corn, wheat, millet and barley are most commonly used for the production of ready-made mixtures and homemade feed. With oats, especially unpeeled, you should be careful. Rough large parts of the seed coat surfaces can clog the esophagus of small birds, causing painful conditions and even death of quails.
Minerals, amino acids and vitamins are no less important in the composition of compound feed for quail. In addition to grain, this need is intended to satisfy such valuable additives as cake and meal, yeast rich in vitamins and enzymes, green fodder, crushed shell rock, salt and chalk.
Feeding domestic quails with compound feed
Complete feed for quails is convenient because:
- they are easy to store and give to the bird;
- they have everything necessary for the full development and maintenance of health;
- it is easier to control real consumption without fear that some of the pets will be hungry.
Three-stage "start-growth-finish" feed systems designed for feeding quails from birth to slaughter are extremely convenient and effective.
Perhaps the only drawback of compound feed for quails is the price of the product.It is higher than the cost of individual components or wet feed used to keep this type of bird.
If this factor is decisive when choosing a feeding method, ready-made compound feeds can be combined with green or wet mash, thus reducing the volume of dry feed.
In farms where chickens are kept, and there is enough compound feed for this type of bird, you can save money, since feeding quails is quite acceptable broiler compound feed... But at the same time, it is necessary to take into account the difference in protein consumption and additionally introduce 2 grams of fat-free cottage cheese per quail per day into the poultry ration or use other protein supplements.
There are many options for ready-made feed for quails today. But when choosing compound feed, it is better to prefer friable mixtures or compositions with the smallest granules in the form of crumbs. This feature is due to the small size of the bird.
DIY compound feed for quails: recipes and composition selection
If for some reason the poultry farmer does not have the opportunity to use ready-made complex mixtures, you can make compound feed with your own hands. Most quail farms have everything you need for this, from grain to edible chalk and yeast.
As a sample, it is easy to follow the composition indicated on the packaging with ready-made feed, focusing on the breed and size of the bird, or mix the compound feed for quails with your own hands according to the recipe given in the table. This mixture can be considered versatile and suitable for feeding birds of different ages.