Food for quails: composition, norm, prescription and price. How to make quails for yourself?

Own household plots for many became a symbol of their own vegetables and fruits, which allow you to diversify your table with fresh and environmentally friendly products. Some breed chickens, geese and ducks in order to provide themselves with meat.

But today the quail is on the stage more often. They are rather unpretentious, take up little space, give high-quality meat and an egg. That's only with fodder, there can be an ill luck, as far as not everywhere are sold mixed fodders, intended specifically for these species of birds. That is why today we will talk about how we can independently manufacture food for quail, and also discuss the industry's options.

What are they fed at all?

As a rule, such problems do not arise for beginners: they buy only a few individuals who are fed the same products that are used to feed the chickens. If you live in a more or less large city, then in the nearest pet store for sure there is a special food for quails. As a rule, it is produced by the usual mixing of cereals, whole grains and bran. But there are several typical recipes used in large farms that are engaged in the industrial breeding of these birds.

Industrial types of feed

• Option PK-5. This production recipe necessarily includes corn, sunflower or soybean meal (the latter is used less often), fish meal and wheat, as well as animal fats. Include there and table salt, as well as phosphates and chalk. To cover the need for amino acids, lysine serves. The composition of PC-5 should contain 35% of the protein component, at least 5% of minerals, as well as 60% of cereals or grains. In this case, the norm of the feed for quail is about 30 grams. If you breed meat breeds, then the amount of feed should be increased by approximately 8%.

• Option PK-2-1. It also mainly includes corn and wheat. As a protein basis, fish meal and soybean meal are taken. To cover the need for macronutrients in the composition of this feed is added salt and chalk. Since this is the most simple and inexpensive feed for quail, it is used for feeding the main stock. If in the period of oviposition in the body of birds there is a shortage of some elements, then it is compensated for by special premixes.

Other options

The analogue of the above recipe is a variety of PK-2-2. It differs somewhat in the content of mineral supplements and protein, and therefore is intended exclusively for feeding quail, which is more than one month old.

As usual, the basic composition of another food - PK-1 - also includes all the same corn and wheat. In contrast to the previous version, it also adds barley and a few wheat bran. In addition, the protein component in this case is 40% of the feed: about 2/3 of these percent is fishmeal, and the remaining third is filled with bone flour.

Attention! Because of the high content of the protein component, special attention must be paid to the storage conditions of this food, because if it is not properly heated and humidity it can deteriorate and become poisonous to birds.

This composition of feed for laying quails is suitable in the period of intensive egg laying, as it contains a huge amount of protein, is balanced in vitamins and trace elements.

All these feeds are the most common both in private farms and in industrial enterprises. It is generally accepted that the norm of all these types of mixed fodder is about 27 grams per day per poultry. Young animals are fed on demand, since in terms of their mass they eat much more adult birds.

Mixed fodder these not bad fit even for four-five-day chicks, but when feeding them, the mixture should be soaked for a couple of hours in slightly warm water. By the way, we remind: regardless of age, physiological condition and breed, the water in birds should be at any time.

Feed specially for adult birds

Specially for adult birds, feeds of brands PC-6, PC-2-2, PC-4 are produced.

• Type PC-6. It contains 60% of a mixture of maize, wheat and barley (1: 1: 1). The protein part (30%) is represented by meals, lysine, fish meal and fodder yeast. 5% occupy chalk and phosphates. Of course, add to this feed for quails and the usual table salt.
• Recipe PK-4. The cereal component includes the same grains as in the above-described case. In addition, the feed contains wheat flour and some of the bran. There also add finely crumbled sea shell, chalk and table salt. It should be noted that these compositions and norms remained from Soviet times. Now there are many companies that produce their varieties of feed. Learn about them you can in the nearest branch of Zoovetsnab of your region.

Attention! Buy feed should only be those of them who have all the necessary hygienic certificates of conformity.

How much does it cost?

If you keep a couple of quails "for the soul," then you do not 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 above). Knowing the composition, you can easily distinguish really high-quality fodder from banal premixes, which are sold at absolutely sky-high prices.

On average, for the quail, the price of which will now be described by us, 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 mixed fodder for 12-15 rubles, in Novgorod you can find it for only 9 rubles.

Mixed fodder for own hands

Almost all experienced farmers advise to prepare food for quails with their own hands. The good thing is that there are no secrets in this business: lay more grain, from which the quail never refuses! Many owners also use banal cleaning from vegetables and fruits to prepare food. Being washed and cooked, they are great for this purpose.

To make a quail for yourself from food waste, you need to carefully remove all rotten and moldy parts from them, then put the stew for at least 40-50 minutes. Do this to ensure that the bacteria contained in the waste can not harm your bird's health.

Cool the mixture thoroughly crush, crushing her hands, or use for this purpose meat grinder. It should be noted that feed should only be given in the form of a small gruel. By the way, peel from garlic or onion to get into the feed should not in any case, as the throat of the quails is small, and they corny can choke and die.

In addition, the husks often simply plug the esophagus, which also leads to death. Thus, making quails for your own hands, very carefully choose from the products intended for the preparation of the mixture, all extraneous impurities.

Benefits from food from food wastes

What is so useful about this food? First, the remains of vegetables and fruits are an ecologically absolutely safe product. Secondly, they contain a huge amount of vitamins and microelements, which are extremely important for the health of birds.

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

But this mixture can not be called the compound feed. So now we will tell you about one recipe, which in many respects repeats the industrial varieties.

Homemade mixed feed

Consider the simplest composition of feed for quail. You will need to mix a kilogram of fodder wheat, barley and corn in a ratio of 1: 4 (100 and 400 grams). Use to crush a special crusher. In the mixture, add a quarter teaspoon of bone meal and a full teaspoon of sunflower unrefined oil. Then add salt by pouring half a teaspoon of table salt into it.

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

The second recipe

Here is the second recipe for quails. Take 700 grams of corn grain, and then mix them with 400 grams of wheat and 100 grams of grain of any legume. Using a crusher, grind the feed. Then add a teaspoon of unrefined sunflower oil to the resulting mixture , add there a teaspoon of pounded sea shells, as well as 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 gruel, as it should be mixed with water. By the way, the quail is very fond of water, so the latter option will have to be especially liked by them.

As in the past case, all components are designed to prepare a portion of feed, which one quail can be fed for 45 days.

Notes on storage conditions

Attention! All feeds, in the recipes of which there is sunflower oil or oil cake, need special storage conditions. The fact is that vegetable fats in conditions of high temperature and direct sunlight get better quickly become oxidized, which leads to instant loss of the whole nutritional value. Moreover, mixed fodder gets an unpleasant smell and taste, and its large doses can easily lead to the death of a bird that will eat this food.

In conclusion

In short, these birds are very undemanding to the conditions of feeding, so that they can cook food from almost everything that only you have at your fingertips. The main thing, do not forget to include in the composition of homemade mixed fodders or porridge minerals. This is especially true of the maternal population in the period of intensive oviposition. At this time, the body of females requires the intake of a large amount of calcium and phosphorus.

If they are not provided with all these substances with food, the consequences can be very different: beginning from the mass death of quails, ending with massive cases of eating their eggs.

This is how the quails feed themselves. In this there is absolutely nothing complicated, but it is necessary to observe all the proportions stated in the article as precisely as possible.