All poultry farmers who decide to breed quails should be aware that the main thing in their breeding is proper nutrition of birds.
If you do everything right you will achieve great success.
Mainly in the violation of the health of the bird is an eating disorder.
There are many disagreements among poultry farmers about feeding quails.
On the features, diet and all the necessary vitamins necessary for quail, we will discuss in this article.
Features of quail feeding
Birds can eat various feeds. The main condition in their nutrition is the freshness of food, without any additives. Dry feed can be added as a spare feed.
Different types of wet food should be in the feeders no more than two hours from the time of the calculation, if you do not comply with this condition, then quail can be poisoned by stale food.
In addition, wet food must be mixed with any cereal, in order to be more crumbly. Feed pasty consistency is not suitable for feeding birds.
The best option for feeding such birds would be compound feed for layer birds. Poultry farmers most recommend such feed.
The second option for feeding quails will be feed for broilers, although it is a bit worse. Approximately one bird will need about one kilogram per month.
If you prefer feed the birds homemade feed, then they must contain crushed cereals (oatmeal, semolina, rice and others), ground croutons from white bread (but sometimes you can add croutons from black bread), as well as products containing proteins and useful vitamins.
Of the total diet, proteins should make up one fifth. The following products may be suitable as proteins: boiled meat, meat - bone meal, boiled fish, fish meal, boiled eggs or egg powder, dairy products, cottage cheese or dry milk. Also, fish food may be added as protein: maggots, dried ham and others.
Vitamin components in the diet quail
As a vitamin component in the diet of quails can be fed ready-made mixtures for quails and laying hens, which can be purchased at pet stores or other places of sale of animal feed.
How to feed the vitamins to birds will be indicated in the instructions.But it happens that there is no opportunity to buy vitamins and minerals for birds, then ordinary multivitamins can be purchased in pharmacies, which need to be crushed and added to regular food.
With the constant use of multivitamins, anyway from time to time Vitamin D must be added to quail food. One bird needs a daily intake of D2 (ergocalciferol) of about 3000 IU or D3 (of cholicalciferol) of about 100 IU.
Birds need not only vitamin supplements, but also minerals. For minerals, it would be best to make a separate feeder. In this trough must always be eggshell.
In addition to egg shells, you can pour ground sea shells, school chalk or special fodder there, and you can also add fine gravel in a fraction of 2-3 millimeters.
If your quails live with a parrot or another decorative bird, they can eat the grain with them. Care must be taken to not add unpeeled oats.
If the bird eats unpurified oats, then soon it may have problems with the gastrointestinal tract, and then completely die.The best supplement in the food quail is red millet.
Quails love fresh greens: wood louse, snyt, germinated oats and other finely chopped grass. Birds will be very happy grated carrots and ripe apples. But overfeeding them with grass and fruit is not worth it, otherwise you will end up with small eggs, or even the birds will stop feeding.
All food quail should be balanced, only in this situation the bird will delight you and be healthy.
What should be the power quail?
The correct mode of feeding birds is three meals or four meals a day. Best of all, when they will be given food at the same time of day. To do this, distribute the feeding evenly.
Adult quails need daily raw protein intake. It is imperative to follow this every day. If there is too much protein or too little per turnover, then it may affect the eggs laid: either there will be few of them, or they will be too small.
If a long period of time occurs disruption of protein metabolism in the body of a bird, then this may affect its health.
Conventional feed contains a small amount of protein. Therefore, with each feeding in the feed should be added products containing protein (cottage cheese, fish and others), in an amount of about two grams per quail.
If you feed the birds grain mixtures, the amount of protein should be increased to twelve grams per adult quail per day. Females that no longer rush, due to their old age, need less protein intake. Poultry need to add more protein to their feed than wild quails.
Vitamin feeds should be given to birds, the more the better..
The largest part of the diet, about forty percent, must be given at the last feed of the day, especially when it comes to grain mixtures, since it is digested most slowly and birds will not be hungry all night.
It is best to leave the quail hens a little bit hungry, so they will have higher egg production.But part of the poultry farmers believe that the feed in the feeders should be constantly.
Permanently filled feeders can lead to a sluggish state of birds, and even more so to obesity. What subsequently leads to a decrease in egg production and increase in feed consumption by birds.
At large poultry farms, quails are fed from bunker feeders. In such troughs pour food depending on the daily rate of consumption of feed by birds.
What you need to pay attention when feeding quails?
Focusing on feeding birds is necessary, first of all, on the optimal content of amino acids to feed, such as: lysine, methionine, cystine, tryptophan. These components are also called limiting, because the amount of these amino acids determines the need for the remaining amino acids.
With insufficient consumption of one of these components by the bird, it immediately affects its productivity, as well as the growth and development of quails.
Lysine ensures rapid growth of young animals, good plumage, normalizes nitrogen exchange in the body, strengthens the bones of birds, and is also needed for the synthesis of nucleoproteins.
If there is a lack of lysine, then this immediately affects the growth of birds and productivity, the muscles become smaller, calcium is less deposited, the feathers become very dry and brittle, and it has a bad effect on spermatogenesis. The content of red blood cells and hemoglobin is reduced.
Excess lysine can have a toxic effect on birds. Plant foods contain a very small amount of lysine, and animal feed on the contrary is very much.
Methionine influences the growth and development of young birds, refers to the source of sulfur for the body of the bird, with the help of methionine occur redox reactions in the body.
Methionine is one of the participants in the formation of serine, creatine, cystine, choline, which occupy leading roles in the metabolism of the body. Methionine controls fat metabolism in the liver, that is, removes excess fat from it.
Also, this amino acid is needed for the formation of feathers in quails. The lack of methionine in the diet of birds entails the following consequences: low growth of young animals, lack of appetite, anemia.If quails are grown to produce meat, then the need for this amino acid increases.
Cystine is necessary for the formation of feathers in quails; it is involved in carbohydrate metabolism, redox reactions, in the synthesis of keratin, insulin, and cystine is a neutralizing amino acid when toxic and carcinogenic substances enter the body of the bird.
This amino acid, like the others, is very important for the body of quail. Its source can be methionine. With a low content of cystine in the body of a bird, it may not be resistant to infectious diseases, liver cirrhosis may occur, and feathers grow poorly.
Tryptophan is needed for good growth and development of birds, as well as for their reproduction. Amino acid is needed to control blood pressure, normal growth of feathers, hemoglobin synthesis, opposes the development of pellagra.
Quails need less tryptophan than other amino acids, since it can be replaced by nicotinic acid (for example, yeast). Tryptophan is involved in the development of the embryo and in fertilization.
With a lack of this amino acid can develop rapid weight loss of the bird., atrophy of the endocrine glands, anemia, poor blood quality, reduced immunity.
Arginine influences the growth rate of feathers, weight gain, participates in the exchange of intranuclear cellular protein, spermatogenesis and the metabolism of carbohydrates. Arginine is an amino acid that forms creatine and creatinine in the body, which are necessary for proper metabolism in the body of a bird.
With a low content of arginine in the body, in birds, the appetite decreases, egg production decreases, and small growth is quail.
The need for leucine is in proper metabolism. An insufficient amount of this amino acid can lead to loss of appetite, stunting and growth of poultry, poor nitrogen metabolism.
In order for the nervous system of the bird to work properly, valine is needed. With its lack of reduced appetite, loss of coordination, suspension of growth of young animals.
Histidine is needed to improve the growth and development of birds, as well as to regulate metabolism. Its deficiency can cause a decrease in growth, weight loss and a decrease in appetite.
Glycine is necessary for the growth of poultry, the formation of cartilage tissue, it is also necessary for the neutralization of certain toxic substances.This amino acid is best added to the meal, corn, which then will affect the good growth of the bird.
Phenylalanine is a necessary component in blood formation and the formation of hormones. With a lack of phenylalanine, the endocrine glands do not work well and the weight of the bird decreases. It is important to know that some amino acids can be compensated at the expense of others.
In drawing up the diet for your bird, you need to take into account the ratio of amino acids, since with an excess or deficiency of some of them, the exchange of other amino acids as well as a decrease in protein synthesis can be slowed down.
With insufficient consumption of carbohydrates and fats, proteins are used in the body and for the formation of heat and fat deposition.
If a bird begins to grow fat, it means that there is not enough protein in its body. Protein feed is the most expensive, so its use is unprofitable for poultry farmers, and sometimes it is also harmful for quails.
To increase proteins, technical fat or phosphatides can be added to the feed mixture.
Carbohydrates are a major component in quail feeding. Carbohydrates play many different roles in the body of birds. They are needed to restore energy.With a lack of carbohydrates, there is a weakness, loss of appetite, a decrease in body temperature. Carbohydrates are found in cereal feeds.
Fats also play an important role in the body of quail, they serve as a source of energy. In the cold period of time, fats are necessary to maintain the body in a normal temperature.
If fats in the body of a bird are formed by carbohydrates, then its composition will be identical with regular fat, in the body of quail fat is deposited, which is not typical for the composition of this type, and is similar to the fat that birds received along with the food.
For example if quails give a lot of fish meal, then their meat may have a bad taste. Vegetable fats are composed of unsaturated fatty acids (such as linoleic, linolenic, and arachidonic), which cannot be synthesized by the bird.
These acids, like some vitamins, reduce cholesterol in the blood, reduce the risk of blood vessels to tighten. They must be to quail feed, with their lack or absence of birds inhibited growth and development.
It is known that the best indicators for growing quails to get meat are obtained by adding soy products or other feeds containing these fatty acids to their food.Quail up to fourteen days can be given up to 3% fat.
Nutrition for quails of hens should contain from three to four percent of fat, and those quails that are grown for meat are given up to five percent of fat.
But you need to ensure that there is not too much fat in the feed of the bird, because its excess can cause liver disease or even the death of quails. It should be noted that in the purchased feed do not indicate the content of carbohydrates and fats, on the package indicates the entire energy value of the feed.
Minerals are necessary to maintain the normal life of the bird. These substances play an important role in the regulation of cell nutrition, in various metabolism in the body of the bird. Minerals are necessary for the formation of the shell.
Quails are very susceptible to a lack of minerals and trace elements, because they grow very fast, they have a fast metabolism, and also birds have a high egg production rate.
What can not be fed to quails?
Birds can not be fed with tomato leaves, potatoes, celery, euphorbia and parsley.
And also it is impossible to feed them greens and berries of solanaceous crops, sorrel, greens and buckwheat grain, rye grains and lupine.
