Review on 🦃 Gamebird and Showbird Nutrient-Rich Crumbles, Enhanced with Essential Vitamins and Minerals - 5 lbs by Jennifer Lee

The food in this crumble is good for novice quail but unless you have a special occasion I would advise finding a larger pack. It was a good bag to start the quails, but as they get older a dozen quails will go through this bag in a week. With larger bags, the costs drop quickly. There is quite conflicting research on the nutritional needs of quail. I breed koturnix (pharaonic/japanese) quail. The most reliable information (where the university has tested various nutritional levels) that I have found shows that one should start with a protein level close to 24% before the age of 6 weeks. This starter feed contains at least 24% protein. After 6 weeks you can lower your protein level to 18% but for laying or breeding purposes increase your calcium level to 2.75%. This is a starter feed, so it only contains 1.5% calcium. For the meat harvest, you can lower the protein content to 18% and not worry about calcium. So if you find it cheap enough you can use it for meat birds. Usually you'll switch to something higher in calories to stimulate growth. When you make your own food, protein is usually the highest price. I have not experienced this when buying crumbs - the brand seems to dictate the price more than anything else. It's difficult to find 18% layer feed, so this wild bird starter is a great way to increase the protein content of your layer feed. This starter also lacks calcium for laying hens. For easier storage, a higher protein food may be fine (20), but for faster growth and production, it's best to start with something like that. The main result of low post hatch protein is smaller adult birds, which is likely to be a bigger problem if you are breeding to eat meat. I've read that chicken also matures slower, but Coturnix matures faster than all quail. So if a hen is laid at 9 weeks instead of 8 I don't care, but I start at 24% every time I buy eggs to make sure I get the best results from the strains introduced.