What Do Quails Eat : A Complete Guide on Quails Feed

Quails may look fragile and weak from their outward appearance, but do not let this fool you about their eating habits. They are very choosy about what they want to eat but if you can understand their eating habits, it will be easy for you.

Quails are not fussy about food. People said, they can have whatever you give them.

However, that does not include everything. Here is the complete list of what do quails eat? & what do baby quails eat? Hence, this is the complete feed list of what they eat and don’t eat…

What Quails Eat? List of Food Quails Love to Have

Quails are extremely profitable poultry. Here we will look at some of the meals, quails love to have the most.

Celery 

They are generally very fond of celery leaves. They just have the leaves and discard the stalk. Therefore only give them the top part of the plant and use the rest to make soup.

Earthworms

A wire base may help cut up the worms, with less chance of them falling through the gaps. Worms have high nutrition content that makes them the most effective complementary feeds accessible.

Eggs

Quails love eggs .hard boil them and leave them or a couple of days to dry up and then chop off the egg into granules so that the quails can have it.

Duckweed

This plant can be used for various reasons. This includes animal feed to compost additive. So you can feed duckweed to quails.

Grain Quail Feed

The regular quail feed contains food that has close to 19 percent proteins, and a smaller percentage of other minerals like the baby quail food, as proteins are the main building blocks of their bodies.

Its ingredients include maize, sorghum, de-oiled RiceBran, sunflower cake, groundnut cake, Sunflower Cake, Fish Meal, Mineral Mixture, Shell Grit.

Quails Favorite Vegetables & Seeds 

Quails like vegetable seeds at lot. Apart from the grape seeds, they can have all sorts of vegetable and fruit seeds.

Two of the seeds that it loves the most are mentioned below.

• Black Chia Seeds
• Sunflower Seeds

During the summer and autumn seasons, they do live on vegetables which makes up just 20% of their diet. Some of the vegetables they prefer to have are radishes, lettuce, peas. and broccoli

What Fruits That Quails Eat?

Irrespective of the species of quails, more than 80% of the quail food is made up of plant materials. During the summer and fall, quails live on fruits such as berries, cactus fruit like the dragon fruit, cholla, saguaro, and prickly pear. 

They can also have apples, cucumber, and grapes as well as fruits.

What do Baby Quails Eat? List of Edibles for Baby Quails

Chicken feed can be used as a decent substitute for meat for baby quails. If you wish to feed the turkey meat make sure it is non-medicated. Apart from animal matter, they also have insects like beetles, small worms, moth caterpillars and grasshoppers.

Refer to a qualified nutritionist before you make any important substitutions in their diet. 

Also, you can feed them chick starters a type of quail feed This is vital for their proper growth until the next six weeks after hatching. Apart from proteins, the broiler quail feeds do contain a certain percentage of the following calcium, phosphorus, methionine.

Best Quails Feeds: Commercial Feeds For Quails 

Here is the list of the five best quail feeds that you may look into for feeding your pets for gaining good health and better meat and eggs…

All Natural Premium Game Bird Feed Freshly Milled

• This is all-natural with no GMO used, Soy Free and Corn Free Organic Fertrell Vitamin Minerals 
• This will give the quails a right start in life as it has all the natural ingredients in just the right amount that will be essential for their growth.

Manna Pro Gamebird ShowBird Crumbles 

• Contains around 25% protein for fast growth, efficient gain, a high-quality bunch,
• Contains yeast culture for better digestion,
• Vitamins and minerals for good development and health,
• Non-Medicated, perfect for mixed flocks,
• Crumble Formula,
• Good for quail chicks.  

Wild Delights Dove and Quail Food

• It has a unique mixture of premium seeds and grains formulated for quails.
• Ingredients also include the following such as millet, milo, wheat, popcorn, oat groats, safflower seed, sunflower kernels, sunflower seeds.
• Uniquely cleaned and it is all-natural.

Sleek and Sassy Nutritional Dove and Quails Bird Food

• One of the oldest and well-renowned quail feeds in the market.
• Made up of all-natural ingredients.
• Enriched with Vitamins, Minerals and Amino Acids.
• No artificial colors or sulfites.

Kaytee Laying Hen Diet

• Has 16% Protein with balanced Amino Acids to help in egg production.
• Probiotics support digestive health.
• It contains flax seeds that help enrich the eggs with omega-3.
• It includes calcium that will make the outer shells of the eggs harder.
• Marigold Extracts that make the egg yolks rich in color.

Guide to Feed Quails 

• Quails do not generally worry much about when it is time to feed them, but it is good to know about whether or not you are feeding them correctly and giving them a balanced diet.
• Feeding quails generally depends on factors such as their age and the reason you are grooming them up for and most importantly how would you like to give their food.
• Purchase a high-quality quail feed – Unlike other fowl, quail cannot eat low quality feed by sacrificing the quality. It is very important if you are raising them to breed and lay eggs.

Tips On Quails Food Management

Feeding quails need excessive patents. However, the process is straightforward. If you are new to rearing this game birds. You can read our quails farming guide.

• Chicken feed can be used as a substitute for meat quail.
• Refer to a qualified nutritionist before making any substitutions for the feed.
• Keep the feed trough clean, dry and easily accessible – Make sure that the trough is placed in a dry place. Keep the quail food away from the water trough as well.
• If the feed gets wet, it will get moldy that will, in turn, kill the quail.
• Empty the feeders often. Only wash the trough if it gets dirty from the waste or the food is moldy as it is wet.
• Store the quail food in a clean, dry place and use it before it expires. If not stored properly, it may get moldy, which will be dangerous for them. Also, expired food will attract rats, who will not only have the food but in the process contaminate it.
• Offer them different food apart from the main course: quail feed. This may be rice,cake,sweet corn,nuts,cascara,etc.
• Keep a bowl of grit that will help quails digest the food they have.
• There are four different types of feeds available. Feed the chicks from the time they hatch until the next 6 to 8 weeks with the first type of feed-the starters that contains a lot of proteins necessary for their growth.
• Then move on to the finisher, along with starters of course if you wish to use the quails to lay eggs and eventually slaughter them for their meat.
• If you wish to use the quails for fights or games, start with the starters when they hatch and then gradually move on to the developer and layer as these contain more protein(quails source of strength) than the finisher.
• For most of the breeds, you can start with the starter mix and then proceed on to the developer mix(from 6 to 20 weeks) and then finally layer mix(after 20 weeks).
• However, in the case of the Coturnix breed, you start with the starter and then transit to the layer mix after 6 weeks and no need to feed it with the developer mix.

What Not to Feed Quails?

Some of the foods you must avoid feeding the quails are as follows:

• Avocado
• Caffeine
• Chocolates
• Grape Seeds
• Rhubarb
• Uncooked potatoes
• Citrus Fruits such as oranges

Quails do generally understand the food items that are toxic for them and avoid them on their own unless they are in dire need of food in which case, they would try to have whatever is available in front of them. This also means they are hungry most of the time of the day.

Some wild plants are poisonous to the quails. As they are not easily accessible, you may never come across them.

Avoid giving the quails anything from the garden. They will figure out what to have in your garden that may turn out to be bad for your garden in return.

Then try to supply foods that they love to have, like celery, quail feeds, grains.

Frequently Asked Questions About Quail Diet

Here are some common questions that are asked by farmers…

Q ) What do Wild Quail eat?

 Quails are generally granivorous so quail food mostly consists of grains and seeds This is not to be confused as their strict diet.they are also open to other types of items, birds generally eat such as bugs, worms, plants, etc.

Q) What do California Quail Eat?

The diet of this species of quails is mostly made up of seeds ad loaves of broad-leaved annuals. The grass is a small part of the diet with other types of plants depending on their soil type, plant availability. They are flexible in their eating habits.

When the acorn crops are good, they do love to eat them a lot. This species also love legumes. As they are flexible about their eating habits, they never go hungry.

Q) What do quails eat during the cold months?

During winter seasons, quails generally have seeds as the temperature a bit cold.

Q) What do Gambel quail eat?

Like the other quails, this species of quails do live on plants. They have the seeds of grasses, shrubs, forbs, cactus.they also have mesquite seeding.

Final Words

Quails can have all types of foods, be it insets, fruits or vegetables. However, the most important mineral that their bodies require is protein. Henceforth try to make sure they have food that is particularly high in proteins.