If a supply chain disruption has resulted in the feed store not having the high protein crumbles your coturnix quail covey needs, we’ve got several clever alternate food ideas that can nourish your birds in the meantime. Some of them are even free! Here is how to feed quail when commercial food is gone:
How to Feed Quail When Commercial Food is Gone
Coturnix quail have specific protein and mineral needs. Adult birds can consume a wide range of commercial food from 16% chicken layer crumbles, 22-24% grower crumbles and 30% game bird crumbles. If you can get your hands on a single bag of one of these types of crumble, go ahead and buy it. Having some commercial food to ration out to your covey will be quite helpful.
How Much Do Quail Eat Any Ways?
An adult coturnix quail will eat about 18-20 grams or 2 Tablespoons of commercial crumbled feed per day and need a minimum of 16% protein. When offering natural foods, it is a good idea to provide 3 Tablespoons per quail of seeds, grains, meal worms and greens. This is roughly 1 cup of natural foods for every 5 adult quail.
Quail are Granivores
Unlike chickens, which are omnivores, coturnix quail are granivores. This means they predominately eat grains, seeds, insects and some fruit and vegetable matter. Their high protein requirements must come from grains and insects. Because of this, they are much trickier to feed than chickens when commercial feed is gone.
When Commercial Coturnix Quail Food Is Sold Out
Whenever you first notice the shortage, begin rationing any 16% to 30% protein commercial feed you have on hand immediately for the adult quail. (Coturnix quail chicks cannot have their food rationed but they can be fed anything between 24% to 30% protein crumbles.) Use the list of foods below to begin to source temporary alternatives that will keep your flock alive and well fed!
Tip: If you happen to keep both chickens and quail, save the commercial chicken feed for the quail, using a blender to grind pelleted feed into crumbles if necessary. During a shortage, it is much easier to feed chickens with kitchen scraps, a handful of dry cat food and free ranging than it is quail, even if you must request neighbor’s kitchen scraps to do so.
Emergency Quail Foods From the Feed Store or Pet Store:
Dried Meal Worms
You’ll find these on the chicken food aisle or on Amazon and at 50% protein, they are likely to be your covey’s most reliable source of necessary protein. (Afflink) Luckily quail absolutely love them! Meal worms are expensive but the splurge might be necessary to ensure your covey’s health. The quail may send worm pieces flying as they try to break the worm in half so gently crushing them before feeding can reduce overall waste. Opt for the largest bag available.
White Millet
The wild bird seed aisle is going to be useful. Quail love eating white millet. Most bird seed mixes contain white millet, red milo (which is actually grain sorghum) and black oil sunflower seeds. The quail generally won’t eat the large sunflower seeds but they will consume some of the red milo. The white millet will be greedily eaten so try to purchase a bag or two of bird seed that is mostly millet. Finch blends containing the smaller seeds shown above is a great option. White millet is around 12% protein while milo is about 9% protein.
In a pinch, bags of millet sprays sold as parakeet treats can be purchased but you will need to remove the millet from the seed head by hand. If given a whole spray, most quail do not seem to know how to remove the millet seed. (Afflink)
Pet Parakeet Food
Bags of parakeet food are going to be primarily white millet and small grass seeds, which quail are likely to eat. They probably will not eat any of the colored shaped treats within the mix so try to find one that is all seed. I do not advise feeding parakeet food to quail long term. This is only a short-term emergency option to prevent your covey from starving. Parakeet food is generally 12% protein, which is too low for quail, so you will need to add dried meal worms or a rationed amount of commercial crumble to increase the amount of protein to at least 16%.
Suet Cakes for Wild Birds
Suet cakes are primarily fat, with hardly any protein (about 2%) but quail will eat it if it contains white millet. Offer up to 1 Tablespoon maximum to your covey as a source of dietary fat, especially if the weather is cold. A single suet cake will offer supplemental fat to your covey for over a week. You may notice celadon quail lay more vibrant colored eggs when fed suet. (I do not recommend feeding suet to quail long term but it is a good winter supplement and commercial suet cakes are shelf stable, keeping fresh for a couple of months.)
From the Grocery Store:
Wild Bird Seed
The pet food aisle of your grocery store will have a limited selection of wild bird seed and parakeet food. This is unlikely to be picked over so look for mixes that contain a lot of white millet. Wild bird seed mixes are usually 10-12% protein so you will need to add meal worms or commercial crumbles to increase the protein content.
Beet Root Greens & Turnip Greens
The produce section is going to be fairly helpful when it comes to feeding your quail. Most coturnix quail very eagerly eat beet greens, followed by turnip greens. Grocery stores will have bundles of red beets with the greens still attached. Each group of 10 quail only needs 2-3 beet leaves per day.
Alfalfa Sprouts
Cartons of grocery store alfalfa sprouts or other microgreens may be a bit expensive but they are good nutrition. Quail enjoy eating very young, tender greens, which means sprouting your own microgreen seeds or whole wheat berries in mason jars can be a great food option. (Affiliate links.) Alfalfa sprouts are around 4% protein.
Lettuce Leaves
Quail are happy to eat their greens and lettuce leaves are no exception. Opt for dark green leafy varieties which they seem to prefer over iceberg lettuce. Use a knife to cut the lettuce into strips or smaller pieces that are easier for the quail to consume if they seem hesitant to try it.
Quinoa
Quail practically squeal with excitement when offered quinoa! You’re likely to find this round grain on the rice aisle. It is cooked by boiling and can be fed to quail cooked or raw. At roughly 14% protein, quinoa is a good natural food option.
Whole Wheat Berries or Cracked Wheat
Quail will eat whole wheat berries (the entire wheat grain) and cracked wheat. If giving them whole grains it is best to offer your flock a tablespoon of chick grit or a dust bowl of play sand where they can find tiny pieces of grit to help them digest the grains. Wheat berries have around 13% protein.
Dried Currants
You’ll find this tiny, raisin-like food on the dried fruit aisle, typically sold under the name zante currants. Wild quail often consume currants and other small berries so this wholesome food mimics what they would naturally forage. The petite size of dried currants makes it easier for domesticated quail to swallow. Offer up to a tablespoon per day for every 10 adults as a short-term food. You may need to cut the dried currants in half or thirds to encourage the quail to try them.
From the Garden
Sweet Potato Vine Leaves
If you happen to have sweet potatoes growing, you can offer your quail the leaves from sweet potato vines. Keep in mind this is the actual leaves from a plant growing edible orange or purple sweet potato tubers for human consumption. (Sweet potato leaves are edible for humans, too, and have a spinach-like flavor!)
Beet Root Greens
No need to grow the entire beet root! You can sow beet seeds and pull them as soon as three or four leaves appear to feed to your quail as a type of microgreen.
Raspberries
If you are lucky enough to have a raspberry patch, you can offer soft or smashed berries to the quail. They don’t need much so scour the ground for any fallen berries and offer a tablespoon or two to the covey.
Free Foods
Kitchen Scraps
Quail are not very good about eating some of their kitchen scrap veggies but it does not hurt to try. Lettuce leaves and bottoms, zucchini bits, cucumber slices and strawberry tops will probably get the most nibbles. Kiwi, apples, pears, raspberries, watermelon, and bananas are some favorite fruits. Quail might also eat a little bit of corn meal, wet or dry, which is 9% protein.
Grass Seed Heads
If you have a grassy meadow – or even an unsprayed ditch – nearby, chances are you can find some grass seed heads. Use a pair of scissors to quickly clip off the entire seed head, either green or dried, and offer a handful of them to the quail, whose cousins eat grass and weed seeds in the wild. It may seem like they are not eating much but this adds some trace minerals and variety to their diet. I often feed seed heads to my quail as a fun treat when I weed the garden. It is a good natural food for them to grow accustomed to eating.
Common Clover Weeds
Quail actually enjoy common green three leaf clover weeds. Picking a handful is quick and it is satisfying to watch them devour the tender leaves. The best clover will come from your unsprayed garden, lawn or side yard.
Bugs & Garden Pests
Your quail covey will be thrilled to devour your garden pests! Use a pair of tweezers and a glass jar to collect grasshoppers, caterpillars, cutworms, and any small nuisance insects you find eating your veggies or landscape plants. The quail will greedily gobble them up, giving them vital dietary protein.
Hackberry & Wolfberry
Some edible wild berries can be foraged and fed to your covey. It is important to use a resource guide with pictures to correctly identify local plants and their berries before harvesting. The quail may not show much interest in the whole berry so crush it to reveal the seeds, which they are likely to sample.
Additional Tips:
Reduce Waste As Much As Possible
Quail waste a LOT of seeds and commercial food by flinging it or attempting to dust bathe in it. Provide a bowl of sand or clean fine dirt for them to dust bathe in and try to use a covered container with eating holes cut into it for food. Placing the food container on top of a tile or plywood scrap in their wire bottom cage can help catch some of the food before it falls to the ground and is wasted. Here are the no-waste feeders I use that have cut my feed bill in half!
Provide Grit for Proper Digestion
If feeding whole seeds and grains to your quail, they must have a bowl of play sand or access to a small amount of chick grit where they can consume tiny pieces of grit to help them digest the grains. (Afflink) The quail seem to prefer sand grit.
Odor Control Tips
Should poop smells begin to get out of control, Sweet PDZ Horse Stall Refresher is a natural mineral (zeolite) that eliminates the smell on contact. Simply sprinkle a cup or two over the droppings. A bag will last for months and is human, child, pet, and garden soil safe. (Afflink)
This, Too, Shall Pass
I hope this article has been helpful in guiding you on how to feed your quail when commercial food is gone. Hopefully the shortages will pass and the convenience of crumbled quail feed will return soon. If there is a natural food your quail love to eat, please share it in the comments below as every little bit of knowledge helps!
Tamyra says
Thank you for all of these helpful tips! We will have our first chicks hatching next week and I feel so much more prepared after finding your site.
Rebecca Stack says
Thank you so much all the wonderful information! I have learned so much! My question is will quail eat fodder? If so what kind and do i need to chop it into small pieces or will they eat it naturally? This is just in addition to their regular feed. Thank you
Samantha Starkey says
Thank you. Wonderful article.
Dawn says
This article was so helpful! I am just getting started with raising quail and I want to feed them a variety of food to supplement their feed. Do you ever give fermented feed? thx.
Tay Silver says
Hi Dawn!
I think fermented feed would be a great idea for quail! I began feeding my chickens 24 hour fermented feed (sometimes called rehydrated feed because it is only a 24 hour soak but in Houston we do get light fermentation within that 24 hours.) Quail tend to dust bathe in their food so I think moist food would help prevent a lot of spillage and waste, so long as uneaten moist feed is removed, the dish cleaned and refreshed daily.
Edited to add: If you have young quail, offer them diced greens, clover leaves, a crushed berry and various small seeds from the very beginning. They will be less “picky” eaters if they are accustomed to being given millet and chopped green anything as chicks. (Rumor has it quail LOVE diced carrot green tops but I have not tried this myself!)
Dvorah Cohen says
How many grams, or Tbsp, or ounces of mealworms per quail per day???
Tay Silver says
Hi Dvorah!
I do not know an exact amount of meal worms a Coturnix quail hen should be fed per day. They are primarily grain eaters so the bulk of their diet should be grain. When offered meal worms, I notice quail hens tend to eat around 3 or 4 dried worms and then stop. If you are offering each Coturnix quail 2 Tablespoons of a natural seed and meal worm mix, I would suggest only having 1 or 2 meal worms in each Tablespoon and the rest should be a good quality grain of some sort. This equates to a maximum of 4 meal worms per quail being available for consumption per day. If you are feeding meal worms as a treat with commercial crumbles, 1-2 meal worms per quail per day is what I have done in the past. It is just a pinch for the whole covey.
If you are in a situation where you have almost nothing but meal worms, I would try to offer pantry foods such as cooked quinoa, wheat berries, microgreen seeds or sprouts, corn meal or any seed/millet I had along with tender weeds, clover or grasses from the yard plus the meal worms so the hen has a chance to balance her own diet by selecting what she eats. When quail eat too much protein for too long it can be hard on their organs, impact laying and it tends to shorten their lifespan, sometimes because of becoming egg bound. Too many meal worms on one day is unlikely to cause long-term damage but too many meal worms for a month is usually problematic.