Sources and Levels of Protein in Starting Diets for Bobwhite Quail

BOBWHITE quail (Colinus virginianus) are hard to raise in captivity, mortality frequently amounting to forty to sixty percent of the hatched young. With this high mortality, quail rearing is both inefficient and costly. This experiment was designed to study the effect of different levels and sources of protein in the diet on growth and mortality of bobwhite quail to six weeks of age. Previous experimental work is in fairly close agreement regarding the percentage of protein required. Norris (1935) stated that quail required a twenty-seven percent protein diet for the most rapid growth to eight weeks of age. Nestler and Bailey (1942) tested diets containing twenty-two to thirty-five percent protein and reported that the diet containing twenty-eight percent protein gave the best general results. Baldini, Roberts and Kirkpatrick (1950) studied sources and levels of protein in quail diets. These workers reported good growth and livability on a twenty-eight percent protein …