Nutrient Requirements of Poultry: Ninth Revised Edition, 1994 (1994)

As was true for geese and ducks, little information is available on the nutrient requirements of the game birds that are most frequently considered part of the poultry industry—Ring-necked pheasants, Japanese quail, and Bobwhite quail. Although these species do not constitute a major share of the poultry industry, there are an increasing number of specialized farms involved in their production.

Information available on the nutrient requirements of the Ring-necked pheasant indicates that diets of relatively high nutrient concentrations are needed during the starting period (Table 6-1). Protein and amino acid needs, where documented (Appendix Table A-7), resemble those of turkeys. Also, pheasants are especially prone to leg disorders and abnormal feather growth when certain key nutrients such as niacin, riboflavin, choline, manganese, and zinc are inadequate (Sunde and Bird, 1957; Scott et al., 1959). Pheasant chicks are especially vulnerable to undefined dietary factors that impair leg development, and including extra zinc in diets has been shown to reduce the impact of these factors (Cook et al., 1984). A high level of calcium, as in a breeder ration, can cause leg problems and high mortality if fed to pheasant chicks (Woodard et al., 1979).

All nutrient requirements listed for female pheasants in egg production except for protein are tentative. Data presented by Monetti et al. (1982, 1985) indicate that dietary protein concentration should be maintained so that percentage of protein per megacalorie ME_n/kg of diet does not exceed 5.6.

Often, pheasants are fed diets designed to produce birds for use on game-release farms. Diets relatively high in protein and low in energy may be used to encourage the development of lean pheasants suitable for release.

Japanese quail are used for commercial specialty meat and egg production and also are valued research animals. Consequently, the nutrient requirements of Japanese quail have been documented to a greater extent than have those of other game bird species. Few definitive data have been published since 1984, when the previous edition of this report was published and

Shim and Vohra (1984) presented a comprehensive review. Data appearing since 1984 have supported the values listed in the 1984 edition for protein (Sinha and Verma, 1984; Steigner, 1990) and for total sulfur amino acids (TSAA; Shrivastav and Panda, 1987) for the starting and growing period. In the instance of protein, however, Steigner (1990) reported that a strain of Japanese quail selected for rapid growth required a greater dietary protein concentration than did random-bred quail. Similarly, information provided by Shim and Lee (1984, 1988) and by Shim and Chen (1989) showed that the dietary requirements for lysine and TSAA for breeding quail in the 1984 edition were appropriate in relation to the stated metabolizable energy contents of the diet. The lack of data to further define requirements or to corroborate single sets of observations (Appendix Table A-8) on requirements of Japanese quail, especially breeding quail, necessitates the continued listing of a large number of tentative requirement values in Table 6-2.

The committee has made few changes in the nutrient specifications for Bobwhite quail (Table 6-3). Its reevaluation of the data (Appendix Table A-9) used to establish the previous requirements resulted in some modifications in protein, TSAA, calcium, and phosphorus recommendations for starting-growing Bobwhite quail. As with other game birds reared commercially, Bobwhite quail grown for game-release farms should be fed diets of relatively low energy content during the growing period to prevent excessive fattening.