Quail safe

Howboutthemdawgs

Howboutthemdawgs

5 year old buck +
Listened to the new meateater with this professor from Texas tech who is tackling the decline issue. He has some compelling research and successes. He established the first and only fda approved animal feed to essentially deworm the quail from 2 types of worms that are apparently one of the leading issues in their survival. Attached is the link to the product. I’m thinking of trying some
www.quailsafe.com

QuailGuard | Quail Safe

QuailGuard is a specialized medicated feed designed to combat parasitic infections in wild quail. QuailGuard utilizes select grains and proprietary active ingredients to eliminate eyeworms and cecal worms, which significantly impact quail health. This product has been proven to enhance the...
www.quailsafe.com www.quailsafe.com

Also the podcast if anyone is interested
 
I'd sure like to have good quail numbers again!
 
Hmmm seems like this guy might have cashed in on "creating" a problem and then a solution for it. I have not heard of these things as being a major issue with quail on any podcast I have listened to which tends to be focused on scientific studies, field research and experts in the wildlife/habitat fields. Yes these worms/parasites occur in quail and many other game birds, but from what I have found there hasn't been a study indicating that they are a leading cause of population declines.
 
Turkey Creek said:
Hmmm seems like this guy might have cashed in on "creating" a problem and then a solution for it. I have not heard of these things as being a major issue with quail on any podcast I have listened to which tends to be focused on scientific studies, field research and experts in the wildlife/habitat fields. Yes these worms/parasites occur in quail and many other game birds, but from what I have found there hasn't been a study indicating that they are a leading cause of population declines.
Click to expand...
I have been installing habitat at my new farm specifically for quail and have been finding as much as I can about it, and this is the first I've heard of it. I haven't listened to this episode yet and I'm looking forward to it.

My understanding is that it has mostly been a habitat loss issue. Specifically, farmers have gotten better about cleaning up fence rows and the breaking up of connected diverse habitats.
 
Hoytvectrix said:
I have been installing habitat at my new farm specifically for quail and have been finding as much as I can about it, and this is the first I've heard of it. I haven't listened to this episode yet and I'm looking forward to it.

My understanding is that it has mostly been a habitat loss issue. Specifically, farmers have gotten better about cleaning up fence rows and the breaking up of connected diverse habitats.
Click to expand...
It’s worth the listen. He argues it’s definitely not all habitat. He backs it by highlighting some renowned ranches in Texas that lost their quail despite premier habitat
 
I'd be concerned about getting it eaten by quail and not something else eating it. Be kinda hard to keep track of I would think. Maybe not
 
I know with the grouse animals raiding their egg nest sites is a problem. NEver heard of quail worms.

Could be one of those problems you get with quail in captivity that you do not get with wild animals. Had bob whites for about 4 years to train my dog.
 
Listened to a podcast today by a few upland bird specialists that provided some more food for thought and put things into a better perspective. As I previously mentioned, eye worms have been documented in wild quail since the 1960s. There to date has not been a study conducted that proves that eye worms negatively impact a wild POPULATION of quail. Keep in mind that when we talk about wildlife we monitor and access total population in terms of the status of any given species. Wildlife management decisions are based on the population as a whole not on factors that negatively impact individuals within a population. Paraphrasing one of the speakers on the podcast today, we honestly do not care if an individual survives or dies when discussing wildlife management practices. This isn't veterinary science, where every animal is important. If that wasn't the case then we would prohibit hunting. Basically, meaning that if an individual quail dies from eye worms, it really doesn't matter in terms of managing the population. If 10s of thousands die then it might be worth investigating further. That has yet to be scientifically proven to be happening. Keep in mind only about 20% of the quail population lives over a year. So whether a individual quail dies from a predator, hunting, lack of food, eye worms, etccc. it is really not relevant as 80% of them will die from something within a years time. Something like the success of the Quail Guard product will be extremely hard to validate in a wild setting as you have to find 2 nearly identical populations on "identical" properties and then compare the data over several years as to population trends on those 2 parcels.

I did look at the Quail Guard website, pretty vague information on it which is to be expected. Information that implies the parasites are directly contributing to the decline in wild quail while, even though as I stated they reference the fact that 80% of wild quail do not live a year regardless of the specific cause of death. You also need to use their specially designed feeder for best results. I gathered from their website that you are only supposed to feed it twice a year, the rest of the year you should supplement with their super duper fortified quail feed. Eye roll. Seems like some other shyster wildlife entrepreneurs.
 
Last edited:
I listened to it last week, it was interesting for about 85% of the show, then it started to sound like an infomercial, I think he started to do more harm than good.
 
Tall Timbers Plantation - probably the king in bobwhite quail research supplements with milo. I have not read where they mention the worms. Maybe it is more of a tx and ok problem
 
Two days ago I mowed about 1/3 (roughly 20 acres) of my NWSGs and will finish the rest before fawning begins. I jumped 8 rabbits, one jacksnipe and two coveys of quail. I would say both coveys had around 20 birds each.
 
Native Hunter said:
Two days ago I mowed about 1/3 (roughly 20 acres) of my NWSGs and will finish the rest before fawning begins. I jumped 8 rabbits, one jacksnipe and two coveys of quail. I would say both coveys had around 20 birds each.
Click to expand...
That is amazing!
 
Native Hunter said:
Two days ago I mowed about 1/3 (roughly 20 acres) of my NWSGs and will finish the rest before fawning begins. I jumped 8 rabbits, one jacksnipe and two coveys of quail. I would say both coveys had around 20 birds each.
Click to expand...
Do you mow it all every year?
 
Howboutthemdawgs said:
It’s worth the listen. He argues it’s definitely not all habitat. He backs it by highlighting some renowned ranches in Texas that lost their quail despite premier habitat
Click to expand...
Haven’t seen you on lately @Howboutthemdawgs. You doing ok?
 
omicron1792 said:
Do you mow it all every year?
Click to expand...
I will this year and probably will continue to do so. Wild blackberry will take over if I don't. Mowing once a year doesn't hurt the briers, but it does slow them from spreading. However, with all of the wide fence rows, ditches, tree plantings and woods that I have, the quail will have plenty of cover as the NWSGs grow back. I won't do anything else in the fields until I mow shooting lanes for deer hunting in mid August. By that time the cover will be tall and thick again.

PS - The mowing I'm doing right now opens up my land for spring turkeys. The cover is so thick before mowing that they can't navigate through it.
 
Native Hunter said:
I will this year and probably will continue to do so. Wild blackberry will take over if I don't. Mowing once a year doesn't hurt the briers, but it does slow them from spreading. However, with all of the wide fence rows, ditches, tree plantings and woods that I have, the quail will have plenty of cover as the NWSGs grow back. I won't do anything else in the fields until I mow shooting lanes for deer hunting in mid August. By that time the cover will be tall and thick again.

PS - The mowing I'm doing right now opens up my land for spring turkeys. The cover is so thick before mowing that they can't navigate through it.
Click to expand...
Do you worry about being completely overtaken by grass if you consistently mow? I want to manage some open ground, but I’m scared that if I mow it too often I will lose all of my forbs and basically just have a tall pasture.
 
Howboutthemdawgs said:
Do you worry about being completely overtaken by grass if you consistently mow? I want to manage some open ground, but I’m scared that if I mow it too often I will lose all of my forbs and basically just have a tall pasture.
Click to expand...
I read about that but I haven’t experienced it. I have seen some less aggressive forbs diminish but the tough ones hang in there. Look at some of the pics in my “Take a walk with me through the prairie” thread.

PS - you can always disturb the ground (like disking) and bring back forbs.
 
Native Hunter said:
I read about that but I haven’t experienced it. I have seen some less aggressive forbs diminish but the tough ones hang in there. Look at some of the pics in my “Take a walk with me through the prairie” thread.

PS - you can always disturb the ground (like disking) and bring back forbs.
Click to expand...
I’ve run cleth through one of my small quail areas before but I can’t swear it did much. I’m going to try it again this year. Any thoughts on that?

I said this in another thread but any time I just disc and walk away I end up with a rutted up mess. And in my observation my species composition stayed the exact same
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top