Wild quail eat seeds, grains, greens, and insects. Kept quail eat a game-bird ration matched to life stage — with greens, seeds, and safe scraps as treats capped around 10% of intake.
Two different questions hide in this search. Both get answered.
The curiosity answer: wild quail (Coturnix across Eurasia; bobwhite and their cousins here) are ground foragers running a seasonal mix: seeds and grains as the backbone, greens and shoots, and insects, with invertebrate protein mattering most to chicks and laying hens. The head-down, scratch-and-peck covey working a field edge is the whole feeding strategy of the genus.
The keeper answer: your quail eat a formulated game-bird ration matched to life stage — the full ladder (28–30% starter → 20–24% grower → layer plus calcium) lives on the Care hub. The ration exists because it is that wild mix, balanced and consistent: protein, amino acids, vitamins, minerals in the proportions a fast-metabolism game bird needs. Which sets up the one rule this page exists to deliver:
Treats stay capped around 10% of intake. The cap is keeper consensus, and the reasoning is arithmetic rather than puritanism: every beakful of scratch grains or lettuce displaces a beakful of balanced ration, and quail are small enough that "a handful of treats" can be the day's diet. Cracked corn free-fed to quail is malnutrition with a folksy aesthetic.
Inside the 10%, the good list: finely chopped leafy greens (kale, spinach, romaine), small seed scatters for foraging enrichment, garden herbs, the occasional mealworm windfall (protein-positive), and unseasoned vegetable scraps. Scatter-feed treats; the foraging is half the value.
The no list, kept conservative: avocado (the standard bird toxin), chocolate and caffeine, salty or seasoned anything, moldy anything, and raw dry beans. Uncertain scraps default to no — a covey's margin for dietary error is as small as the birds.
Two supporting rules: grit appears the day whole foods do — commercial ration needs none, but seeds and greens require gizzard-grinding hardware; and week-one chicks get no seeds or grains at all, because hatchlings can't digest them yet. Starter crumble only (brooder guide).
And feeding wild quail, if that's what brought you here: ground-level seed (millet, cracked corn) near cover is the standard backyard-birder practice. Serve it far from your covey's enclosure, because wild birds are the biosecurity risk your quarantine rule exists for.
FAQ
Can quail eat chicken scratch?
As a capped treat, harmless. As a diet, a protein catastrophe. The bag marked "scratch" is entertainment, not food.
Do they need insects like the wild diet?
No; the ration covers it. Mealworms as treats deliver the enrichment without the dietary gamble.
Bread?
The classic worst treat: filling, nutritionally void, displacing ration. Skip it.