Fresh, minced meat is an alternative to the fish, meat, or bone meal included in pelleted feeds. Breeder pellets normally have a protein of between 17 to 20 percent, chick or starter crumbs 28 to 30 percent, rearing pellets 20 to 24 percent, and maintenance pellets 13 to 15 percent. The feed I use in my aviaries is Sportsman Game Feeds. In North America, the national suppliers, Purina and Mannapro have similar products as do many of the regional poultry feed suppliers. The basic feeding system in my aviaries is as follows.
Wheat is high in energy, but low in protein and tends to make birds fat.
The afternoon feed is slowly replaced by breeder pellets until, by the end of March, most of the birds are on pellets only. This should continue until the end of May when wheat is reintroduced as the afternoon feed. In the case of young birds, pellets are provided exclusively, while the adult birds still have wheat in the afternoon. The former is the most satisfactory method. If the aviaries are not made of sparrow-proof netting, and even if they are, hand feeding is preferable as it virtually guarantees that each bird is seen every day under conditions where its behavior is likely to be the same.