The Dog Chef Diaries
Stories, fresh ideas and practical tips to help you and your dog enjoy a healthier, happier life together.
Quail Eggs for Dogs
Studies by the Voyageurs Wolf Project in the Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota have revealed that grey wolves are highly omnivorous in the summer. In northern boreal ecosystems like Voyageurs National Park, wild blueberries can make up to 83% of a wolf pack’s weekly diet in July, acting as a crucial nutritional fallback when protein is in short supply. So what do you think this particular Dog Chef has been doing with the 30 plus eggs her quail have been producing every day this summer?
Can dogs eat quail eggs?
Yes, dogs can absolutely eat quail eggs. They are highly nutritious, bite-sized “superfoods” packed with protein, amino acids, vitamins A and B12, iron and fatty acids. Many dogs can eat quail eggs — even the shells — completely raw, hard-boiled, or scrambled.
Search our Quail Egg Recipes
Complete and balanced dog food
Much is made in the dog food world of “complete and balanced”, a term created by the pet food industry in the USA back in 1969. It relates to the synthetic nutrients that need to be added to commercial dog food to make up for the nutrients lost in the manufacturing process. Without those synthetic nutrients, dogs would simply not be able to survive let alone thrive on commercial dog food.
With proper food however, there are no such rules. Proper food does not require the addition of synthetic nutrients because it retains most if not all its natural nutrients when minimally processed at home.
About quail
Quail are sporadic layers. Their laying cycles are triggered by daylight. They start laying in late spring when the evenings begin to draw out and stop in the autumn as daylight hours become shorter. Kept outdoors as mine are, they naturally take a break from laying without the provision of artificial supplemental lighting.
My quail lay prolifically during the summer months and stop laying when the evenings draw in. Right now, in early July, I’m collecting between 30 and 40 eggs a day. In a few months time, they will stop laying altogether.
So what to do with so many eggs when my husband and I can only eat so many? The answer’s obvious really. Feed them to our two large dogs!
Eggs as protein
Eggs are just about the most complete protein source on the planet. They possess a perfect “biological value” of 100, meaning their amino acid profile matches your dog’s protein requirements almost perfectly, allowing for maximum absorption and utility. While raw eggs contain high-quality, highly digestible protein, cooking eggs actually increases their protein digestibility even further.
Raw or cooked, eggs are an excellent protein source for dogs and should regularly be included as part of any dog’s homemade diet.
The 10% rule
As a general guideline, all treats, toppers and supplement ingredients such as quail eggs, should constitute no more than 10% of a dog’s total daily caloric intake to prevent weight gain.
More of a guideline than a rule, the 10% rule dictates that treats, table scraps and food toppers should never exceed 10% of a dog’s daily calorie intake.
Learn more about the 10% rule here.
How to feed a dog quail eggs
Quail eggs are small and their shells thin. Every dog is different, but my large dogs manage whole quail eggs, hard boiled and in their shell, no problem at all. They often get them uncooked in their shell as well.
In the wild, given the opportunity, dogs large and small would safely manage to tackle an egg as small as a quail egg. You might be advised to approach the matter with caution, but I have no hesitation giving my dogs whole quail and even whole chicken eggs on occasion. Quite aside from the nutrients in the egg itself, eggshell is an excellent source of calcium, an essential mineral for any dog.
Batch cooking with quail eggs
I batch cook for my dogs on average twice a week. Yesterday morning I hard boiled 70 quail eggs in a large pan. I cooked the rest of their food in a couple of my large slow cookers — my dogs weigh 75kg between them by the way. When I apportioned the food into plastic storage trays in the evening, I simply added a few of my cooked quail eggs to each tray.
Don’t be afraid to experiment
If you have a glut of anything in your kitchen, don’t forget, dogs in the wild will augment their diets with whatever foodstuffs they can lay their paws on. Just as we do with our own diets, they balance their diets “over time”. That is to say, they get all the nutrients they need over a matter of a week or two, not on a daily basis. That is the way things work in nature.
Just remember the 10% rule and you can’t go far wrong!
Return to The Dog Chef Diaries for more stories, fresh ideas and practical tips to help you and your dog enjoy a healthier, happier life together.
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