The effects of feeding nine nutrition plans (NP) on the performance of 576 quails, allotted to a completely randomized design with nine treatments of four replicates of 16 birds, were evaluated in this trial. The following NP were analyzed from 1 to 21 days of age: NP1 = 28% of crude protein (CP), 1.5% lysine (L) and 1.1% methionine + cystine (MC) from 1 to 21 days and 24%CP, 1.3%L and 0.9% MC from 22 to 42 days (control); NP2 = 25.2% CP, 1.23% L and 0.83% MC from 1 to 21 days and of 21.6% CP, 1.0% L and 0.74% MC from 22 to 42 days; NP3 = 22.4% CP, 0.71% MC from 1 to 21 days and 1.2% L and 19.2% CP, 0.64% MC and 0.95% L from 22 to 42 days; NP4 = NP2+L; NP5 = NP3+L; NP6 = NP2+MC; NP7 = NP3+MC; NP8 = NP2+L+MC; and NP9 = NP3+L+MC. The diet supplementation from NP4 to NP9 with L, MC or L+MC aimed to provide values of L and MC similar to NP1. Diets (2,900 kcal ME/kg ) and water were fed ad libitum in both phases. From 1 to 21 days, decreasing dietary crude protein levels from 28 to 22.4% also reduced intake, body weight, weight gain, but did not affect feed conversion. The dietary supplementation with MC increased bird performance. The recommended level of L (1.5%) in a deficient diet in CP (19.2%) and MC (0.71%) decreased quail growth from 1 to 21 days of age. However, meeting the MC requirements decreased dietary CP levels from 28 to 22.4% and from 24 to 19.2%, respectively, for quails from 1 to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age, independent of the lysine supplementation.
quail meat type; lysine; methionine+cystine; nutrition plan
