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Ingredient file // Animal protein

Freeze-Dried Quail

Real quail meat, but mostly a label garnish

Freeze-dried quail is quail meat with its water pulled out under vacuum at freezing temperatures, leaving a light, protein-rich piece. It adds real meat protein to a kibble, but freeze drying does not kill bacteria, and it is no allergy fix.

What it is
Quail meat and skin, sometimes with bone, frozen and then dried under vacuum so the ice leaves as vapor.
Made from
Farmed quail, usually raw meat and skin
Main job
Named meat and label appeal
Typical amount
Not published; a 'with quail' claim needs 3% minimum
Watch for
Raw freeze-dried meat keeps its bacteria alive
Not the same as
Quail meal

Our read // In our catalog

In 1 of every 2595 foods we track

Share of foods that list it

0%

1 of the 2,595 foods with an ingredient list on file, from 1 brand. All dry dog food.

Each square is 1% of the catalog

Where it sits on the label

Median position 4. In the top five of 1 food, so it is usually a main ingredient.

Top five List position, heaviest first

Above the salt

100%

Almost always listed before the salt, so there is more of it than a pinch.

Who leans on it

100%

of the foods that list it are from Wysong. 1 brand use it in total.

The story

From Japanese songbird to bird flu rules in pet food

Quail was kept first as a companion, not a meal. Japanese quail were domesticated in Japan around the 15th century, especially as songbirds. Intensive production began in Japan between the 1900s and the 1920s, and genetic studies of quail as experimental animals began in the 1940s. Researchers value the bird for its small body, low feed intake, fast maturation and high egg output. Today Asia and Brazil farm it mostly for eggs, while Europe and the United States raise it mostly for meat.9

The turning point for raw poultry in pet food was bird flu. FDA warned that H5N1 had passed to cats through food, most often raw milk or uncooked meat. In late December 2024, Maryland issued a recall alert for Northwest Naturals raw frozen turkey cat food after a house cat in Washington County, Oregon, died of H5N1 after eating it, and tests matched the virus in the food to the cat. On January 17, 2025, FDA required makers using uncooked poultry to treat H5N1 as a hazard in their food safety plans.5,12,13

That rule reaches freeze-dried quail too. FDA notes that heat treatment inactivates H5N1 in meat, while freeze drying keeps meat below cooking temperatures. A quail piece with no cooking step is still uncooked poultry, and FDA tells owners to weigh that risk before feeding pets any uncooked meat product.2,5,13

What it is

How it is made

Freeze drying is the method behind camping meals and freeze-dried raw pet food. It removes water from frozen meat without heating it to cooking temperatures, so the meat stays raw unless the maker adds a cooking step.1,2

  1. 01 // Source Farmed quail Fresh quail meat and skin is about 70% water and 20% protein before any drying.
  2. 02 // Process Frozen solid The meat is frozen hard, usually below 0 °F, turning all of its water into ice.
  3. 03 // Process Vacuum dried Under vacuum the ice turns straight to vapor without melting, then a second drying stage pulls out the bound water.
  4. 04 // Output Freeze-dried quail Light, shelf-stable pieces at a water activity of about 0.3 or below, with any bacteria dormant rather than dead.

What is in it

Composition, dry matter

64.5

% protein

Protein in quail meat and skin once the water is gone. Fresh quail is about 70% water, which is exactly what freeze drying removes.

Crude protein 64.5%1
Crude fat 39.5%1
Ash 3%1
Energy 6,316 kcal/kg1
Phosphorus 9,046 mg/kg1
Iron 130.6 mg/kg1
Calcium 428 mg/kg1

These are USDA figures for raw meat and skin, converted to dry matter, with no bone. Ground whole quail with bone carries far more ash and calcium and less protein, and no maker publishes which kind it uses.1

Benefits

What it does for your dog

Each benefit carries the same evidence grade as the claims below.

  1. 01

    Muscle upkeep from complete protein

    Dogs need 10 essential amino acids from food, and skeletal meat rates above plant protein for biologic value. The support is that protein is essential; no study has measured quail at kibble amounts.1,10

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None
  2. 02

    Smaller, firmer stools

    In a 10-beagle trial, a freeze-dried raw diet produced about 40 g of wet stool a day against 90 g on kibble, with firmer scores. A few quail pieces in kibble will not do that.3

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None
  3. 03

    Well-absorbed iron from meat

    Merck notes that the iron in most meats is used efficiently, and quail meat carries iron. Complete dog foods already add iron, so a garnish of quail changes little for the dog.1,10

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

Why it is in the bag

What the manufacturer gets

  1. 01

    Meat without the water

    Fresh quail is about 70% water. Freeze drying drops water activity to about 0.3 or below, so the meat ships and stores at room temperature like a dry good.1,2

  2. 02

    A named meat on the bag

    Ingredients are ranked by weight, and AAFCO lets a label say 'with quail' once quail reaches 3% of the product. A small amount of a specialty meat earns a front-of-bag name.7

  3. 03

    Raw appeal without a freezer

    Freeze-dried raw meat lets a kibble borrow the raw-feeding story while staying shelf-stable. Two freeze-dried raw diets digested well in one dog trial, but those were whole diets, not kibble.2,3

How much No source publishes how much freeze-dried quail goes into kibble; a bag saying 'with quail' must hold at least 3% quail by weight.7

Our read // The claims

What the evidence supports

Strong: controlled studies in dogs agree. Some: small or mixed dog data. Thin: mechanism or lab work only. None: nothing, or the evidence points the other way.

  1. Brands say

    Freeze-dried quail is concentrated meat protein

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    Plain arithmetic. Fresh quail meat and skin is about 70% water; with the water gone it is about 64% protein and 39% fat on a dry basis. What it adds to a kibble depends on how much is in it.1

  2. Brands say

    Freeze drying locks in the nutrients

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    Utah State food scientists rate freeze drying above other drying methods for keeping nutrients, though vitamins still degrade in storage. No study has measured nutrient losses in freeze-dried quail, and the kibble around it is still extruded at high heat.2

  3. Brands say

    Freeze-dried raw is more digestible than kibble

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    In a 10-beagle trial funded by a raw food brand, two freeze-dried raw diets digested at 90 and 94% for protein against 82% for kibble. The authors could not separate ingredients from processing, and kibble with freeze-dried pieces was never tested.3

  4. Owners say

    Quail is a safe novel protein for chicken-allergic dogs

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    Of 30 dogs with chicken-specific IgE, 29 also reacted to duck and turkey meat extracts in a Royal Canin funded study. Quail was not tested, but related birds share allergens, and a bag that also lists chicken is no elimination diet.4

  5. Owners say

    Freeze drying kills the germs in raw meat

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    Utah State food safety specialists state that freeze drying preserves microbes rather than killing them. A Thai survey found freezing and drying reduced but did not eradicate bacteria, though only 2 of its 17 samples were freeze-dried.2,8

The research

Studies worth knowing

Published research we read for this page, dog studies first.

  1. 2007 // Feeding trial, raw diets

    Nearly half of dogs fed Salmonella-tainted raw food shed it11

    28 research dogs

    Found. 7 of 16 dogs fed commercial raw diets contaminated with Salmonella shed the bacteria in their stool, for 1 to 11 days, and 5 of 7 shed the same types found in their food. None of 12 dogs on clean raw diets shed it.

    What it means. A dog eating contaminated raw meat can carry Salmonella into the yard and home. Freeze-dried pieces were not tested, but drying does not kill the bacteria.

  2. 2024 // Feeding trial, 5 foods

    Freeze-dried raw diets digested better and cut stool volume3

    10 adult beagles; funded by a raw food brand

    Found. Protein digestibility reached 94% on a freeze-dried raw diet and 93% on frozen raw, against 82% on kibble. Wet stool output fell from about 90 g a day on kibble to about 40 g on freeze-dried raw.

    What it means. Whole freeze-dried raw diets digest well in beagles. Kibble with a sprinkle of freeze-dried quail is a different food and was never tested.

Straight answers

What owners ask

  1. Q01

    Is it just filler?

    No, it's meat

    It is real quail, about 64% protein once dry. The catch is quantity: ingredients are listed by weight, so its place on the list tells you how much of the food's protein it can supply.1,7

  2. Q02

    Does it make my kibble a raw diet?

    No

    The rest of the food is still extruded kibble. Protein digestibility of 90 to 94% against 82% came from whole freeze-dried raw diets versus kibble, not from kibble with freeze-dried pieces mixed in.3

  3. Q03

    Can my chicken-allergic dog eat it?

    Not reliably

    Dogs that react to chicken nearly all recognized duck and turkey proteins too in lab testing. Quail is a bird, it was not tested, and a food trial for allergy needs one protein your dog has never eaten.4

Who uses it

Brands, best sellers and the company it keeps

Top brands, by foods that list it

  1. Wysong 1

Usually listed with, share of the foods that list it

  1. Chicken Meal 100%
  2. Chicken 100%
  3. Turkey Meal 100%
  4. Brown Rice 100%
  5. Peas 100%
  6. Pea Protein 100%
  7. Chicken Fat 100%
  8. Flaxseed 100%
  9. Dried Plain Beet Pulp 100%

On the shelf

Foods that list it

1 foods in our reviews list it. Here are some of them.

Wysong Nurture with Quail Dry Dog Food45.6% protein

Our read // On the bag

Read it as a garnish, not the protein

Find where freeze-dried quail sits. Listed after the main meat, grains and fat, it is a small addition, and the protein figure comes from what sits above it. Judge the bag on its base recipe. If anyone at home is young, old or immune-compromised, ask the maker whether the quail had a cooking step.

Sources

What we read

Checked October 1, 2026.

  1. 1 Quail, meat and skin, raw (FDC ID 172418) USDA Agricultural Research Service, FoodData Central, 2019 // Database
  2. 2 Can I Freeze-Dry That? A Practical Guide to Safe and Effective Freeze-Drying Utah State University Extension, 2026 // University
  3. 3 Apparent total tract nutrient digestibility of frozen raw, freeze-dried raw, fresh, and extruded dog foods and their effects on serum metabolites and fecal characteristics, metabolites, and microbiota of healthy adult dogs Translational Animal Science, 2024 // Journal
  4. 4 Extensive protein hydrolyzation is indispensable to prevent IgE-mediated poultry allergen recognition in dogs and cats BMC Veterinary Research, 2017 // Journal
  5. 5 Cat and Dog Food Manufacturers Required to Consider H5N1 in Food Safety Plans U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2025 // Government
  6. 6 Get the Facts! Raw Pet Food Diets can be Dangerous to You and Your Pet U.S. Food and Drug Administration, n.d. // Government
  7. 7 Reading Labels AAFCO, n.d. // Regulator
  8. 8 Contamination factors associated with surviving bacteria in Thai commercial raw pet foods Veterinary World, 2020 // Journal
  9. 9 Establishment of Wild-Derived Strains of Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica) in Field and Laboratory Experiments Biology (Basel), 2023 // Journal
  10. 10 Nutritional Requirements of Small Animals Merck Veterinary Manual, n.d. // Reference
  11. 11 The risk of salmonellae shedding by dogs fed Salmonella-contaminated commercial raw food diets The Canadian Veterinary Journal, 2007 // Journal
  12. 12 ALERT: Pet Food Recall Notice Maryland Department of Agriculture, 2024 // Regulator
  13. 13 FDA Outlines Ways to Reduce Risk of HPAI in Cats U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2025 // Regulator
An ingredient on its own tells you very little. What matters is how much of it there is and where it sits in the list. That is why we weigh the top five rather than reacting to any single name further down. Back to the wiki

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