Hare Today ground quail

I got a 1 lb package of quail in my last order a few months back.  It's expensive but I thought it would be nice to add some whole ground animal type variety to my cats' diet.  And it seemed a safe bet since they'd eaten quail before.  I also tried pheasant, and in the previous order I'd tried the ground cavies.

They aren't picky eaters at all, and they had no problem with the pheasant or the cavies.  But when I put out the quail, my cats positively recoiled in disgust, like I was feeding them toxic waste.    I tried putting some rabbit (their favorite) next to it.  They wouldn't go near the plate.  I took a whiff of the quail, and...it smelled awful.  Beyond gamey.  I am getting over a cold so I hadn't detected it before, and the very fact I could smell anything meant it had to be pretty odiferous.

Has anyone else ordered the ground quail, and was it smelly like this?  Neither the pheasant nor the cavies was like that. 

Before anyone asks...the quail was in a -10 degree freezer the whole time since I got it, and was not freezer burned.  And, Tracy gave me a credit for it - was very nice and I have zero complaint about it.  She did say that she hadn't heard any negative comments about the quail, and thought it might just be normal for ground quail with the innards included.

Hey sophie1
I also have tried the ground whole quail, and my cats reacted the same way. Even my overweight cat Zeke, who, I thought, would eat anything, refused it. I was able to get him to eat some today by topping it with ground up dry food (a favorite topper). I've frozen the quail into cubes, and I mixed 3 cubes of turkey with 2 cubes of quail, but he wouldn't touch it until I added the topper. The quail does have a strong smell, but so does the ground mouse, and they like the mouse meat. I've got some ground cavies, but haven't tried it yet. Everything arrived frozen, so I figured it's supposed to smell like that. I hadn't considered that the quail might be bad. Now I'm trying to decide whether to just give it to the dog, who thinks it's great (but hey, he eats cat poop!), or try to work it into the food for Zeke. Zeke likes everything but the quail so far, Bilbo likes everything but turkey and quail, and Chloe will only eat a little raw chicken if it's mixed with canned and has some topper. I'm eager to hear about other folk's experience with the quail.

I ordered ground quail from Hare Today two weeks ago and just fed it to my three cats last weekend. It does have a strong smell. Whopper, the youngest kitten, ate it right away. Magnum and Sumo had no interest in it. Sumo is a picky eater and he didn't even get close to his favorite food when I put it next to the ground quail. I had to move the ground quail dish away so he could start eating his food. I think he acted like your cats. 

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but has anyone tried the ground mice?

Hi Ocean1
I got a pound of ground mouse a while back. It has a rather strong smell. The cats are just okay with it. If I mix it with some chicken they'll eat it. It's expensive, so I probably won't be getting it again.