Phosphorus is an important mineral for optimum growth and bone mineralization and is considered the third most expensive nutrient in diets for nonruminants. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the available phosphorus requirements (AP) for meat-type quail in the starter phase (1 to 21 days old). One-day-old, unsexed European quail (375) from the LF1 lineage were used for the study and were housed in pens. The experiment had a completely randomized design, with five treatments (0.13, 0.23, 0.33, 0.43 and 0.53% of AP), each of which included five replicates in 15 birds. Feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and the tibial deposition of phosphorus, calcium, and ash were assessed. The AP levels influenced all studied variables. We calculated that levels of 0.381% AP or 0.12% AP megacalorie of metabolizable energy (% AP/Mcal ME) were best for bone quality related to high tibial ash deposition.