The effect of dietary ME levels on performance and egg quality of quails was evaluated in this experiment. Two hundred and fifty laying Japanese female quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica), with 56 days of age, were assigned to a complete randomized design, with five treatments (2,650, 2,750, 2,850, 2,950, and 3,050 kcal of ME/kg), five replications and ten birds per experimental unit. The corn, soybean meal-based diets were formulated to contain 20% of CP, 2.5% of Ca, 1.17% of lysine and 0.802% of methionine+cystine. Feed intake (g/bird/day), energy intake (kcal ME/bird/day), total egg production (%/bird/day), commercial egg production (%/bird/day), egg weight (g), egg mass (g/bird/day), feed conversion (kg/kg of egg and kg/egg dozen), body weight gain (g), energy efficiency utilization (kcal ME/egg dozen and kcal ME/egg mass), weights of yolk (g), albumen (g) and shell (g) and yolk cholesterol concentration mg/g) were analyzed. Increasing dietary ME levels resulted in linear decreased on feed intake and weights of egg and yolk and quadratic effect on weights of albumen, shell and egg mass. The 2,650 kcal of ME/kg level increased 12.6, 3.9, 15.7, 7.5, and 6.8% respectively the variables above, compared to the 3,050 kcal of ME/kg level. Feed:egg dozen ratio increased as the dietary ME levels increased. No treatment effect on the other studied variables was observed. Diets of Japanese quails in the initial laying phase (from 56 to 112 days of age) must contain 2,650 kcal of ME/kg, corresponding to a daily intake of 61.5 kcal of ME/bird or 6.24 kcal of ME/g of egg to obtain good results of egg weight and feed:egg mass ratio, besides greater egg production in absolute value. © 2007 Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia.