Poorly Feathered Quail Chick

mixedUPturk said:

What a fantastic offer! Thank you! Your too kind!! Ive been debating with myself over this for days now and i think im going to have to turn you down at this point. So far i havent had to attempt any shipped eggs, im very lucky to have an exccelent breeder in my home town whos just waiting for my order Im sort of scared of shipped too, because im only Just learning how to hatch. You know that hatching shipped is another ball game altogther. I will try more coturnix because i need another line, but for now, i know a man in Denham that has good stock.

Annnnnd i just got some Button Quail that im gonna toy with since im gna have hubby build quail quarters anyway

Click to expand...

Sorry just saw your answer I'll get with him tonight. Pam

Turned my incubator on this morning. Filled with 27 quail eggs. Eeeeeeee!

@DK newbie here is it

No other place like it in the world! I took a hiatus from poultry while i got married and started raising our family but im real glad to be back there are some amazing people around here. As i read back over your comments i I remembered you well. I used to see your helpful comments all over the quail fourm

mixedUPturk said:

@DK newbie here is it

No other place like it in the world! I took a hiatus from poultry while i got married and started raising our family but im real glad to be back there are some amazing people around here. As i read back over your comments i I remembered you well. I used to see your helpful comments all over the quail fourm

Click to expand...

What ended up happening to your weird dude?

There are a couple genes that can cause curly feathering or underfeathering or both, but they're not commercially bred or well understood. I think its a trait that mutates and pops up on its own spontaneously quite often, though. Pretty cool to get one!

I think you were right not to breed that one, but I have a curly pullet who randomly popped up and is bigger and fatter than all of her siblings and fully feathered. I am going to breed her and see what I get.

CoturnixComplex said:

What ended up happening to your weird dude?

There are a couple genes that can cause curly feathering or underfeathering or both, but they're not commercially bred or well understood. I think its a trait that mutates and pops up on its own spontaneously quite often, though. Pretty cool to get one!

I think you were right not to breed that one, but I have a curly pullet who randomly popped up and is bigger and fatter than all of her siblings and fully feathered. I am going to breed her and see what I get.

Click to expand...

I ate it. To this day I had no idea that theres a mutation that could cause it, thank you! i was really worried about a disease but mostly because it really didnt ever thrive, it was teenie tiny.

Could you please share pics of yours?? Im so curious now!

Mine popped up in the same shipped batch as the recessive albino I got. They are gorgeous healthy birds overall but methinks it is time for some fresh blood injection into that bloodline. I have no way of knowing the actual inbreeding coefficient of my stock but when new lines come in the first generation is crossed with blood from a 100% unrelated (to my knowledge) source to attempt to mitigate this.

Fun fact: Jap coturnix are 3-4x as sensitive to inbreeding depression as chickens, and there are far fewer in the U.S. to draw from. >.>

Here is a study on the gene (or a related gene, I am pretty convinced there are a few).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC555543/

The expression on my pullet is not nearly as strong as the pictures there but there is a noticeable curly fluffing along the back. She just looks permanently ruffled. When she was a teenager going through her first molt she looked DEFORMED, very similar to the weird curly pinfeathers in the picture of your guy but with less bare skin. I also thought I was going to eat her until she feathered out better, and I read the above study. It is a gene that has the potential to unlocking the growth restrictions in fancy-colored coturnix.

This is her directly after she got all her adult feathers but was still only ~3 weeks old (on the right).



I'd post a more recent pic but my butthole male scalped her three days ago. She's doing fine but is embarrassed about her scabby head and not feeling camera-ready.

(And again, I do think you made the right decision to cull yours. There were other things going on there too! I have never had a chick come out super underfeathered like that and make it past 24 hrs so good job.)

CoturnixComplex said:

(And again, I do think you made the right decision to cull yours. There were other things going on there too! I have never had a chick come out super underfeathered like that and make it past 24 hrs so good job.)

Click to expand...

Thank you! Nutridrench really works wonders, and i had all the time the poor thing could need (before human children) to get it along at least far enough i wasnt picking bones to get an ounce of meat

That really is so neat i cant get to the artical right this minute but i certainly will! I see the slight frizz to your gal on the right and boy she is heafty! Thats just fine that shows me well enough what you mean about how much healthier she is vs curly. Poor gal that quail eat quail world

Also very interesting fun fact! I very much believe that but havent ever seen it clearly stated. As you read in this thread i could hardly hatch anything from these eggs im sure they were poorly cared for mych less the flock managment. I sure didnt ever buy from that person again. Your probly right if your seeing such highly reccesive traits theyre also not properly managing the inbreeding. Sad but done so often.

I gotta get offa here a bit DH is gonna wring My neck insteada the next roo dontchu worry tho i very much enjoy this conversation and what i can learn from you!

Last time we paired up we had a good time learning on cosmosue's thread too

mixedUPturk said:

Also very interesting fun fact! I very much believe that but havent ever seen it clearly stated.
Last time we paired up we had a good time learning on cosmosue's thread too

Click to expand...

My Big List for when you don't have real-world duties to attend to

It includes this article on inbreeding depression in coturnix.