Roux gene and white quail?

[Susan Skylark]

I’ll try and get a better picture on this guy (now 8 days old) but he’s a puzzle. He’s all yellow but has a reddish tinge along the top line/back. I figured he was homozygous English white but his feathers are coming in with a very slight beige tinge (thought they were just dirty at first). Can the roux gene affect white feathers, giving them a slightly orange/beige tinge or don’t white birds show roux? And if not, what is this color?

 

[Nabiki]

I'm not sure what this one is, but it's not an English white.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Okay, let’s make this even more complicated, this is the same batch, only other all yellow chick, but he’s a very light yellow and weird, this is his actual shape, sort of humpybacked and can’t seem to stand up straight and slow growing, feathers all coming in white, dark eyes. Is this guy homozygous silver (and the reason for his issues) and the darker chick some other hetero silver (Italian roux or something?)? His feathers are some sort of off white/ecru/egg shell color. Thanks!

 

[Nabiki]

This one looks like a silver to me, though it's hard to say for certain without any feathers. It does look like there's something wrong with it, which could mean homozygous silver, as they often do have issues.

I think you have a pretty good idea of how the genetics work. I've learned a bit, but I haven't really studied the genetics, though I should when I find some time.

 

[Susan Skylark]

thanks for all the great info!

 

[Susan Skylark]

Here's the mystery chick at 9 days old, belly/lower feathers coming in solid white, back a cream/beige color. Italian with Blau/Silver plus or minus tuxedo? Definitely not homozygous white!

 

[scyllarus]

I'm guessing blue fawn or roux fawn (or both) with tuxedo. The patterning looks like it might also be sparkly, but that'll be more clear next week. Any updates on the other baby?

 

[Susan Skylark]

The wry neck is growing, albeit slowly, the homo silver likewise, the last of the clostridium chicks just faded away a day or two layer, everybody else is doing great and completely baffling me on this color thing. I can handle simple x/y genetics but then you throw in multiple genes and alleles and complicated interactions and it makes calculus look easy! I also can’t find a good resource for gene interaction and it’s relationship to phenotype, I get the pansy thing on its own but how does it interact with the base, hetero fee, roux…. At least it is more fun than math, prettier too!

 

[scyllarus]

The wry neck is growing, albeit slowly, the homo silver likewise, the last of the clostridium chicks just faded away a day or two layer, everybody else is doing great and completely baffling me on this color thing. I can handle simple x/y genetics but then you throw in multiple genes and alleles and complicated interactions and it makes calculus look easy! I also can’t find a good resource for gene interaction and it’s relationship to phenotype, I get the pansy thing on its own but how does it interact with the base, hetero fee, roux…. At least it is more fun than math, prettier too!

There's at least one group on Facebook that focuses on colors which could be helpful to you. I can't link it as I'm not able to access it at work, but I think it's literally Coturnix Quail Colors and Genetics or something like that. Rebecca Lynch, the owner of Thieving Otter Farms, answers a lot of the color questions and she seems pretty knowledgeable (which, it's literally her business so I expect she knows what she's talking about).

My issue with Coturnix colors is the same issue I have with some snake color morphs - the names are confusing and don't really indicate the genetics involved. Why do we call het EB Rosetta and homo EB Tibetan? Why not just...call it EB? Or fawn! Fawn is a normal name for the gene that is responsible for Italian and Manchurian, and instead we have very unclear names. What's wrong with listing a bird as, say, a roux homozygous EB with het English white? Instead, it's a scarlet tuxedo orz

 

[Susan Skylark]

I agree on the naming thing, why is it an Egyptian, does it have anything to do with Egypt? But bacteria are the absolute worst, they rename them about every two years it seems, my theory is there isn't enough work for all the bacteriologists out there so they just rename stuff to look busy. Which is really annoying because you have to remember which year a certain bug had a certain name to look it up in a book and really throws you for a loop when they completely change it.

And then there is breeding Labrador retrievers, that is a fairly complicated color genetics when it is only black, chocolate, and yellow but now they have a ton of odd variants as well!