2 female button pair?

[JudgeChunk]

So my current set up has 2 female buttons, 1 male button and a female coturnix (who is currently awaiting a new set up I don't need to be informed to remove her lol) . Now the male seems to have taken to breeding with all 3 females. I've seen him readily mount them all and all the girls get into position for him....including the coturnix.

Now to my question. Is it normal to have to have 2 females brood on the same eggs? The two female buttons are sharing the responsibility right now. They both sit on the eggs at night and during the day only 1 is out at a time.

The male isn't taking any part of the job and actually is building a nest for the coturnix who sits in it. I seriously doubt those eggs are fertile.

Update: Irrelevant to the original topic but it is in fact possible for a female to have a higher libido than a male button. Cause this one female got him worn out. Lmao

 

[Ravenlover]

This post sounds interesting

 

[raleighblues]

Button Quail and Coturnix Quail are two seperate species of bird, and therefore can’t create offspring. It’s like a duck and a goose, or a chicken and a — parrot. It just can’t happen.

It’s normal for two females to brood the same eggs. That’s not a mating behavior, just a covey behavior. But even if they were two gorgeous little quail lesbians it’d be all good lmao

Edit to add: Didn’t realize chickens and pheasants are from the same family lol Original post said they couldn’t, but I stand corrected. Apparently they can, but just not well.

 

[JudgeChunk]

Button Quail and Coturnix Quail are two seperate species of bird, and therefore can’t create offspring. It’s like a duck and a goose, or a chicken and a pheasant. It just can’t happen.

It’s normal for two females to brood the same eggs. That’s not a mating behavior, just a covey behavior. But even if they were two gorgeous little quail lesbians it’d be all good lmao

Well hey that's good to know. I'm happy they get along well enough to be a covey. They get along great I just didn't think it was that great.

But now I feel bad for the male/female pair. They are gonna sit on those eggs for nothing. The male is trying to sit on those coturnix eggs also but geez his little body barely covers one.

 

[snood dude]

Button Quail and Coturnix Quail are two seperate species of bird, and therefore can’t create offspring. It’s like a duck and a goose, or a chicken and a pheasant. It just can’t happen.

It’s normal for two females to brood the same eggs. That’s not a mating behavior, just a covey behavior. But even if they were two gorgeous little quail lesbians it’d be all good lmao

Chicken , pheasant and quail have crossed

 

[FloorCandy]

Button Quail and Coturnix Quail are two seperate species of bird, and therefore can’t create offspring. It’s like a duck and a goose, or a chicken and a pheasant. It just can’t happen.

It’s normal for two females to brood the same eggs. That’s not a mating behavior, just a covey behavior. But even if they were two gorgeous little quail lesbians it’d be all good lmao

I read about penguins in a zoo recently that were both male and trying to hatch a rock together. They started giving them abandoned eggs and they hatch and raise them haha. No help to the OP but your reply reminded me of it.

 

[raleighblues]

Chicken , pheasant and quail have crossed

Not well, though.

“Crosses between male chickens and female Japanese quails using artificial insemination can generate intergeneric hybrids; however, the hatching rate is low and hatched hybrids are only sterile males.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep26369

But my main point is that Button and Coturnix aren’t even the same family of bird. Totally different genetic tree.

“Buttonquail or hemipodes are members of a small family of birds, Turnicidae, which resemble, but are unrelated to, the quails of Phasianidae.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttonquail