Albino Coturnix

[Jus1]

 

[Fishkeeper]

Gorgeous!
Do the other quail seem to notice anything different? I know sometimes quail will pick on a single member of a flock that's a different color.

 

[Alexismarie]

I just had an albino quail hatch this past week and found your post. Wondering how it worked out for you? Any special tips to make their life less miserable would be appreciated!

 

[cosmosue]

Updated pictures.
View attachment 1500175 View attachment 1500176

How obvious is it in person? I can see it here - and I have seen baby pics and it was SUPER obvious, but see I have been hatching this season since March now and I’ve hatched a lot of different batches some my own some purchased from other breeders, I had a few where I thought I saw glints of red in the incubator but on closer inspection when I took them out it was not real obvious so I figured I was wrong. These were all extremely yellow chicks like super bright, very pale skin, no color on feathers, I had other white birds hatch that had clearly black eyes, normal, but these others even their whites of their eyes were also a bit pinkish like if you had allergy in your eyes and needed visine lol...

Anyway they grew up, and those 3 were not very healthy overall lethargic, one had cross eyes, I kept it inside the top portion of my coop, I put the other two below with the rest of my quails. It’s a big mixed pen on the ground I call it the penthouse.

I put those two out because they were not cross eyed and I figured they were simply normal even though I had my doubts. One day one of them couldn’t stand. Brought it in, tried different things I ended up putting it down. Left the other outside it was still sleeping a lot etc keeping its eyes closed a lot just not as active as the rest.

I kept seeing red when I looked at the two remaining birds when I took them out and inspected the pupils the pupils were red the iris was reddish and the whites were pink.

Is there a partial albino??? Where the eyes are not super bright red? I don’t know and I can’t find hardly any info.

I did not want whatever genes they were passed on, especially I did not want a lethargic flock and a cross eyed flock so I separated them and we had quail for dinner last night along with some other roosters I had marked.

I know some don’t eat quail so I’m sorry but we do lol... it was a grilled Asian glaze recipe and it was amazing, best I’ve done yet since starting going on year 2.

Anyway I’m sure the gene will show again as I think 2 came from the same source.

I wouldn’t mind a true albino but I couldn’t tell with these and like I said I don’t think they were good for the overall health of my flock... and breeding.

Who knows *shrug*

I don’t think a 100% albino would do well outside if these were albino or had the genes because they were a bit lethargic not sure if that had to do with the light, and one was inside, even though my coop is 95% shade there are patches of direct sun that they lay in but there is areas also to get out of direct light and we have a totally shaded yard the light comes through the trees. Always like 5-10 degrees cooler out back.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Albino animals don't make the eyes go bright red. Albino animals have no pigment in the eye, which means the blood vessels aren't hidden. So, yes, some albino animals have pinkish-white eyes.

Light is bad for albinos because they sunburn easily, and because their eyes are very vulnerable to bright light. That's it. They aren't little vampires, the sun doesn't make them sick.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Yay albino club!

This is Casper, my happy accident. I didn't breed him (and he'll never reproduce) but I adore him. He's 99% blind and therefore a total sweetheart, never knows to be scared. He does great! I'm impressed by him every day. Does well with the other birds and seems to find everything eventually (when I do things like move water I have to teach him). This is a baby pic but he's about three months old now. As mentioned, I'd never keep him outside, he does seem to have just enough vision to jump when the overhead lights go on and off so I try to keep him pretty dark so he retains what little vision he might have .

 

[cosmosue]

Yay albino club!

This is Casper, my happy accident. I didn't breed him (and he'll never reproduce) but I adore him. He's 99% blind and therefore a total sweetheart, never knows to be scared. He does great! I'm impressed by him every day. Does well with the other birds and seems to find everything eventually (when I do things like move water I have to teach him). This is a baby pic but he's about three months old now. As mentioned, I'd never keep him outside, he does seem to have just enough vision to jump when the overhead lights go on and off so I try to keep him pretty dark so he retains what little vision he might have .

View attachment 1756172

Yeh see mine wasn’t this bright so I don’t know!! Ah well

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Yeh see mine wasn’t this bright so I don’t know!! Ah well

I believe there is an "imperfect albinism" gene! I will go get my info on all of them.

 

[cosmosue]

I believe there is an "imperfect albinism" gene! I will go get my info on all of them.

If there is then I would bet that is what I had and they were not very bright eyes but the whites were blood shot and they were lethargic and one was cross eyed lol.. when I did the “dressing out” the skin was the brightest I have EVER seen even when I dressed out my Texas A&Ms the skin was not that “bright” or light or whatever and also at the same time I did some normal brown birds when compared the meat was lighter colored than the brown birds meat, the Tibetan was extremely dark.

I found it interesting I guess...

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Yay albino club!

This is Casper, my happy accident. I didn't breed him (and he'll never reproduce) but I adore him. He's 99% blind and therefore a total sweetheart, never knows to be scared. He does great! I'm impressed by him every day. Does well with the other birds and seems to find everything eventually (when I do things like move water I have to teach him). This is a baby pic but he's about three months old now. As mentioned, I'd never keep him outside, he does seem to have just enough vision to jump when the overhead lights go on and off so I try to keep him pretty dark so he retains what little vision he might have .

View attachment 1756172

Awww!