Button Quail Chicks are bald and A different color hatched?!

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

hi everyone!

I hatched my second clutch of Button quails on July 1st! Out of 5 eggs, four hatched. Three cinnamon and one silver! Of course I was so excited to have another silver one, but he passed at 15 days old. Not sure why

Anyway! The other three cinnamons are 20 days old and getting feathers, but two of them look bald!?!? I have attached a photo. I have been watching them closely, mom and dad take good care of them, and no feather picking. I feed them VERY well, and none of them appear sick. It looks as though their fuzzies are falling out, but their feathers are not really growing in! What is happening?

Also, I had two more cinnamon buttons, a male and a female that hatched one egg out of 6! This baby came out half silver and half brown!!! WTH?? This baby is one week old today and it’s feathers look like a “red breasted”. How does that even happen?!?!

 

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

@TwoCrows any ideas?

 

[TwoCrows]

Awww....cute babies! I am clueless when it comes to genetics/coloring. Sometimes crazy coloring comes from standard birds! Genes can creep out from many generations ago.

As for being bald, it normal for chicks to be "thin" for a while on feathers. Especially lighter colors like blond, even cinnamon. They will go though many molts before they grow in their adult feathers. Give them a couple weeks, they should start looking like birds soon!

Sorry about the one you lost. Not all of them make it.

Good luck with those cutie pies!!

 

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

Thank you so much for your response! I have just noticed that the mom is picking the feathers off of that one chick. Since they are 3 1/2 weeks old, and I don’t plan on keeping them, do you think I should remove them from the parents? I plan on keeping the younger red breasted hen, she is about two weeks old now. Could I remove the three cinnamon babies, and place the red breasted chick with the other babies’ mother, my original hen and rooster?

 

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

This is the one I believe to be a red breasted with more feathers than the pic I posted before

 

[DK newbie]

I wouldn't place a chick that old with other parents. But is her parents plucking her? Otherwise I'd just leave her with them. The 3½ week olds should do fine alone.

 

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

Hi Dk Newbie,

The youngest chicks parents aren’t plucking her, but I had to separate dad out of the cage. The mother was chasing him down and ripping out his feathers. They were stepping on the baby and could have killed her.

I plan on keeping her with the other parents and giving the other older chicks and parents to a friend of mine. How do I introduce them? When should I do this?

Thank you so much!

 

[DK newbie]

I have little success with trios, if that's what you are hoping to create. Usually they do fine for a few months, then one hen starts chasing the other. I've only had it work long-term in an aviary.. But as for the introduction, that depends - if you want to do it now, I'd probably place the new mom in an enclosure she doesn't know and try to introduce the chick there. Does the new mom have chicks already? Then put them there as well. If she doesn't accept the chick, I'd put it back with its real mom for at least another week, then place it next to the pair for 1-2 weeks just separated by a layer of wire, then rearrange the cage and try to introduce them.

 

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

Darn! I was always told I could keep up to 3 females with one male.

Originally I moved the baby into the cage with the other babies and parents when she was a newborn. The other babies pecked the heck out of her so I moved her back with her mother. When the newborn was in with the babies, she immediately took to mothering her but I don’t know what she would do now.

 

[Murphy_the_Hooligan]

Hi everyone!

I gave all of the babies and the cinnamon set of parents to my friend as planned. They are doing great. No more baldness!

I kept my original pair, the silver male and cinnamon female, and was able to introduce the red breasted female to them successfully after a few weeks of using a cage divider. Everyone has gotten on lovely! I have attached photos below