Button Quail Chicks - what color are they?

[Sara L]

Ok, got some new pics, they are now 4 weeks 5 days old. To me it looks like there might be 9 girls and 1 boy, but I am still not used to telling the colors apart on this type of quail, so may have more boys than I think. Right now they are still in the brooder box, I turned the lamp off on Monday and they seem to be fine without the additional heat.
I want to move them to the cages that they will be living in as adults, but only have 3 cages set up. Is there a method to picking out who goes in what cage together? I haven't noticed any issues and they all seem to get along. Would it only be an issue if there ends up being 2 boys and 1 girl in a cage together? I was thinking cages of 4, 3, and 3, with the leg-issue chick being in a group of 3. I will be getting a few more cages set up so eventually they can be in pairs, but don't have them ready at this time. I am not going to breed these quail to each other, since I am no clue about the breeding of the parents; I have a batch of eggs in the incubator to hatch this weekend from a different source to be mates for these quail.

Chick on bottom left is the only one I can recognize as a male. There are two light grey chicks and both seem to have barring to their feathers. There is a dark grey (top left of pic) who also has dark grey legs and beak.

 

[DK newbie]

I agree there is only one obvious male - but 1:9 seems rather unlikely, particularly as people tend to end up with more boys than girls. I've had 8 boys and one girl
The gray ones might start out with barring but will likely lose it over the next couple of weeks if they are boys - catch them and look for pink vent feathers, those might show up before they lose the barring.
The dark gray is probably slate - gray and blueface combined. Meaning even if it is a roo there will be no trace of a bib.
If you really do have 9 girls, consider yourself lucky!
It also means you won't need to worry about them forming pair bonds before your new hatch is ready to be paired up with them. Occasionally buttons are very resistant to re-pairing and won't accept a new partner.
You will probably have trouble both with two boys and one girl and with two boys and two girls - anything that involves more than one boy in a cage with girls.
If you find that you have more than one boy, I'd place the boys in the same cage. They won't like it - will probably call the girls, but they won't kill each other and you won't have to split up pair bonds.

 

[Sara L]

Still waiting for the new batch to hatch, I am starting to worry I screwed it up, they should have started hatching yesterday. I will probably move the older chicks tomorrow; there wasn't any sign of pink vent feathers when I checked last week and tomorrow they are 5 weeks old. I think I heard one of them make the male calling noise today, but of course i couldn't see who made the noise and they stopped as soon as I hurried over. They are all super skittish and freak out whenever i go near the brooder box. I made a little cave with a plastic bottle and some fake ferns, but they freaked out about that too and wouldn't go near it when I checked last.
The book I have that goes over info for coturnix quail says you can turn them upside down and rub the area near their vent to tell their gender (will have a bump and some foam if a boy) if you can't tell by feather colors - would this work for button quail too? Has anyone tried this?

 

[DK newbie]

I don't think buttons produce as much sperm as coturnix do, so as far as I know, they don't actually store significant amounts where you can push it out. I have never tried though, but I've also never seen anyone claiming they can be vent sexed.

With regards to hiding places, tunnels work better than caves - I think they get claustrophobic if there is only one exit. Fake plants in front of a corner of the cage work well too.

 

[Sara L]

So, the incubation I had going wasn't very successful and only one button hatched. I had some coturnix eggs in there too, and only two of them hatched. Can I raise the three together or will they have issues?View attachment 1142468
View attachment 1142469

 

[JaeG]

So, the incubation I had going wasn't very successful and only one button hatched. I had some coturnix eggs in there too, and only two of them hatched. Can I raise the three together or will they have issues?

They should be fine together for now. If it's looking like one (or both) of your coturnix are boys I'd remove the button at 4 weeks old and start integrating it with your others, or earlier if you think there are any issues. But coturnix are pretty docile so the button shouldn't be in any danger until male hormones kick in! Fingers crossed they are both girls.

 

[Sara L]

Ok, good. I don't know if I will be able to tell the gender by color with them, since one appears to have italian coloring and the other looks like a tuxedo. I will try to get photos up later today if my phone cooperates. It doesn't like connecting to the computer for downloading pics.
There's a guy a couple hours away who keeps advertising online that he sells coturnix and buttons, I was thinking I might contact him to see if he has any baby buttons that I can add to my trio.

 

[Sara L]

The one with a bib made the male calling noise again yesterday - if there are other males in the box, would they also crow at the same time or is it an individual thing? He was the only one making the noise.

 

[DK newbie]

They tend to get inspired by each other and one is more likely to do it if another does, but not doing it doesn't mean they are not males. They might mature slower or just not feel like it.

 

[Sara L]

If he does end up being the only male, can I put him in a cage by himself so he doesn't bond/mate with one of his sisters? Or will he freak out by himself? He would be able to hear/see the others, but they would be in separate cages.