Button Quail + Coturnix Hybrid?

[jackbolton3]

Hi so I have recently started to incubate some button/king quail eggs and I can't find anything on this anywhere else on the web so I thought I'd ask.


Can a Basic Brown Japanese Quail breed with a Button? I have a coturnix roo that's way smaller than normal (I love him regardless) but I believe it'd be possible to breed him with a female button without any danger of him injuring her during mating.


As far as Genetics go... That's what I'm not sure of. If it is I know for sure the offspring would probably be sterile. Does anyone know anything on this topic?

 

[Nabiki]

They're not the same species. They're not closely related enough to produce offspring, and if you put button and coturnix quail together, unless they have a lot of space, the buttons are likely to be killed by the coturnix.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

I would say is possible but not really a good idea. Fowl are very amenable to hybridization, and you can cross things as unrelated as guineas, turkeys, chickens, and peafowl. In fact, chicken/coturnix hybrids are often made in labs (with very low success) to see what genes coturnix and chickens share. Buttons are closely related to Coturnix, so if you managed to get a pair to mate the offspring would be fairly likely to be viable. But doing so would create a sad, confused in-between bird with potential health problems, and of course runs the risk of the coturnix parent maiming the button parent. Neither is worth the risk in my opinion.

 

[JaeG]

There are a few old threads about this topic on BYC. This is one that had a bit of info from someone who had tried both naturally and by using artificial insemination: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/button-quail-and-corturnix-quail-hybrid.650294/

When creating hybrids (they've created chicken/guinea fowl hybrids as a possible meat bird along with other combos) it looks like you have to incubate an awful lot of eggs to even get a few hatchable ones and the offspring are usually sterile.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@Nabiki

 

[jackbolton3]

If at all possible i think it would have to be a coturnix female, since the male will kill the female trying and even then dont think it would work cuz anubis used to be housed with Vladimir since they grew up together but really had to be separated cuz he tried to start mou ting her and it was just not possible and was gonna start losing feathers and hes a runt so i cant imagine a full sized rue doing it

Anubis pharoh male coturnix and Vladimir female button.

Only reason they were even housed together is cuz i was hatching some of Vladimir's siblings at the time and was waiting on amazon with a new playpen, and they didnt fight since they hatched days apart plus anubis thinks hes small


Artificial insemination maybe ?

What if it was only long enough to fertilize eggs? Like I said he's on the smaller side of average, I think he could wear her out if given enough time but he's a rather docile roo. I've only ever kept 2 hens with him. They were from the worst incubated batch I've ever had. 36 eggs, 3 made it and they just bonded.. Never had a problem with over mating. He is feisty towards me though xD

 

[Ravenlover]

Oh I was just saying the colors I thought were the best aha I don't know too much about the button quail yet. And so wait your blue one is the female and the lighter one is the male?

Lol its okay, so first two pics are savi the male who i mentioned and the next two are Vladimir the female i mentioned then the last two pics are the morphs they are with male and female examples

 

[JudgeChunk]

Geez I definitely do not want that to happen. Could a button quail even get up on top of a coturnix tho? I feel like you would have to have one small hen for that..

As someone who has a male button and a female coturnix together....no they can't. Try all he wants poor guy is just mounting her back.

 

[Ravenlover]

Hi so I have recently started to incubate some button/king quail eggs and I can't find anything on this anywhere else on the web so I thought I'd ask.


Can a Basic Brown Japanese Quail breed with a Button? I have a coturnix roo that's way smaller than normal (I love him regardless) but I believe it'd be possible to breed him with a female button without any danger of him injuring her during mating.


As far as Genetics go... That's what I'm not sure of. If it is I know for sure the offspring would probably be sterile. Does anyone know anything on this topic?

If at all possible i think it would have to be a coturnix female, since the male will kill the female trying and even then dont think it would work cuz anubis used to be housed with Vladimir since they grew up together but really had to be separated cuz he tried to start mou ting her and it was just not possible and was gonna start losing feathers and hes a runt so i cant imagine a full sized rue doing it

Anubis pharoh male coturnix and Vladimir female button.

Only reason they were even housed together is cuz i was hatching some of Vladimir's siblings at the time and was waiting on amazon with a new playpen, and they didnt fight since they hatched days apart plus anubis thinks hes small


Artificial insemination maybe ?

 

[jackbolton3]

He killed her like that!? Wow.. that didn't cross my mind honestly. The only time I've ever had any issues like that is during brooding