Can you tell the sex of my 20 day old Coturnix quail chicks by these feathers?

[NikkiNik]

Hi! I hatched 5 Coturnix quail chicks. I’d love to know your opinions on if my 20 day old chicks are male/female. Can you definitively tell at just 20 days? One photo is of the five quail chicks chests and the other photo is of the mom and dad which is obvious.

I’ve only been doing this a few months so I don’t have a lot of variations to compare these to.

Would love to find anyone else in the Ventura area of Southern California who’s also passionate about raising quail to compare notes, meet and even swap birds to prevent too much inbreeding.

 

[Nabiki]

If they're of a colour that is feather sexable, you can usually tell by three weeks. It looks like the photo didn't get posted, however.

 

[NikkiNik]

3 week old chicks

• NikkiNik
• Jan 2, 2020
• 2

Parent Quail

• NikkiNik
• Jan 2, 2020

hopefully these photos show now?

Thank you for your reply!

 

[Quailobsessed]

3 week old chicks

• NikkiNik
• Jan 2, 2020
• 2

Parent Quail

• NikkiNik
• Jan 2, 2020

hopefully these photos show now?

Thank you for your reply!

Females have spots on their chests, males don't. This though, only applies to certain colours.

Here's a video to help you.

They all look like girls to me since the have a lot of spots.

 

[Nabiki]

In your photo of the five, I'm thinking the middle on the left is a boy (it looks like the spots are fading and red is coming in), the one on the top right looks like there may be some red developing there, so while that one looks like a hen now, I'd keep an eye on it to see if the spots go away and more red appears.

In your bottom picture, the one on the left looks like a boy, the one on the right looks like a girl. I'm no expert yet, though, so take my advice with a grain of salt. ;-)

 

[muddy75]

In your photo of the five, I'm thinking the middle on the left is a boy (it looks like the spots are fading and red is coming in), the one on the top right looks like there may be some red developing there, so while that one looks like a hen now, I'd keep an eye on it to see if the spots go away and more red appears.

In your bottom picture, the one on the left looks like a boy, the one on the right looks like a girl. I'm no expert yet, though, so take my advice with a grain of salt. ;-)

I agree....2 possibly 3 males in the 5 chick pictures

 

[Quailobsessed]

Just keep an eye out. Two are probably girls, the other three could be boys or girls. They could be boys and loose their spots or they could just be girls with rusty chests.

 

[NikkiNik]

Thanks to everyone who contributed a comment!

Here’s an update if the contributors are interested and hopefully someone else out there can benefit from seeing progress photos if they are also having trouble sexing.

It seems that while most online sources say you can sex at 3 weeks, it should be more clear that it might still be unclear at 3 weeks and to wait until week 4! It’s hard to be patient when you’re really excited and just starting out!

I was able to confidently vent sex 4, and those are all MALE! Not to mention, as you can see by the photos, the spotted feathers they used to have fell out and in just that shirt time the beautiful reds grew in. (Not all 5 of the birds are show here due to skiddishness at the time but the 4 male look the same.) While the 5th one has seemingly female chest feathers, there’s still enough red in there that makes me wonder if a few more days will show a male... mainly because when I vent sexed the ‘female’ I saw what I thought was a tiny bulge just inside the vent but was a bit smaller than the other male’s obvious parts in comparison.

It seems the internet is lacking a CLEAR close up picture of both male and female vents at each week of growth side by side... unless I’ve missed it! Although @Quailobsessed - thank you SOOO much for that video as it was so helpful in giving me the nudge to go for it! Super thankful!

 

[Jonzing]

Thanks to everyone who contributed a comment!

Here’s an update if the contributors are interested and hopefully someone else out there can benefit from seeing progress photos if they are also having trouble sexing.

It seems that while most online sources say you can sex at 3 weeks, it should be more clear that it might still be unclear at 3 weeks and to wait until week 4! It’s hard to be patient when you’re really excited and just starting out!
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I was able to confidently vent sex 4, and those are all MALE! Not to mention, as you can see by the photos, the spotted feathers they used to have fell out and in just that shirt time the beautiful reds grew in. (Not all 5 of the birds are show here due to skiddishness at the time but the 4 male look the same.) While the 5th one has seemingly female chest feathers, there’s still enough red in there that makes me wonder if a few more days will show a male... mainly because when I vent sexed the ‘female’ I saw what I thought was a tiny bulge just inside the vent but was a bit smaller than the other male’s obvious parts in comparison.

It seems the internet is lacking a CLEAR close up picture of both male and female vents at each week of growth side by side... unless I’ve missed it! Although @Quailobsessed - thank you SOOO much for that video as it was so helpful in giving me the nudge to go for it! Super thankful!

It takes me about 3 weeks to feather sex mine...all red well you know but there are some that need vent sexing. When I start the separation it's mainly focused on what I for sure know is female.