Color Question?

[jeepster]

I have two quail in my flock of supposed all Coturnix that seem to be something else.
1.

Appears to be an Italian.
2.

Maybe a Tuxedo?

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

top is an Italian and the bottom is most likely a Texas A&M, though if the spotting is golden could a golden tuxedo. All are actually just different color patterns, but they are all coturnix. The pharaoh coloring is the original color, and the others have been selectively bred to get the different colors.

 

[jeepster]

Thanks for the info, I was pretty sure the top one was an Italian. I will watch the other and see if the Patches come in more like the Golden tuxedo or if they fade more to a solid white as in the A&M.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

yeah, your welcome...oh and A&Ms have patches too that are brown Pharaoh colored. A&Ms would most likely be bigger than the others unless the others were jumbo. If they are all normal sized the white would probably be an English white

 

[Fat Daddy]

yeah, your welcome...oh and A&Ms have patches too that are brown Pharaoh colored. A&Ms would most likely be bigger than the others unless the others were jumbo. If they are all normal sized the white would probably be an English white

The brown patches on the white bird indicate a high degree of mixing.... See "mixed pen" or someone's "special project" birds..... The Jumbo whites should have just the dark dot on their head..... The "Brown patches" wont move or spread as the bird ages. If bread to another similar bird, it's off spring would show a degree of patching but but still not a "Tux".... If bred with a bird of true color the patches still may pop up once and a while. But they all will taste just like coturnix! Good luck....

 

[dc3085]

It's an A&M. For whatever reason A&Ms with the dorsal bleed will never physically reach the same quality level (Health, size, reproductive health) as A&Ms with the color bleed restricted only to their head. The A&M color was developed as a commercial marker for meat coturnix. Along the way they figured out the birds with the dorsal bleed represented a consistently lower quality bird. Not to the degree it would matter to most keepers I would guess, but for people who are consistently shooting for larger meatier birds would probably be better served culling them.

 

[jeepster]

Great info everyone. IT is an A&M then. It is about the same size as the other birds that I was told were jumbos. I am also beginning to think that the breeder I got them from wasn't very careful in his breeding program and did a lot of mixing.
I am growing these birds out for meat and egg production. I will pick the females that produce the largest eggs on the most consistent basis and keep them as my breeders. Everyone else will graduate to freezer camp and I will begin hatching out the eggs for the next generation.

Although I really like the color of the Italian and would mind keeping it around just because it is pretty.

 

[dc3085]

Great info everyone. IT is an A&M then. It is about the same size as the other birds that I was told were jumbos. I am also beginning to think that the breeder I got them from wasn't very careful in his breeding program and did a lot of mixing.
I am growing these birds out for meat and egg production. I will pick the females that produce the largest eggs on the most consistent basis and keep them as my breeders. Everyone else will graduate to freezer camp and I will begin hatching out the eggs for the next generation.

Although I really like the color of the Italian and would mind keeping it around just because it is pretty.

White is a recessive color in coturnix and is often found hidden in pharaoh colored birds. If both parents possess the recessive white a percentage of their chicks will come out white. I have only italian and pharaoh birds in my flock at the moment but still see a couple A&Ms in each hatch, and my birds are from a very clean line. The breeder you used may not have been top shelf but he wasn't necessarily doing anything wrong. The italian if crossed with a pharaoh will usually generate a percentage of italian chicks depending on how many pharaoh outcrosses there are on that line. After a certain point of outcrossing even italians will generate only pharaoh colored offspring though.

Unless you are isolating individual traits having mixed colors in your flock does nothing but make it a litter prettier to look at. The main reason a lot of people stay with pharaoh colored or white birds is that those colors can be bred to carry the most meat. You can breed italians and most other color phases to carry more weight but you'll do a lot of work to get them averaging anything over 10-11 ounces..