Coturnix breeding question

[nomirawr1]

Hello!

When breeding coturnix, can you breed coturnix corturnix with coturnix japonica?
Will they produce fertile eggs?
If so, will their offspring be sterile?

I should have done some research into this, but I've just realised half of my cots are cot cot, and some are cot jap... AARGGGHHH...

 

[Derrin]

They will produce and the young will be fertile.

 

[Derrin]

You will have many happy generations

 

[nomirawr1]

You will have many happy generations

Beauty, thank you!

 

[DK newbie]

How exactly do you determine that you have two different species? As far as I know, the two look very much alike even in the wild, and most likely the vast majority of captive populations have been crossbred for generations, meaning they are basically the same by now..

 

[007Sean]

I agree with @DK newbie

 

[nomirawr1]

How exactly do you determine that you have two different species? As far as I know, the two look very much alike even in the wild, and most likely the vast majority of captive populations have been crossbred for generations, meaning they are basically the same by now..

One breeder I got mine from only breeds coturnix coturnix - I believe a few of his actually came from Europe. The others could well be cot cot as well, or at least part cot cot/cot jap. Theres so few breeders etc.. in NZ, that although this one breeder knows his birds & what he's talking about, there's a good chance the others don't and they're actually crosses anyway. I think most people don't look past 'coturnix', just like I didn't myself until now

 

[JaeG]

Japanese quails scientific name (in research papers) is Coturnix coturnix japonica and they come in many colour forms so I think it's whatever the breeder chooses to call them which only adds to the confusion. In NZ we have Chinese painted quail (also known as King or Button quail), Coturnix (Japanese) quail, Bob White quail, Californian quail, and Brown Australian quail. We don't have European quail and its incredibly difficult to (legally) import birds into NZ which is as it should be because we are very lucky to have a lot less poultry and bird diseases here. There's a lot of controversy about whether the Japanese quail should be referred to as such which is why they are often just labelled as Coturnix.