Is Vent Sexing Reliable at 8 weeks?

[Rafnel]

Hey all, I've got five 8-week old quail. One started crowing and mating like 3 weeks ago so he was easy. I can also pick him up and press on his vent area and a ton of the white foam comes out.

Another one is a confirmed female due to feather sexing.

The other 3 are not feather sexable and I am honestly very confused about them. None are mating or crowing. And when I vent sex I see no foam or bump. It is also worth noting that 1 of these 3 had to be moved to a different enclosure because the one confirmed male I have has tried killing him/her too much. That one still hasn't crowed/mated/foamed.

At 8 weeks old, should there be an obvious foam discharge on all male quail? My one confirmed male has a TON of foam and mates a LOT and has been pretty obviously a male for at least 2 or 3 weeks. I haven't gotten any eggs from these 3 unsexed ones yet either.

 

[muddy75]

Hey all, I've got five 8-week old quail. One started crowing and mating like 3 weeks ago so he was easy. I can also pick him up and press on his vent area and a ton of the white foam comes out.

Another one is a confirmed female due to feather sexing.

The other 3 are not feather sexable and I am honestly very confused about them. None are mating or crowing. And when I vent sex I see no foam or bump. It is also worth noting that 1 of these 3 had to be moved to a different enclosure because the one confirmed male I have has tried killing him/her too much. That one still hasn't crowed/mated/foamed.

At 8 weeks old, should there be an obvious foam discharge on all male quail? My one confirmed male has a TON of foam and mates a LOT and has been pretty obviously a male for at least 2 or 3 weeks. I haven't gotten any eggs from these 3 unsexed ones yet either.

Quail hatched/maturing this late in the season (less daylight) don’t always lay, produce foam etc until next spring/summer. And if you have a male already crowing (alpha) other males may not.

Vent sexing is reliable at 8 weeks as long as you know what you’re looking for as it may not be obvious if the seasonal changes are effecting foam production.

 

[Rafnel]

Gotcha, that makes sense. Perhaps it's just the season making it hard to tell.

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Hey all, I've got five 8-week old quail. One started crowing and mating like 3 weeks ago so he was easy. I can also pick him up and press on his vent area and a ton of the white foam comes out.

Another one is a confirmed female due to feather sexing.

The other 3 are not feather sexable and I am honestly very confused about them. None are mating or crowing. And when I vent sex I see no foam or bump. It is also worth noting that 1 of these 3 had to be moved to a different enclosure because the one confirmed male I have has tried killing him/her too much. That one still hasn't crowed/mated/foamed.

At 8 weeks old, should there be an obvious foam discharge on all male quail? My one confirmed male has a TON of foam and mates a LOT and has been pretty obviously a male for at least 2 or 3 weeks. I haven't gotten any eggs from these 3 unsexed ones yet either.

Quail hatched/maturing this late in the season (less daylight) don’t always lay, produce foam etc until next spring/summer. And if you have a male already crowing (alpha) other males may not.

Vent sexing is reliable at 8 weeks as long as you know what you’re looking for as it may not be obvious if the seasonal changes are effecting foam production.

If you use artificial lighting then it should be just as accurate, but if not, follow muddys advice. I did find mine matured much slower even with artificial light, some took almost 12 weeks. Also, some males don't produce that much foam, some produce bucket loads.

 

[Rafnel]

Yeah mine have artificial light. But I figure they could still probably tell it is winter so who knows. I'll give it some time then.

 

[Rafnel]

All 3 ended up being females. I have them (+ feather sexed female) in a separate enclosure and I've gotten 5 eggs from them two days in a row. So one of them is even laying twice a day. Have seen no crowing or mating, so can definitely confirm all 3 are females. Have seen them sit on their eggs a bit too right after laying.

 

[Rafnel]

Seems like vent sexing was reliable at 8 weeks, lack of foam, mating behavior, and crowing was I guess a reliable indicator

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Seems like vent sexing was reliable at 8 weeks, lack of foam, mating behavior, and crowing was I guess a reliable indicator

There you go then! Usually works for me but sometimes get those ninja males lol

 

[Rafnel]

Yeah lol I have heard of ninja males so I was wary of that. Glad to have so many females. 1 male and 7 females. Have been getting a crazy amount of eggs all of a sudden. Going to incubate the eggs from the quail in the top level and add to my numbers!!

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Yeah lol I have heard of ninja males so I was wary of that. Glad to have so many females. 1 male and 7 females. Have been getting a crazy amount of eggs all of a sudden. Going to incubate the eggs from the quail in the top level and add to my numbers!!

That's awesome! I have had fantastic fertility success with up to 9 females, even with 11 females I had 70% fertility.. not bad going! Now I chill with 5 females, 1 male purely because it means I need to fill up the food and water less