Jumbo Coturnix Quail Sexing Trouble...

[bonnie in indiana]

They are both females.
How old are they? If more than 8 weeks old, GET THEM OFF THE 30% feed. You are killing their kidneys!!!!!!!!!! Adults need Layer feed at about 20%. I give mine 18% and they all lay an egg a day.

Hope that you enjoy your birds.. They love a sand box and greens and a slice of bread. Mine all love their treats.

 

[bonnie in indiana]

male

 

[bonnie in indiana]

male and female

 

[tlgrimmy]

Thanks everybody for all of the helpful posts! Of course mine have to to be these weird in-the-middle quail. Maybe they're hermaphrodites...lol. They all look so dang similar. I picked up some more from another guy off of craigslist and was able to make out the differences between them visually a bit better. However, some of them are in the same boat as my original 3, having lighter orange coloration, but still having some spots. I wonder if the strains down here in southern CA have developed these characteristics where the males and females don't have near the contrast as other strains. Sounds about right for California. I tried to vent check one of the assumed males from my other batch that had the orangey color, but still had some spots. There was nothing really to squeeze in the vent area and the vent seemed pretty flat and darker grey/beige. Must be another hermaphrodite! I guess I need a little more practice with the vent checking. I tried checking three of the quail and none of them had a bulb down there; just pretty flat and darker in color (no pink). No eggs still. Turns out they aren't on 30% protein food. I mis-remembered (if that's a word...). Looks to be 22% protein turkey and game crumble feed.

 

[laseterlass]

I beg to differ. My coturnix have laid all winter in Anchorage Ak. Unheated with a light in the evening till 9 pm. When it warms to above 32 I get an egg from every lady. When it drops below they go to every other night. Mine are on the ground with about 6 inches of deep litter. And fresh straw daily and eat non soy and corn lay pellets and suet coated Boss wild bird seed. Kitchen scraps too. They love cantaloupe! They will reward your care with eggs.

 

[MrNappy]

Every day isn't good, they should skip a day, so you should be getting 4-5 per week, although younger ones will lay more anyway.

 

[tlgrimmy]

Good to know! I assumed that this must be the case, as I have heard of many others having success with them in winter. I also have two Cayuga ducks and am getting an egg a day from each right now, so I figured the cold shouldn't be stopping them necessarily. I still haven't seen a single egg from my quail unfortunately. My ducks are putting them to shame!

 

[MrNappy]

Young quails will still lay even when you don't want em to, (from experience, less than 14 hours), temperature might also be a factor.

If they have more than 14 hours of light than they should lay, twocrowsranch knows the specifics about temp and what not. (Hope i spelled name right...)

 

[tlgrimmy]

Hello everybody. The verdict is in! It looks like they are all three females. I've come out to 3 eggs every day for the last three days. I think I even notice a slightly different type of egg coloring and finish for each of the three quails, which is kind of neat. Here's a picture: