New (unusual) Button Quail Chick

[JaeG]

I just wanted to share my little Button chick that hatched out today. I've brought it and its family inside as the weather is going to pack up and I don't want this precious baby wandering off in the aviary and getting lost (that's happened before).

It's patterned like a wild type but instead of black stripes it has light grey/brown stripes. I had one hatch the same colour awhile ago but it died early on so I never got to see what colour it would turn out to be.

I do have Caramel in the genetics of my birds and I'm wondering if it acts like a diluting gene as I've had very diluted silvers coming through.

Here's the precious bubby with its wild sibling to show the difference:

Here's what my caramel and cinnamon chicks look like and it's not like either of them:

Caramel:

Cinnamon:

We only have five mutations here in New Zealand: Wild, Cinnamon, Caramel, Silver and Ivory, so I'm hoping this little one makes it and I can see what it turns out to be.

 

[007Sean]

Cute little fuzzballs. Do you have a Silver and Cinnamon paired? or do you know which hen layed that particular egg? To me it looks like a Sliver x Cinnamon? I don't have any Cinnamons but my Silvers when hatched are Silver with darker Silver stripes. Either way will be interesting to see how it feathers out. Keep us posted. Congrats!

 

[JaeG]

Cute little fuzzballs. Do you have a Silver and Cinnamon paired? or do you know which hen layed that particular egg? To me it looks like a Sliver x Cinnamon? I don't have any Cinnamons but my Silvers when hatched are Silver with darker Silver stripes. Either way will be interesting to see how it feathers out. Keep us posted. Congrats!

I'm pretty sure it's the same hen that gave me this colour before. She lays like crazy but doesn't sit so I swap out eggs sometimes or incubate them. She's a cinnamon split to silver and she's in with a silver split to cinnamon male and they've given me a few ivory babies, as well as some very pale silvers. My silvers were hatching out with pale silver stripes and then I started getting ones with very dark silver stripes, and it seems to be the dark ones that then end up being light silver! It's all very confusing because I can't find any genetic information on the Caramel colour. I found a bit of information on an Aussie site but they were referring to it as sex linked Cinnamon - and the three I have/have hatched have all been females.

Not the best lighting but left to right there's a pale silver, an ivory, a dark silver, a caramel, and another dark silver.

And here's what the ivory and silvers turn out like:
Ivory:


Normal silver:


Light silver:


There was a fifth chick that just hatched with a bit of help. The older chicks were getting restless so I thought it best to bring them inside from the aviary before anyone wandered off so I held the unhatched but pipped egg somewhere safe and it kept peeping madly but making no progress. I ended up helping it and there wasn't a vein in sight, but that baby was stuck. It looks to be another of the same unusual colour but I'll see for sure once it fluffs up. I gave it back to my little hen, Spicey, and she's tucked it under he nice and safe. It's evening here so she should stay put until the morning when it has dried off which gives it time to recover and keep up with the others.

Here's the information I found from an Australian breeder on the mutations available there:

Normal - full, regular, wildtype colouring (this is not a mutation, but the starting point!)

Silver - normal bird with silver mutation - colours turned down, looks grey/silver. I think this is related to a form of albinism (recessive inheritance)

Cinnamon - normal bird lacking black patterning on back (recessive)

Ivory - (homozygous silver + homozygous cinnamon) clear silver bird that lacks dark patterning down back (I have a soft spot for ivories) - Note, people sometimes call these 'white' - but clearly they are not as they still possess patterning, grey colouring and bibs.

Grizzle - grizzle mutation removes colour from base of feather (I am still unclear of what a double factor grizzle looks like as I have only so far produced a normal bird with a single factor of grizzle, and it is difficult to pick any distinctive colouring beneath the black back markings.) This is a dominant gene.

Caramel - (grizzle + homozygous cinnamon) Caramels are cinnamon birds which have a patterning, most prominently noted down their backs, where the base of the feather lacks colouration. Double factor grizzles (+ cinnamon) are obvious.

The bronze mutation produces a darker bird, turning up the brown colourings (melanistic). It is a dominant mutation, demonstrating a dosage effect - more obvious in double factor birds. Still much to be done here.

Bronze - (bronze mutation + homozygous cinnamon) being cinnamons, you would expect yellow chicks - but these are almost as dark as normals. Brizzles have a darker brown colouration.

Barred Ivory - (Bronze + homozygous silver + homozygous cinnamon) An ivory bird, the male producing dark barring across its chest. Some, slightly darker shading of grey across the back may be noticed.

Brizzle - (Bronze + Grizzle + homozygous Cinnamon) - appears as a caramel - but darker.


Read more: http://aussiebirds.proboards.com/thread/8400/king-quail-mutations#ixzz4qkMEbudl​

 

[lomine]

So cute. I hope you share more photos as it starts to feather.

 

[JaeG]

So cute. I hope you share more photos as it starts to feather.

Of course I will! They are so adorable. It's similar to the cinnamons, but browner overall and without the very orange stripes they have. Only 6-8 weeks to see how it turns out.

It's very hard to get good photos today as it's dark and rainy here, but I got a couple of half decent ones:
Little legs (not sure how they all fit):

 

[N F C]

Hi @JaeG just popping in to see more pictures of your babies!

 

[007Sean]

pics JaeG! Congrats

 

[AQuailNamedFrancis]

@JaeG My female button quail is doing her mature mating call. And I have for sure one male. (his bib is growing in and it looks like it has a rusty vent feather). My question is I have 2 other birds that I seriously don't know what sex they are. Should I take out my for sure male an female and put them in a cage so they can mate for life? ?

ty

 

[JaeG]

@JaeG My female button quail is doing her mature mating call. And I have for sure one male. (his bib is growing in and it looks like it has a rusty vent feather). My question is I have 2 other birds that I seriously don't know what sex they are. Should I take out my for sure male an female and put them in a cage so they can mate for life? ?

ty

If you are happy with that pairing (colour wise) and you think the male is mature enough put them together and see if they like each other. It's rare that they won't accept each other but there might be some initial chasing. If you have neutral territory that's generally best but you can put in a divider if not. Don't put the male in the female's territory without a divider.

I remember reading one website and they'd had a female who was being very picky. The person ended up putting her in a cage with 6 males and letting her choose which one was up to standard !

What colours are your unknowns? You could post some photos and I'm sure someone will have some ideas. I'm not familiar with many mutations (seeing as we don't have many here) but DK Newbie or MageofMist might know.

 

[AQuailNamedFrancis]

My other 2 lil guys are white and black colored. Tomorrow morning I will upload an image!

Thanks for the help