New (unusual) Button Quail Chick

[JaeG]

I thought I should do an update. Oddball is still odd. My daughter came up with a lovely name for him but I cannot remember what it was. He's got splotches of blue but not as much as I'd hoped. It's a nice contrast to the gingery colour on his face and tummy though.

My Caramels are pretty:

And I have three Ivory boys who are sporting quite a bit of pink which I sure hope they keep - this was a funny photo. Poor baby stood in wet poop (I don't think he was impressed). I did clean them out right after taking photos. I probably should've done that the other way around though.

 

[drumstick diva]

What neat colors.

 

[strawberricatt]

Here are my butttons finally!

My 'mystery chick' creeper

He's got lovely red!

Wild type male in the front

 

[strawberricatt]

lol, I accidentally posted

Normal beside 'mystery chick'

Without me holding them

An ivory comes and makes the shot nice and blurry...

 

[strawberricatt]

All of my buttons

Here's his back

Chest and head

His back again

His lovely head

His belly

His wing

 

[007Sean]

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All of my buttons

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Here's his back

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Chest and head

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His back again

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His lovely head

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His belly

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His wing

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The mystery bird looks almost like it may have African Harlequin blood?

 

[JaeG]

@Feather Hearts your mystery looks like what I've been calling dilute as that's what they look like to me - a diluted form of the wilds. I'd love to be able to figure out their genetics but I don't even know where to start! I have heaps of girls in that colour but only a couple of boys. It's the same deal with the caramels - heaps of girls and one boy so far.

I'm even more confused because I have a wild male who isn't related to my birds in with a caramel female. I hatched two of her eggs for the Easter HAL as I assumed they'd all be wild coloured and I didn't want too many of those, but I wanted one that was a half sister for another male. Well, both those chicks have turned out to be caramels. There were other males in that pen awhile ago so perhaps she still had sperm stored up from one of them, but I didn't think quail hens could store it for as long as bigger birds. It was at least two weeks between them being removed and me collecting the eggs. I'm tempted to try again and see what pops out this time around, but I don't want to hatch too many, but I also need to put enough in so that I don't end up with a lone baby.

 

[JaeG]

Um, my Oddball (now named Lynx) laid an egg today! She still has speckles of blue on her chest and a bit of red in her tail, but there's a cute, little egg in the cage she shares with the Caramel male! Crazy or what?!

 

[007Sean]

@Feather Hearts your mystery looks like what I've been calling dilute as that's what they look like to me - a diluted form of the wilds. I'd love to be able to figure out their genetics but I don't even know where to start! I have heaps of girls in that colour but only a couple of boys. It's the same deal with the caramels - heaps of girls and one boy so far.

I'm even more confused because I have a wild male who isn't related to my birds in with a caramel female. I hatched two of her eggs for the Easter HAL as I assumed they'd all be wild coloured and I didn't want too many of those, but I wanted one that was a half sister for another male. Well, both those chicks have turned out to be caramels. There were other males in that pen awhile ago so perhaps she still had sperm stored up from one of them, but I didn't think quail hens could store it for as long as bigger birds. It was at least two weeks between them being removed and me collecting the eggs. I'm tempted to try again and see what pops out this time around, but I don't want to hatch too many, but I also need to put enough in so that I don't end up with a lone baby.

I had a similar thing occur with my green melanistic pheasants. Half the hatch turned out green, the other half had melanistic phenotype but you can tell there's other mixes of at least 2 different subspecies of true pheasant blood that is showing up in the offspring. That's one of the problems here in the States now days because of the ban on importing. Everyone's breeding whatever they have on hand, and mixing several bloodlines, becomes hard to find any pure birds.

 

[DK newbie]

Um, my Oddball (now named Lynx) laid an egg today! She still has speckles of blue on her chest and a bit of red in her tail, but there's a cute, little egg in the cage she shares with the Caramel male! Crazy or what?!

That is truly crazy! Can you post a new pic of what we'll now have to call 'her'? And keep us updated on how her color developes as she ages.