New (unusual) Button Quail Chick

[JaeG]

Well, this baby is getting blue patches so it's got to be a boy.

Here it is next to a cinnamon female

And here's a good shot of that pretty patch of blue coming through

 

[JaeG]

Just thought I'd update with a few photos. I keep telling them to stop being so pretty! There are so many I want to keep! My unrelated pair have given me dilutes and ivory chicks so far (there are still a few eggs that will hopefully hatch) so hopefully I can make a couple of unrelated pairs from them and my little ones.

Here's our one dilute male so far.

And here is how Amber has turned out.

This Ivory male our daughter has named Icecream. There is a spot of very soft pink on his wing that you can't make out in the photo thanks to the flash. Not sure if he'll keep that but we'll see. I suspect we are keeping him!

Here's little Oddball, still getting bluer on his chest. He's quite a big bird so that must be why I though he was older.

This Ivory I'm keeping my eye on - he's got quite a deep colour on his chest (compared to the others) and he's got patterning down his back, which the others lack.

And here's the caramel male next to a female of the same colour. He's still my only boy (I have 6 females).

 

[DK newbie]

I think Oddball is getting even more odd ^^ The head is fully feathered and yet there is not the slightest hint of a bib.. If this goes on, I'm starting to think he's got an unknown mutation.

 

[JaeG]

I think Oddball is getting even more odd ^^ The head is fully feathered and yet there is not the slightest hint of a bib.. If this goes on, I'm starting to think he's got an unknown mutation.

Do you think he might be a blue faced one (not that his face is going blue yet)? It's not easy finding much information online, and even harder to find photos that show them growing up. It will be interesting to see how he turns out. And interesting to see what any offspring look like.

I wanted to share a cute Coturnix/Japanese (never quite sure which to call them) quail chick that hatched out yesterday. I've called it Chimera because it has a Rosetta coloured head, a Wild coloured body, and it's a Tuxedo.

 

[DK newbie]

He doesn't look anything like my bluefaces. And a bit of googling turned up two pics of likely cinnamon blueface males - he doesn't look like them either:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cbb-button-quail-pair-cinnamon-blueface-pair.603754/
https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Quail/Button/BRKButton.html
There could of cause be other mutations in there causing his particular coloration in combination with blue face, but apart from him not having a bib I really don't see any blue face in him - and as you are not supposed to have blue face over there anyway (and it's a dominant mutation so you should know if you had it), I don't think that's the answer.

The cot is cute too ^^ Though if you hadn't mentioned its color being strange, I wouldn't have noticed at all.. That'll be an interesting one as well

 

[JaeG]

He doesn't look anything like my bluefaces. And a bit of googling turned up two pics of likely cinnamon blueface males - he doesn't look like them either:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cbb-button-quail-pair-cinnamon-blueface-pair.603754/
https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Quail/Button/BRKButton.html
There could of cause be other mutations in there causing his particular coloration in combination with blue face, but apart from him not having a bib I really don't see any blue face in him - and as you are not supposed to have blue face over there anyway (and it's a dominant mutation so you should know if you had it), I don't think that's the answer.

The cot is cute too ^^ Though if you hadn't mentioned its color being strange, I wouldn't have noticed at all.. That'll be an interesting one as well

So he's just my little mutant then. I do like his blue and I'm hoping he'll get a full blue chest at least. The cinnamons do seem to take the longest to feather up into their adult colours.

By 3 weeks my little coturnix should be mostly fully feathered so we won't have to wait as long to see how he's going to turn out.

 

[JaeG]

I felt like a bit of an idiot yesterday. I decided to look at my adult male cinnamon to see what colour his face was (as Oddball's face is still gingery coloured). Well, their 'face colour' is their bib isn't it?!

I think Oddball will keep his ginger chin (he did not appreciate the flash). It's looking pretty defined at this point in time.

 

[DK newbie]

As a reference, I found a few pics of a blueface male of mine that looks to be around his age - maybe a few days younger. As you can se, he is very different:

 

[JaeG]

As a reference, I found a few pics of a blueface male of mine that looks to be around his age - maybe a few days younger. As you can se, he is very different:

Thanks - he's definitely different. (Love those blue faces though). So how would I go about breeding Oddball do you think? The problem here is that most birds would be carrying a lot of colours to start with. I will have some that are half related to him (male is an unrelated wild coloured one). Would that be a better bet to pair him with than something unknown?

 

[DK newbie]

I don't really know. Pairing him with someone with no mutations at all would be optimal with regards to figuring out what mutations he carry and how they are passed on. But finding a bird with no mutations will be pretty hard, taking into consideration that the mutations can be carried invisibly.
If the goal is to get more like him, pairing him with the female that's most related to him would be best.
In general I'm not a fan of inbreeding but I'll have to admit I have a male I don't know the mutation of as well, and if it hadn't been for the fact that he started pecking his daughter, he would be paired with her now ^^ I'll probably try introducing them again in a new invironment in a few weeks. None of his chicks have shown any mutations, so I'm pretty sure whatever he is, is recessive. So to get more like him, I have to pair him with his own offspring (or pair the offspring together, but I was stupid and sold all the males and apparently he (or the hen he is with?) has low fertility now, so getting more chicks isn't easy).