Quail and Genetics

[GhostKeeper]

Hello! So I am relatively new to quail and just wished to discuss an observation regarding my quail.

I have discovered an interesting neurological twitch. The quail in question are just fine, eat and drink and socialize with the flock, but these quail shake or have a twitch of sorts. Neither were sick or infected as chicks (I keep things very clean) and there were no head injuries. It does not seem to be restricted to sex, but both are this pearly shiny white. The male has obsessive cleaning habits, and the female is a young chick and hasn't quite gotten grooming down yet.

Were they to be in pain or unable to properly function as quail, I would have culled them. At present, I simply do not take eggs from the male's pen. I just wanted to know if anyone else has seen any neurological issues in white quail. This line is NOT Texas A&M and every single quail I have is a different color or pattern mixture.

 

[FloorCandy]

Do you have silvers? A double dose of the silver gene will make a solid white bird. The double silvers often grow and feather a bit slowly, are usually blind or visually impaired, and often have neurological issues. I’ve been breeding double silvers for good health for a while now, and I’ve seen a variety of issues that I’ve bred to exclude. Sometimes just being visually impaired will give the impression of neurological issues, but head swaying and pecking things can be their way of trying to process their world. In my experience, double silver females are more likely to have issues than males. The silver gene has a lot of seeming similarities to Merle in dogs. If you have silvers you will want to breed them to non silvers so they just get one copy of the gene at most.

 

[GhostKeeper]

I do have silvers! And some greys with mixed wild type genes that seem to make silvers. I've a few tibetians that are solid in health and very friendly, and I have a tan I'm not quite sure where she came from genetically. Her chicks are always very healthy, as are the dark dark grey birds. The male is my silver so I can just exclude eggs lain by the silver hen. The male I have noticed with health issues, cannot breed, but he paired up with a female who has a bad eye and the two of them seem happy figuring out the world together. I appreciate the information on silvers, and luckily, I am already breeding for the darker coloration. (And friendliness as well as intelligence.)