Quail Breeding and Keeping it OUT of the Family

[Florence NightingQuail]

Wow, thanks for all info - the genetic charts look very useful. Who was Gator, btw? And Quaiken, thanks too - I am really trying my best to avoid any inbreeding from this first generation, as I really don’t want to be responsible for any deformities anywhere along the line. A question that does keep occurring to me though; if quails aren’t naturally great at incubating their own eggs, and baby chicks need constant heat and protection for their first 4weeks of life, and quails are happy to inbreed readily - how on earth do they even EXIST in the wild??

 

[JaeG]

Wow, thanks for all info - the genetic charts look very useful. Who was Gator, btw? And Quaiken, thanks too - I am really trying my best to avoid any inbreeding from this first generation, as I really don’t want to be responsible for any deformities anywhere along the line. A question that does keep occurring to me though; if quails aren’t naturally great at incubating their own eggs, and baby chicks need constant heat and protection for their first 4weeks of life, and quails are happy to inbreed readily - how on earth do they even EXIST in the wild??

They have been domesticated and developed by humans into what we have today and broodiness has been bred out of them so they do not sit and brood as that affects production, in the same way that production chicken breeds and hybrids don't generally go broody. Coturnix quail kept in very large, natural enclosures can go broody and raise chicks but this is very rare.

I've kept quail since 2014 and have only twice introduced new blood. I've never had deformities in my birds. And because I've bred them towards being super docile and tolerant of each other (I actually have equal numbers of males and females in my aviary and there are 5 pairs in there) it's difficult to find birds outside my gene pool that are as tolerant as mine.

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

Wow - its like you’ve somehow created a Quail Utopian Fantasy Community! Well done!

 

[Pandaisy]

I agree. I bred my rooster with the hens he hatched with. I have no idea if they were related. All the offsprings are healthy and show no signs of inbreeding.

 

[Ravenlover]

Wow, thanks for all info - the genetic charts look very useful. Who was Gator, btw? And Quaiken, thanks too - I am really trying my best to avoid any inbreeding from this first generation, as I really don’t want to be responsible for any deformities anywhere along the line. A question that does keep occurring to me though; if quails aren’t naturally great at incubating their own eggs, and baby chicks need constant heat and protection for their first 4weeks of life, and quails are happy to inbreed readily - how on earth do they even EXIST in the wild??

Quails that are in captivity lose the broodyness just happens but some keep the instinct and constantly hatch babys just ask some of the breeders here also if u look it up the moms can get off the eggs some times up to two hours for food and they turn/roll there eggs by shuffling them/scooting them back under her because her heat combined from the side of the egg touching her heating up naturally makes her uncomfortable to were she wants to roll the cool side up to cool her off and it happens to warm up the other side of the baby so it gets all rounded heat then in the last few days she stops doing this cuz her body heat adjusts cuz its basicly (lock down time) and they hatch and such i read this online its real and such. Also babies freak and follow mom for heat a lot they want constant 24/7 mom time which i can attest to since i only hatched one button quail and i am essentially mom snow is basicly with me from 5-6am when i wake to around 10pm-12am when i sleep it is now 20 days old today let me know if i forgot to answer something and if u really don't want to inbreed id suggest getting another batch of eggs roughly the amount u want and cull the extra or give them away for free then pair up the old batch with the new ones that way u know were the blood lines are also keep a journal or note book. My plan if i hatched extra was to get them up a week or two to my heat then sell them for like 2$ each with a printed page of instructions and a cup of ground feed since button are small a cup would last till they buy some and if they wouldnt sell then i would have stood there and gave them away for free with sheet and cup of food cuz its quarantine time people want pets and projects and would love free lol

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

That’s fascinating - thanks heaps for the insight. I am still undecided about breeding, mainly because I know from monitoring that people around my suburban area aren’t just taking quails for free or otherwise willy nilly (I see the same ads up on our local classifieds stay there for a long time). Basically, unless I know I’m prepared to cull, I don’t think I should embark on breeding. In theory, I’m good with culling; but practice is quite different! If I do breed, it sounds like I can let this batch do it amongst themselves fairly confidently, and bring in new blood for the generation after that if I choose to continue.

 

[Quaicken108]

That’s fascinating - thanks heaps for the insight. I am still undecided about breeding, mainly because I know from monitoring that people around my suburban area aren’t just taking quails for free or otherwise willy nilly (I see the same ads up on our local classifieds stay there for a long time). Basically, unless I know I’m prepared to cull, I don’t think I should embark on breeding. In theory, I’m good with culling; but practice is quite different! If I do breed, it sounds like I can let this batch do it amongst themselves fairly confidently, and bring in new blood for the generation after that if I choose to continue.

It’s really up to you because you own them. Hopefully everything works out.

 

[Ravenlover]

Right i think all that can be said has been lol

 

[Quailobsessed]

When we have multiple quails and we’re talking about genetics the mutation of the quail is impacted by their bloodline. If I have a tuxedo male and a Italian female then the chicks would be Italian and tuxedos unless my Italian and/or tuxedo have other genes like if I have a tuxedo male who is breeding with an Italian female but the tuxedos mum is a pharaoh than you’d get the pharaoh gene in the bloodline and even though you don’t have a pharaoh mutation the chicks could also be pharaohs because of the bloodline. So if you have quails that you’re not sure of the same or different mutations dosen’t mean who’s related to who but if you know them, ring them up or maybe you know them for keeping bloodline and mutations together I’m not sure but just because you have quails with different mutations dosen’t hugely impact the bloodline. If I had a tuxedo make and an Italian female than the results for those mutations would increase and you would have siblings with the same mutations. I’m guessing you have Coturnix and they’re not as susceptible as kings/buttons but I have a friend who has a male with four of his sisters and he sees them as sisters but this is also different because they helped raise him. I know they have two males with one female who see each other as siblings as well. When they got Coturnix they had a pair and the male didn’t really try to breed with the female and they thought that it was probably a relative. Not saying that all quails know which other quail is it’s relative but sometimes they just won’t interact (sexually) with them. Inbreeding can be a huge problem if it’s done multiple times because it will reduce the lifespan of the quail and can also give them deformities. That same friend got a bobwhite and Californian quail pair from a person who inbred and they only have the Californian quail male left. Their bobwhite female had a extra toe and when their Californian quails had a fertile egg which they hatched out it died young because it was inbred and not as likely to survive. This is sad and cruel in my opinion so if you get chicks then just make sure to separate the bloodlines because it can lead to a real heartbreaking reality for your quails. Not to bash anyone up or anything but breeding in my personal opinion is serious and should be done knowledgeably. I know people who have bred animals that resulted in hybrids. Frankly I don’t care what people say about a hybridisation that looks ‘cool or pretty’ because the real thing is as cool and pretty. Taxonomy can be important because if you’re think (not you don’t worry I’m just ranting, soz) to breed a golden pheasant with a lady amherst pheasant than you’re actually hybridising because they’re two different species. It’s actually like trying to breed a king quail (true name) with a Japanese quail (true name) because they’re two different species under the same genus... Coturnix quail. Which is what practically everyone refers Japanese quails as that I just say it. Kings on the other hand can be called Chinese painted quail and stuff which is the same thing but what people usually call them is button quails which is what they’re sort of known as now but button quails are actually this brown sort of wild quail. Sooooooo sorry for my mini (BIG) rant. Hopefully you can find out or do something to impact the breeding situation.

My kind of rant

 

[Quailobsessed]

They best way to avoid inbreeding them is to not breed them with each other, but that may not be a realistic option for you, I don't know your full situation. I have made the decision to keep some siblings together (because they love each other), but I don't breed them.