Quail variant and sex identification help?

Anorakei

Chirping
Dec 10, 2018
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So I've got 5 adorable little quail currently almost 4 weeks old, 2 wild types (1 male, 1 female), 1 tuxedo (no sexing off pattern), and two that I'm not sure about what variant they are. Would be nice to get some input on those, especially if they can be sexed off just their patterns. See pictures below.

1. Cream:

Picture from last Friday (3 weeks and 2 days old). Chest is plain white since you can't see it in the picture. Looks like an Italian to me, if that's correct then plain chest should mean male, right?
26.jpg


2. Fiver:

Named that cause it was the 5th (and last) of my eggs to hatch. Picture from last Friday (2 weeks and 6 days old). Looks Manchurian to me, which are supposed to be sexable based on their faces. Some coloration in the face, probably not enough to qualify as a face mask, so female maybe?
22.jpg


Thank you for your input! Can provide more details if needed, just ask.

Here's hoping I don't have too many males for them to all get along :/
 
So I've got 5 adorable little quail currently almost 4 weeks old, 2 wild types (1 male, 1 female), 1 tuxedo (no sexing off pattern), and two that I'm not sure about what variant they are. Would be nice to get some input on those, especially if they can be sexed off just their patterns. See pictures below.

1. Cream:

Picture from last Friday (3 weeks and 2 days old). Chest is plain white since you can't see it in the picture. Looks like an Italian to me, if that's correct then plain chest should mean male, right?
View attachment 1613664

2. Fiver:

Named that cause it was the 5th (and last) of my eggs to hatch. Picture from last Friday (2 weeks and 6 days old). Looks Manchurian to me, which are supposed to be sexable based on their faces. Some coloration in the face, probably not enough to qualify as a face mask, so female maybe?
View attachment 1613682

Thank you for your input! Can provide more details if needed, just ask.

Here's hoping I don't have too many males for them to all get along :/
First one I would call a golden, usually Italian has more of a black and cream pattern rather than gold/light brown. Italian is a subgroup of golden. Italians you can sex by the chest feathers, goldens you can't. I accidentally put a golden female in the cage with all the males when sorting because lack of spotted chest said she was male. The brown around the face usually indicates male, so that is what I would guess on that one.

Second one could be either, I'm not familiar with the Manchurians to know if it is one or not or if they can be sexed by color. I would rely on the behavior of the other birds, especially the known males, to help you determine gender for this one and the tuxedo.
 
So I've got 5 adorable little quail currently almost 4 weeks old, 2 wild types (1 male, 1 female), 1 tuxedo (no sexing off pattern), and two that I'm not sure about what variant they are. Would be nice to get some input on those, especially if they can be sexed off just their patterns. See pictures below.

1. Cream:

Picture from last Friday (3 weeks and 2 days old). Chest is plain white since you can't see it in the picture. Looks like an Italian to me, if that's correct then plain chest should mean male, right?
View attachment 1613664

2. Fiver:

Named that cause it was the 5th (and last) of my eggs to hatch. Picture from last Friday (2 weeks and 6 days old). Looks Manchurian to me, which are supposed to be sexable based on their faces. Some coloration in the face, probably not enough to qualify as a face mask, so female maybe?
View attachment 1613682

Thank you for your input! Can provide more details if needed, just ask.

Here's hoping I don't have too many males for them to all get along :/
Calling in @DK newbie
 
First one is confired male by now, as he's started calling and fighting with the other males, same for my tuxedo. Currently in the process of getting more cages so I can split them up into three groups (two pairs, one lone tuxedo male). Second one I'm assuming female until proven otherwise.

Guess I'll call both of them manchurian golden. That means I've got 2 wilds, 2 goldens, and one tuxedo.
 
First one is confired male by now, as he's started calling and fighting with the other males, same for my tuxedo. Currently in the process of getting more cages so I can split them up into three groups (two pairs, one lone tuxedo male). Second one I'm assuming female until proven otherwise.

Guess I'll call both of them manchurian golden. That means I've got 2 wilds, 2 goldens, and one tuxedo.
Keep an eye on the health of the females, usually they don't do well in pairs because the males are too rambunctious and demanding. The males can over mate the females and rip out their feathers. Some do ok though, it really depends on the birds.

I actually had a pair that started out as a quad, three hens and a rooster. Found first one and then a second hen injured severely and had to remove to hospital cage. Tried to reintroduce other hens later and figured out it was the hen causing all the problems, she didn't want to share her rooster with anyone. They did fine for months until I had to call them from my breeding program.
 
Yea, I read about one female per male sometimes not being enough.

Do males still fight if they are kept without any females? If not I could put both my females with one of my males, then keep the other two males together on their own. Would make it easier on me space-wise as I wouldn't need a third cage (and my third male wouldn't be all alone in a cage).
 
Yea, I read about one female per male sometimes not being enough.

Do males still fight if they are kept without any females? If not I could put both my females with one of my males, then keep the other two males together on their own. Would make it easier on me space-wise as I wouldn't need a third cage (and my third male wouldn't be all alone in a cage).
The fights won't be as bad if they are in a separate cage, but they will still fight to establish a pecking order. The fights will be worse if they can see/hear the females. I would suggest making sure there are lots of hiding places and things within the cage to break up their sight lines so they should fight less.
 
Yea, sight definitely matters. The sole male and one of the paired ones will fight verbally i.e. loudly call at each other if they can see each other even if they're in different cages.

If they fight to establish a pecking order, does that mean they'll calm down once said order is established?

I've now moved two of my males into my lower cage with the female that was previously there out of sight in my transport cage. My higher cage is right next to the lower one, but because it is higher up and has a rather tall bottom there's no visibility from the lower cage.

Since I've put them together, the two males have scuffled occasionally, but seem to have calmed down considerably already. I'll continue watching them so I can intervene if necessary. There's a little wooden house in that cage that they can escape into/onto if they need to get out of each other's way, too.

Giving both the females to one male isn't optimal, but having to leave one male all by himself wouldn't be great either. Here's hoping this works out.
 

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