Sexing young Button quail

[lena_]

I have five button quail. Two adults and three chicks. I am certain my brown chick is a male, as he has red feathers on his belly and around the vent. My other two are the Ivory mutation. I have no idea of their genders though. Is there any ways to tell? They are four weeks old.

 

[007Sean]

You can vent sex them when they get older, 6 to 8 weeks old. If you get foam, It's male.

 

[lena_]

You can vent sex them when they get older, 6 to 8 weeks old. If you get foam, It's male.

Thank you for the reply! I know this works with coturnixes, but was unsure about buttons, thanks for clearing it up!

 

[DK newbie]

I don't think it works with buttons. I haven't really tried, so I could be wrong, but I have been pushing randomly around the vent and have never seen foam.
I do however think you can see the difference from looking at the vent. I tried to get a pic of a male recently to show what I mean but it proved impossible to hold the bird, keep the feathers away from the vent and activate the camera with just two hands, so It'll have to wait till I can get someone to help me.
In the mean time, I think ivory should actually show pale pink vent feathers in males? I have no personal experience with the mutation but as far as I know only whites and tuxedos that are white in the vent area can't be sexed by the color of the vent feathers. They might still need to be around 5 weeks to show those feathers though.

 

[DK newbie]

I don't think it works with buttons. I haven't really tried, so I could be wrong, but I have been pushing randomly around the vent and have never seen foam.
I do however think you can see the difference from looking at the vent. I tried to get a pic of a male recently to show what I mean but it proved impossible to hold the bird, keep the feathers away from the vent and activate the camera with just two hands, so It'll have to wait till I can get someone to help me.
In the mean time, I think ivory should actually show pale pink vent feathers in males? I have no personal experience with the mutation but as far as I know only whites and tuxedos that are white in the vent area can't be sexed by the color of the vent feathers. They might still need to be around 5 weeks to show those feathers though.

 

[007Sean]

I don't think it works with buttons. I haven't really tried, so I could be wrong, but I have been pushing randomly around the vent and have never seen foam.
I do however think you can see the difference from looking at the vent. I tried to get a pic of a male recently to show what I mean but it proved impossible to hold the bird, keep the feathers away from the vent and activate the camera with just two hands, so It'll have to wait till I can get someone to help me.
In the mean time, I think ivory should actually show pale pink vent feathers in males? I have no personal experience with the mutation but as far as I know only whites and tuxedos that are white in the vent area can't be sexed by the color of the vent feathers. They might still need to be around 5 weeks to show those feathers though.

DK your right, the ivory males do have pale pink feathers around the vent. Like you I don't have enough hands to take a pic of mine to show here. I may try and set the camera on timer and tripod to get a pic.

 

[JaeG]

Ivory males will also show the white bib.

There's someone on TradeMe, member name: retrosmart, who has the ivory ones and there are a couple of photos there of his birds.

 

[007Sean]

Ivory males will also show the white bib.

There's someone on TradeMe, member name: retrosmart, who has the ivory ones and there are a couple of photos there of his birds.

Hey JaeG, do your ivories show a bib? Mine don't but mine aren't ivory color there brite white.

 

[JaeG]

Hey JaeG, do your ivories show a bib? Mine don't but mine aren't ivory color there brite white.

I've only had females hatch so far (and only two at that) but I've just hatched some more eggs and there might be an ivory or two in there. The chicks are still drying off, but it's looking hopeful.

The breeder we got our original pair off has ivory pairs but our daughter liked a different colour. His boys have white bibs. We haven't got the solid whites here - the ivory is very slightly grey/beige rather than solid white.

 

[007Sean]

I've only had females hatch so far (and only two at that) but I've just hatched some more eggs and there might be an ivory or two in there. The chicks are still drying off, but it's looking hopeful.

The breeder we got our original pair off has ivory pairs but our daughter liked a different colour. His boys have white bibs. We haven't got the solid whites here - the ivory is very slightly grey/beige rather than solid white.

Interesting, I wonder if they are the same color variant or there are the solid whites and then there are the ivory color, too? I'm going to call the resident expert in on this one, @DK newbie