Teeny tiny "Jumbo" Brown Coturnix?

[owlett5]

Hey there everyone! I just got my first few quail from a guy who was selling jumbo browns on craigslist in my area. He had Texas A&M as well. I had a coworker pick up the quail for me over the weekend, a Texas A&M and a few Browns. I just wanted them mainly to be indoor egg birds. But when I saw the Browns, they were TINY!

The Texas white is HUGE compared to them! She's (hoping it's a she) has got to be double the size of these little browns. The guy selling them said they were 8 weeks old and laying already. I'd assumed Texas white and Jumbo Brown were roughly the same size. How much do Jumbo Brown usually weigh compared to whites? Are these browns actually standard?

 

[spikennipper]

Can you post up a pic? it's hard to say without seeing the birds but I'd assume the jumbo brown would be the same size if not bigger than the A&M, although as you know the girls are bigger than the boys.

 

[owlett5]

Sure thing. In this picture the brown is in the front so they almost look the same size.




So I felt maybe weight would be a better judge and plopped them on my (apparently dusty, sorry) kitchen scale:

Here is the A&M:


(6.6 ounces = 187 grams)

And here's one of the larger Browns:



(4.3 ounces = 128 grams)

I'm not sure if a weight difference of 2 ounces (56 grams) is really that remarkable or not. The difference is really more noticeable when I pick the two birds up. The A & M just feels meatier.

Now, as I mentioned, the guy I got them from told me they were 8 weeks old. Going by https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/817139/comparing-quail-sizes/20 a post about quail weights, my birds are half as big! What gives?

 

[spikennipper]

Hmmm yes I see what you mean, it certainly doesn't look Jumbo or 8 weeks I'd say they were younger than this, I take it they don't feel thin to you? is the breastbone nicely covered by fat? give them a couple more weeks and feed them up and see how they get on, corn, oats and millet are good foods to fatten them up on as a treat with their usual diet

 

[owlett5]

That's what I was thinking too. I've got them on a gamebird cumbles right now, but for the sake of trying to get some weight on them I'm going to mix in 50% chick grower which is higher in fat and protein. I"ll post again in a couple weeks if they start to plump up and grow a bit.

I'm curious if they are 8 weeks or not too, though the guy I got them from said that there were already birds laying in the pens he kept them in. He had them in battery cages, my coworker thinks there had to be at least 50 or so birds per cage. Maybe keeping them in battery cages stunts their growth?

 

[GhislaineDel]

My experience is limited as I don't yet have quail (my hatching eggs ae in the mail), but it's my understanding that some breeders of jumbo and A&M haven't bred them well enough to keep their size. If they were bred from the community cage your coworker saw then that seems likely.