What colours are these? (Chinese/button quail)

[Kitei]

I recently purchased two trios of Chinese Quail, however I'm not sure what colours they are.

The first trio, I'm guessing the male could be Normal red breasted, but not sure, since his red feathers aren't really at his breast?
The two girls that are with him are also a mystery - they're both different colours, I think, due to one having a lighter face and chin area.

;

That's the boy.

Girl with the darker face and bib-area.

Girl with the lighter face/bib.

The second trio were sold to me as Silver Laced, which could be Blue faced silvers?

Hen

Cock

However, the second female in the group is very dissimilar to the other two. Hopefully you can see in the picture, but she has a pale bib area, like a regular silver, but cream feathers mixed in. She's the prettiest little bird I have <3

She's currently in isolation while she recovers from an injury - should I be looking into buying in another cock and pairing her up with him, if she's another colour?

The brown hens are about 8 weeks old now and I'm starting to get the occasional egg from them - is a phased introduction to laying normal for quail? I know chickens can take a while to settle into a pattern.
Nothing from either of the silver hens, although I think the one with cream still has another week before she's supposed to start.

Thanks a lot for any help!

 

[Kitei]

Oops, fixed the pictures.

 

[GrandmaBird]

I am no pro but I think the first male is a red breasted, normal. the first hen is a dark faced or darth vader. the 2nd looks normal.
the silvers are really hard to tell but the first does look like a female and the 2 a male. now the last one could be a male. does he have any red feathers in the vent/butt area? they are so hard to tell. If he is a male that would explain the injury...two males. they could be blue faced or just still have some of the chick feathers as they are the last to change when young. Sorry I cannot be of more help but there are lots of folks around who can. Good luck.

 

[Kitei]

Ooh, that would make sense. Maybe I should be looking at splitting the dark faced girl and putting her with a dark faced cock, as well? I'm not sure how well the colours breed if mixed.

Pretty sure the cream/silver one is a hen. She's 'long- shaped rather than rounded, which my boys seem to be, and just checked and there's no red feathers.
However, I know that she's a couple of weeks younger than the other two, so I'm thinking they just put her with them to sell, so maybe that's why they aren't getting along?

 

[gorabbitgo]

Ya, it's more "natural" for them to be in pairs than in trios. Some people can keep them in trios, but more often than not it will eventually result in fights or death of a bird.

You can keep your two "single" females together until you get roos for them.

 

[Kitei]

I might well do that, then. The silver/cream hen is currently in with the canaries but I'll be getting a new cage in the next week or so anyway, so yeah.
I think a dark faced boy would be fairly easy to get ahold of, but if anyone knows what colour the silver/cream hen is, that'd really help me in trying to find a boy for her? xD

Could she maybe be Ivory? I've not seen a picture of them but it says they're a sort of mix between a cinnaman colour and silver?

 

[GrandmaBird]

These quail have been bread in captivity so long that there are very few if any pure colors. You can get everything from a silver to a darth/black face in one clutch from the same hen and roo. That is what happens with inbreeding, but better than extinct.

 

[Kitei]

That's true for pretty much any animal that carries genetics for more than one variation, though. It's pretty much like breeding 2 black labs and getting a golden. It isn't down to inbreeding that this happens, but inbreeding can limit the gene pool to make it more likely.
It's difficult to breed recessive genes out, since you obviously can't see if they carry colours, but not impossible.