Yellow quail skin

[Thedogtribunal]

Hi there.
I am new to quail. Today, I found a quail in its cage not able to move. I must have sexed him wrong and I think he got beat up by another male. When I culled him, I was looking at his feathers. The skin underneath is yellow. Is that normal or did he have a disease. I can't find anything on the internet or in the forum.

I've attached a picture. I pulled out the feathers.

Thanks

 

[Nabiki]

That doesn't look normal to me. I'm not sure if it's disease or something unique to that bird.

When it comes to food, I'm a big believer in "When in doubt, throw it out."

 

[Thedogtribunal]

Thank you. I won't eat it. The other quail have some yellow under their feathers too. Just a little. I was thinking it might be pollen. We have a lot of pine trees and about a week ago everything had a thick dusting of pollen.

 

[007Sean]

That may be peculiar to your quail? Usually if the skin looks yellow, is because of fat deposits under the skin.
Looking at your pic, it's hard to tell whether that is fat or as you said, stained from pollen? If all of you're quail look that way, I would suspect it's a genetical trait.

 

[Kiki]

Check them really well for mites.

 

[Thedogtribunal]

OK. Thank you.