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.

 

[Carterborchers]

I have three male button quail that live together, and one of them used to be kind of aggressive at times, chasing the other two and pecking at them.

I noticed that one of them had yellow, scabby stuff on his head today. The other has a tiny bald spot on his head. I was trying to bond with him, holding him and petting his chest and neck, and felt scabby skin in some area. When I parted the feathers, it was yellow in those areas. I checked the aggressor, and he has none of the yellow scabs. I hatched them, inside, at home. I have other enclosures containing birds from the same hatch. They used to live together as hatchlings and juveniles, but I paired the one hen with one of the four males I had. None of my others birds have ever been outside, so I can’t imagine how they’d have mites.

I think mine is from the one bird who pecked at them. I hatched some hens, and am waiting for them to grow older so I can pair the poor scabby birds with them. I’ve tried introducing the aggressor to a hen once, but he latched on to the female and clamped down on her skin so hard and wouldn’t let go… I think breeding was on his mind, but he never even got around to it. I’m not sure what to do with him—he probably wouldn’t accept any new “roommates.”