How to distinguish a female from a male quail: methods for determining sex and at what age can

Table Of Contents

How to tell the gender of quails
How to distinguish a female from a male, taking into account the breed

Quail breeding is associated with various difficulties. Many quail breeders doubt whether they correctly distinguish the female from the male, and also talk about how to do this, what signs exist for this. The complexity of the definition at an early age is associated with a minimal set of differences. The gender of quails is important to breeders for a reason that underlies any breeding. This reason is the planning of the offspring of birds.

How to tell the gender of quails

Gender determination is difficult in the first days of life. Experienced breeders are guided by plumage, voice, weight and sexual characteristics.The difficulty is the definition of feathers in breeds, females and males of which have plumage of the same color. Then use accompanying techniques.

In appearance

Gender can be determined by the main differences:

quails are lighter than quails;
the chest of males has a brighter color, colored spots stand out on the central part;
boys are distinguished by a disproportionate head in relation to the body: the head is smaller in size, which looks strange from the side;
in girls, the lines of the head smoothly flow into the lines of the body, the females are proportionately folded;
girls move more slowly than boys: first it is due to the peculiarities of behavior, then due to the peculiarities of physiology;
in boys, the shape of the pelvic bones is different in the direct structure;
in girls, a kind of fork is formed on the line where the pelvic bones connect to the legs: this feature helps females easily carry eggs;
quails often have a white collar-like stripe around their neck;
The color of the beak in males is darker than in females.

Attention! The method of determining by color is valid when the breed has a pronounced species feature. With a lubricated type of plumage, the definition is difficult.

By voice and behavior

The study of habits and voice data helps to find out the gender with a high degree of probability. The voice of a young quail is melodic and pleasant. Unlike quails, males are noisy, hysterical notes slip through their voices. Females after the onset of puberty almost do not enter into conflicts, they talk little.

Differences in behavior between males and females:

Because of this, females have bald patches on their heads.

Male	Females
Birds circle over females to get their attention. They can rise up, then dive down.	Females pretend not to pay attention to circling. They sing while sitting on the branches, do not enter into mating games until a certain moment, until they make the final choice. differs in loudness, saturation.

Help! Males constantly sort things out, enter into fights. Females are sociable until they have offspring.

Along the cloaca

The cesspool helps to distinguish the gender with a 100% result. In the first weeks of life, the color of the cloaca is pale pink. As the cloaca grows older, it changes shade:

becomes bluish in females;
in males, the color of the cloaca remains pink.

The cesspool sex determination method works with high accuracy after puberty. To determine the cloaca, they press hard. In the male, after pressing, a foaming liquid begins to stand out.

To use this method, you need to find the cloaca. To do this, they take the bird in their hands, turn it upside down, spread the tail feathers with their fingers and examine the cloaca. When pressing on the cloaca from both sides, the females become visible smooth, almost glossy muscles. In males, an elevation of muscles and muscles gradually appears, fluid begins to stand out.

Weight of birds

After puberty, sex determination of birds is associated with the analysis of weight characteristics. Females are larger than males by a quarter of the total weight.They look much larger, subcutaneous fat is deposited on different parts of the body, which is provided by nature. Subcutaneous fat allows for a more productive distribution of heat during the period when the bird is incubating.

The male, compared to the female, looks lighter, he has almost no deposits of subcutaneous fat, he is prone to active movement, often picks up other quails, enters into fights, where the winner is determined by the preponderance of strength and dexterity.

How to distinguish a female from a male, taking into account the breed

Descriptions of breeds help to understand how different sexual characteristics are. For each breed there is a set of specific criteria. Use breed descriptions to determine sex from the second month of the bird's existence.

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is the breed closest to wild quails in the traditional sense.The main color of the plumage is brown-yellow. The main difference between females is lighter plumage. Pharaoh females are closer to a golden hue in color, males are described as brown-gold birds. In quails, pronounced yellow, bright spots are often visible on the chest.

Both sexes of the Pharaoh breed have a white stripe around the neck that resembles a kind of collar, so this trait is not considered informative.

The Pharaoh breed is different in that when growing up, females weigh 80-90 grams more than males, and at the same time look more massive.

Texan

The Texas breed is an artificially bred hybrid. Birds of several species with white plumage were taken as the basis for selection. The coloring of the parent lines has resulted in children getting a specific feather pattern without the possibility of a colored chick.

Texans of both sexes are evenly colored. Their white plumage allows interspersed with black feathers on the central part of the body. When growing up, the difference between cockerels and hens becomes noticeable. An adult quail weighs 100 grams more than a quail.

Texan averages:

female weighs between 450 and 500 grams;
males weigh between 350 and 380 grams.

Estonian

It is possible to distinguish a boy from a girl of the Estonian breed on several grounds. Estonians are similar in characteristics to the Pharaoh breed, so the color description is rarely taken as a basis.

Females are lighter than males. On the chest, the color of the plumage is as if smeared. Quails have a pronounced clarity. On the chest, feathers stand out especially contrastingly. The main color of the plumage is brown-gold; in boys, black-red feathers are allowed in the plumage of the central part of the chest.

Attention! To determine the sex of the Estonian breed, the plumage color characteristic is almost never used due to low information content.

Manchu

Determining the sex of the Manchu breed is quite difficult. This can only be done when the birds enter sexual maturity. By this time, the color of the plumage becomes more pronounced and understandable. The breed is characterized by the following features:

females have colorful plumage, clearly colored feathers are visible on their chest, a light-colored crown is prominent on their heads;
male quails become red with age, a dark pattern forms on the head, turning into a mask near the beak.

Tuxedo

Tuxedo quails are classified as meat and egg breeds, so it is especially important for breeders to determine the sex of the bird as early as possible. You can separate individuals using color analysis, as well as focusing on the characteristics of the cloaca.

The tuxedo breed is named after its outward appearance. The main tone of bird feathers is brown-yellow, while a white spot stands out on the chest in both sexes, resembling the outlines of a tuxedo from a distance. The color of the main plumage on the back and tail of females is lighter, blurred. The lines flow smoothly without creating clear boundaries. Quails have a more pronounced white, tuxedo part with well-defined lines.

The second sign is the weight of birds: males weigh from 180 to 200 grams, females weigh from 220 to 230 grams. This sign is formed by 3-4 months of existence.

It is difficult to recognize the tuxedo breed by behavior: both sexes are shy, do not differ in special voice differences, hysterical notes slip in the voices of males and females when danger approaches.

Sex determination for quail breeders during the initial stage of keeping is an important condition for planning offspring. Early sex recognition increases the profitability of keeping, helps to determine the productivity of the livestock in advance.