Quail genetics experts, I have a question for you

[Skyle]

Hi! Yesterday I hatched 20 japanese quail chicks. The eggs were from my flock, which is composed from:
Roo: Manchurian
Hens: 2 Pharaoh, 1 Italian, 2 Manchurian.

There also are 4 Button quails with them: 2 silver (male and female) and 2 pearl (male and female), but I don't think it's relevant.

So... I was expecting only yellow with black stripes chicks, but I got 3 of these with only ore really light stripe.
Is there a recessive (or non really visible in heterozygous) gene along my flock? Are these 3 Manchurian and all the others Italian?

Normal

Light chick

---

Plus, there are also some chicks with many speckles on the head, it's just a normal / not selected expression of the fawn or it's something else?

These are the speckles I was talking about

Thank you!

 

[Skyle]

Up, in case someone knows the answer
I also have a little update: I noticed the light chicks have red pupils, which no one of the other "normal" colored chicks have.
Unfortunately I found one of the three dead, out of nowhere, she looked healthy until few hours before.
Another one of these three looks blind. It is able to find he heat source, but it won't drink or eat even if helped. She refuses every sip of water or bite of food. I'm trying all I can (I helped some chicks that had a hard time eating and drinking in my past hatches) but I don't think she will make it

 

[RoosterML]

Would be helpful to know where your birds came from. I would say you have yourself a white on your hands.

 

[Skyle]

Would be helpful to know where your birds came from. I would say you have yourself a white on your hands.

Thank you for your reply
That is a little hard: 2 hens came from supermarket eggs (I guess they use only feather sexable colors) and all the others came from a breeder that I don't know (and I never had the opportunity to know what else colors he has)
So it could really be everything

 

[Nabiki]

The red and bulging eyes are worrying. Albinos almost always have serious health issues. The breeder you got the eggs from may have been breeding some colours that have lethal combinations, which lead to low hatch rates and chicks with issues.

 

[Skyle]

The red and bulging eyes are worrying. Albinos almost always have serious health issues. The breeder you got the eggs from may have been breeding some colours that have lethal combinations, which lead to low hatch rates and chicks with issues.

Thank you. The eyes did't seemed bulging to me, just red. I think you are right, unfortunately I lost all the 3 light coloured chicks. They initially seemed ok (except for the blind one), but then weren't growing at all.
I wanted to use these chicks to begin two lines of quail: one pharaoh (breeding an italian male with the 2 pharaoh females I already have and some italian females, then breed them and excange all the F1 italians with pharaoh F2) and one italian/manchurian.
Do you have some advices on how to breed against these lethal genes?
Are the homozygous for fawn (italian/manchurian) gene more likely to have problems? (I read that, what was called yellow gene in that article, it is lethal in homozygosis. It is a different gene from the fawn one?)

 

[Nabiki]

The easiest way to keep the lethal genes out is to not breed italian to italian, SSC (Schofield Silver Collection) to SSC. Those are the two that I know of that carry the lethal genes. If you keep some pharaohs around to breed them to, that should keep your chicks healthy.

I'm still learning genetics myself, so I'm no expert. Take my advice with a grain of salt!

Your best option is to find a reputable breeder to get your stock from. Myshire Farm has healthy birds, Southwest Gamebirds is another one that I've gotten eggs from and they have a very good reputation as well.

 

[Skyle]

Thank you a lot! I guess I'll search another colour for my second group, so I don't have to involve other colours to avoid lethal genes.
Unfortunately I live in Europe, so I can't buy eggs from Myshire Farm or Southwest Gamebirds. I'll search someone near me.
Thank you again

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

The red and bulging eyes are worrying. Albinos almost always have serious health issues. The breeder you got the eggs from may have been breeding some colours that have lethal combinations, which lead to low hatch rates and chicks with issues.

There are dangerous colorations to mix? I was unaware of this. Would you mind naming a few so I don't do so? I plan to breed my quail in the future and don't want to create a bad bloodline. Thx,

 

[Nabiki]

There are dangerous colorations to mix? I was unaware of this. Would you mind naming a few so I don't do so? I plan to breed my quail in the future and don't want to create a bad bloodline. Thx,

Silver to silver and Italian to Italian are the two that I know of. If you keep those colours, just keep a pharoah roo, and you should be fine.