24 June 2013

Inbreeding

Unfortunately with my Jap Quails I got to witness the side effects of inbreeding. When I purchased them he questioned if I was going to breed them or just use them to keep the aviary floor clean and now I know why...
I was suspicious when one started pecking the side wall of the aviary for no apparent reason.

Of the five I purchased one got a large growth around the neck area and the rest got some sort of foot growth to make there feet swell. There natural short life span has left me with one left.

It is a sad fact that this is probably a common practice to achieve colour mutations and just poor practice of a large colony breed birds.