Can you tell me if this muscovy is male or female?

lina500 said:

I am slipping into a deep depression over the fact that my favorite duckling might have to go to the farm. Paging @Miss Lydia

One more:



Wrapped up to go to the vet.

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What a sweet face.. Is this the one in the middle in first pic? if so I say drake.

Plus if it's only 1 Muscovy male he will be way happier and more docile so pretty much just a hen, the Parkin won't be bothered by him, promise

It's better to have more than one female Muscovy, like about 4 to a males but u can have 3 that makes him and the girls happy because they have a flock and he doesn't over mate one female

Miss Lydia said:

What a sweet face.. Is this the one in the middle in first pic? if so I say drake. 

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Wah! I have really fallen in love with this one, s/he is very food motivated and does lots of ridiculous moves to beat the others to a slice of watermelon. S/he is half the size of the bigger two from the same batch (not pictured) but s/he has bigger knees and less devolved wing feathers. This was the one who is a bit limpy so I thought that might explain the knees.

So now I need a muscovy flock? This is how people become duck hoarders! My main hesitation is that the muscovies seem to be much more motivated and capable of eating everything, and I do mean everything in my garden!

lina500 said:

Wah! I have really fallen in love with this one, s/he is very food motivated and does lots of ridiculous moves to beat the others to a slice of watermelon. S/he is half the size of the bigger two from the same batch (not pictured) but s/he has bigger knees and less devolved wing feathers. This was the one who is a bit limpy so I thought that might explain the knees.

So now I need a muscovy flock? This is how people become duck hoarders! My main hesitation is that the muscovies seem to be much more motivated and capable of eating everything, and I do mean everything in my garden!

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Yes its called chicken math but pertains to all poultry. lol

My Muscovy drake is the sweetest thing he really thinks he's a dog loves to come inside and eat dog food along with the dogs[dog food only a snack for him] You can't go wrong with a Scovy drake .Can you get a good pic of him front and center? and Look at him from front view are his legs far apart under him or close together. You should be able to compare with your other females body shape, legs under body.

Ahhh! I am about to have a lot more ducks than I planned. Right now, I have 5 muscovies that were born one or two days apart. I now need to figure out what sex ALL of them are, so I can decide who to keep. These five are just about 7 weeks old (but I have three more than are 9 weeks old). I am more inclined to keep from the younger batch, because they are all friendlier. These are my first muscovies so I really have no idea how to tell them apart other than size.


I am sorry if I am acting like an obsessed crazy person, but I really want to figure this out!

So here is a video of my little favorite (#1), as well as one of her pals (#5). Favorite is star of the show, #5 is white with a black spot on its head. You can hear #1's voice in this video, too.




And here is where the real crazy kicks in. I have labeled all of these photos by number in the hopes you can tell which is male and which is female.
















And this one just because it's cute.



Thank you so much @Miss Lydia
and @Buck Oakes
for all of your help. I don't know what I would do without this place!

It looks like #1, #2, and #3 are males. #4 and #5 look like females. Too bad...

For some reason, I have been lucky. I always seem to have more females than males. With my latest batch of 11 ducklings, only 4 are males. We even can keep one of those.

If you keep one of the Muscovy males, he will mate with the Pekin females as well as the Muscovies. I'm not sure how much he will fight with the Pekin male, if at all.

I try to keep a safe ratio. Now that we have 18 females, I'm finally ready for my second drake (one of the four males in my last batch). That would make 1 male to 9 females. Even then, I'm planning to separate the males for the night. No way I want them to fight!

If possible, it would be best to separate your males at least for the night, if you keep your favorite Muscovy. A few more females would also help.

Thank you @HannahDuckLover , I appreciate your expertise. I had already figured that 2 and 3 were male, but because #1 was so much smaller than them, I thought he was female. Wishful thinking, I guess. Need to re-think my duck plans.