Duck Identification Help? :)

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littleindie

littleindie

Hatching
Mar 2, 2016
8
0
7
West Coast, Tasmania.
Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what kind of ducks these little ones are? (approx 4 months old) We were preparing for our first lot of chickens but have decided to go the duck route first and getting 9 of these today, probably will hand a few to another bird keeping friend but would love to know what they are.




Here is what the mother and father look like: (not sure if it is an actual picture of them, but it is what they look like)




Thanks in advance for any help :)
 
Those are probably either welsh harlequins or silver appleyards. Lucky you, those are a very good breed of duck!
 
Thanks, I might have to go and coax them into a better photo, I looked up those breeds and although they have similar markings mine seem to be a lot darker from images I can find. But, I seriously know nothing yet about identifying ducks.

Another question... what's the best way to get them to love us? haha. We have left them alone for most of this afternoon (new to our house today), they are quite happy foraging away in the grass but don't want us near. Daughter and I sat with them for a bit just watching. Is it done through just constant care/feeding, being around them?

I've only ever hand experience with a few chooks from chick stage, not 3/4 month old ducks :)
 
Most young ducks start off with brown feathers so they can blend in to things and keep away from danger, like a baby deer's spots. If you bought them from this older age it may be harder to get them to love you how you want them to. The best way to insure at least one duck will love you is by either hatching them or getting them when they're a day old. Not to say there's no hope, giving them treats, talking to them and just spending time with them will start forming a bound. See if you can get a hold of live mealworms (I usually get them from a pet store) as this is a fav treat of chickens and ducks. Put them on a plate and put it near you and slowly see if you can get them to eat them from your hand Though this is the age when they start being independent from their mother so you probably won't have the mother child bound that ducks are famous for. Yours look very cute and they should warm up to you over time.
 
Awesome, thanks I didn't know that about the feathers. This morning when I went to let them out of their pen I got a little closer to a few of them, I can see that the females are lighter like some of the pictures I googled yesterday. They are very pretty :)

Thanks for the tip, we live rurally so next time we head into town I will see if I can grab some meal worms. In the group is an adult duck, the father of the younger ducks, he is herding them around. There is probably four males in the group from what my inexperienced eyes and ears are telling me so we will probably be getting rid of a few of them. They have been mostly hand raised by the family that gave them to us, so hopefully they warm to me so that it makes care of them a little easier, it was quite a feat to get them into their over night pen last night haha!
 
Yeah most ducks don't like going into enclosed things. Ducks are very fun to raise and watch and I'm sure they're just a little nervous right now. Once they get comfortable They'll probably warm up to you. Post more pics as soon as you can I love looking at their fluffy little faces!
love.gif
 





So sitting in their yard with them this morning, trying to cox them into eating the food I had for them. I reckon I was there for half an hour and for some reason I decided to shake the food container. Low and behold, they all came-a-waddling up to me, leaving a small comfort zone of about 1.5 meters. haha, Feed them for a bit and then went and got the camera, tried again and whilst they didn't come as close, they still came towards me.
 
That's a good start, and my goodness they are so cute I miss my baby boy being that small and fluffy!!!
love.gif
The person who had them before you must have shook the container when they had treats so they come to it knowing there are treats. You can teach ducks and chickens to come when you call their name by giving them a treat while saying it, I did that along with making a noise so I can call my duck over. Keep doing what your doing and they should start getting more comfortable with you. Keep an eye on their tails, males grow curly feathers on their tails which helps tell them apart from females.
 

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