20 week old Cayuga drake with droopy wings?

Hey, first time posting so please excuse any mistakes

So I've never owned ducks before, or chickens, or any kind of birds. I don't have much experience at all, and was wondering if any of you lovely people know what's up with my drake, Kiki's (he was supposed to be a girl) wings.
I'm not very concerned about it because he acts perfectly normal, eats and drinks just fine, flaps his wings, doesn't act lethargic, recently has tried to mount the 2 girls a few times and failed because he doesn't seem to know what he's doing...


Don't seem to have any better pictures from when he was younger, but you can see him at the back there. His wings have been like this pretty much since they grew in.

He's the one in the middle.

Kiki at the back there.

I can get better pictures tomorrow if they're needed, these are just the ones I had on hand, not super recent since his head is bright green now (as you can see in my profile picture).

Thank you very much!

Hello & welcome to BYC!

Your ducks are gorgeous! What have you been feeding them? Too much protein can cause some wing issues. The good news is that since they're too large to fly, wing issues aren't serious. I will add, though, that my female Rouen walked around for a few days with droopy wings and then stopped and I haven't seen her do it again since. It made me wonder if she was holding her wings differently because she was too warm.

Pretty ducks .

The curvature if the long feathers dos make it look like angelwing might be a concern. I'm not a duck expert and I've never dealt with angelwing before. If it is angelwing there are wrapping treatments to help alleviate the symptoms.

Is he twitching his wings at all? When feathers are coming in they get all sorts of itchy and uncomfortable. My hens were constantly twitching their wings and holding them at odd positions to try to get comfortable.

Debs Flock said:

Hello & welcome to BYC!

Your ducks are gorgeous! What have you been feeding them? Too much protein can cause some wing issues. The good news is that since they're too large to fly, wing issues aren't serious. I will add, though, that my female Rouen walked around for a few days with droopy wings and then stopped and I haven't seen her do it again since. It made me wonder if she was holding her wings differently because she was too warm.

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Thank you very much!

So, we got them at 3 weeks old and from about 3 to 6 weeks it was 20% protein, then I believe the next one they were on from 6 to probably about 16-17 weeks, was 15%, and they're currently on a layer feed that's also 15%, I think there was one other we tried but I don't know how much protein that one was. Treat wise the only ones high in protein would be occasional shrimp and cat food, but I don't give them much of either of those.
He is always the one to first start panting, but it seems too consistent to just be about something like warmth, he rarely holds his wings normally.

Glad to know wing issues aren't serious, they've definitely never even come close to getting off the ground when they've tried. Thank you!

cayugaducklady said:

Pretty ducks .

The curvature if the long feathers dos make it look like angelwing might be a concern. I'm not a duck expert and I've never dealt with angelwing before. If it is angelwing there are wrapping treatments to help alleviate the symptoms.

Is he twitching his wings at all? When feathers are coming in they get all sorts of itchy and uncomfortable. My hens were constantly twitching their wings and holding them at odd positions to try to get comfortable.

Click to expand...

Thank you

I assumed it wouldn't be angel wing because all the pictures of it I've seen had the wings sticking out to the sides but his just go downwards, I'll try looking into that more though, see if they always go out or if his could just be a different looking case of it.

When he was younger and going through the scruffy phase of growing in wings and feathers he did twitch and mess around with them a lot, he used to move them up like normal but they'd always end up falling back down, with the two girls they'd occasionally look like his wings, but they always could just pick them back up into place as normal again but he just didn't seem to be able to keep them like that.

His age and the pics suggest it's just the blood feathers coming in on the wings. This makes makes the wings heavy for them and they will often have droopy wings until the feathers grow in fully and the blood drains from the feather shafts. Not all ducks at this age will have droopy wings, but many do for a short time. It's totally normal.

Angel wing is when the wing tips stick out to the side from the body, which I don't see here. In your first pic I can see blood feathers coming in on another of your ducks, so it's just that time in their life. The awkward "teenage" phase.

Orca5094 said:

His age and the pics suggest it's just the blood feathers coming in on the wings. This makes makes the wings heavy for them and they will often have droopy wings until the feathers grow in fully and the blood drains from the feather shafts. Not all ducks at this age will have droopy wings, but many do for a short time. It's totally normal.

Angel wing is when the wing tips stick out to the side from the body, which I don't see here. In your first pic I can see blood feathers coming in on another of your ducks, so it's just that time in their life. The awkward "teenage" phase.

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Oh that makes sense, I guess I sort of assumed they're through their teenage phase since they aren't all scraggly like they were growing in all their feathers, and since they other two haven't had their wings like this, but they are still very young huh, and still awkward, haha.
Thank you! Hopefully they'll be normal as he fully matures, I'll just make sure I keep an eye on them, that they don't bother him, but he seems totally healthy and happy so far.

I really appreciate the answers!

Oh and a few extra questions, now that I think about it, so it's a good idea to get a couple extra girls, right? instead of having 1 boy and 2 girls? I was thinking of getting 2 female day old Welsh Harlequins if I can find them, since you can sex them by their beaks, ending up with another boy wouldn't be good.
Is getting day olds okay even though it means it'll just be the 3 of them until the new ones are fully grown? (And would be getting them most likely in May)

And am I right in assuming getting something like Indian Runners, significantly smaller than Cayugas, would be a bad plan since he could hurt them more easily?

Just wanna make sure I take care of them best I can and I know there's lots of knowledgeable people on here

Yes, it would be good to add some girls. The "ideal" ratio is 3 or 4 girls per drake. You are right on. You wouldn't want runners due to the size difference. You can definitely brood 2 or more together safely and then once they're about the same size as the adults, introduce them gradually.

Debs Flock said:

Yes, it would be good to add some girls. The "ideal" ratio is 3 or 4 girls per drake. You are right on. You wouldn't want runners due to the size difference. You can definitely brood 2 or more together safely and then once they're about the same size as the adults, introduce them gradually.

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Thank you very much again, hopefully I'll be able to get a couple more girls soon then! Can't say I'm unhappy about getting to have two new ducklings, haha, ducks are a lot more lovable than I expected at first.