For the love of bacon, a drake feather?!

Sooooo, my duck has a slightly curved tail feather. On a thread on this forum I saw a photo of a "developing drake feather" that looked very similar. The curve is pretty subtle, and the tail as a whole is still pretty flat, but man, I really thought Wobs was a girl! The vet sexed her, she's quacky and everything, and I had just fallen in love with her as she is. I'll be heartbroken if Wobbles is a drake. :/ I guess it won't change too much in the end, but I was hoping so badly for a girl, and was overjoyed when I was told that's what I had.

Thing is, s/he's only 6 weeks old. I thought drake feathers took upwards of 3 months to start forming?

Amykins said:

Sooooo, my duck has a slightly curved tail feather. On a thread on this forum I saw a photo of a "developing drake feather" that looked very similar. The curve is pretty subtle, and the tail as a whole is still pretty flat, but man, I really thought Wobs was a girl! The vet sexed her, she's quacky and everything, and I had just fallen in love with her as she is. I'll be heartbroken if Wobbles is a drake. :/ I guess it won't change too much in the end, but I was hoping so badly for a girl, and was overjoyed when I was told that's what I had.

Thing is, s/he's only 6 weeks old. I thought drake feathers took upwards of 3 months to start forming?

Click to expand...

It is probably too early, but post a pic of the little darling so we can see. maybe it's just some feathers fixing to fall out.

Miss Lydia said:

It is probably too early, but post a pic of the little darling so we can see. maybe it's just some feathers fixing to fall out.

Click to expand...

It took a while but I finally nabbed one! It's tough to see since she's all white, but you can definitely make out the slight curl.




Also, I took a video of her vocalizations. They sound quite quack-ish to me, but maybe a more discernible ear would be able to tell gender better than I can. She normally sounds even quackier and sing-songier than this. (Naturally she was screaming up a storm until the instant I shoved a camera in her face, where she promptly shut up until I gave her her touch-stick.)

Amykins said:

It took a while but I finally nabbed one! It's tough to see since she's all white, but you can definitely make out the slight curl.




Also, I took a video of her vocalizations. They sound quite quack-ish to me, but maybe a more discernible ear would be able to tell gender better than I can. She normally sounds even quackier and sing-songier than this. (Naturally she was screaming up a storm until the instant I shoved a camera in her face, where she promptly shut up until I gave her her touch-stick.)

Click to expand...

I sent this to a member who has Calls she maybe on today i hope so, but anyway she'll get the PM and hopefully be able to tell. She looks ducky to me more than drakish.

Mine are 5 weeks and sound like her/him. I swear I got a honk this morning from one of them but haven't heard one since. I am following this to see what other have to say.

A drake feather will be a small feather at the base of the tail and they will have almost a complete circle to them.

Hagar3 said:

A drake feather will be a small feather at the base of the tail and they will have almost a complete circle to them.

Click to expand...

Oh I know, but it's still a process nonetheless. The only reason I even brought it up was because of the photo I saw in this thread here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/181147/sexing-ducklings-please-check-here-first-d

Compare that to the one up above, and the two "proto feathers" look pretty similar. Yet she's VERY quacky, not monotone or raspy at all, so I'm quite confused.

Amykins said:

Oh I know, but it's still a process nonetheless. The only reason I even brought it up was because of the photo I saw in this thread here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/181147/sexing-ducklings-please-check-here-first-d

Compare that to the one up above, and the two "proto feathers" look pretty similar. Yet she's VERY quacky, not monotone or raspy at all, so I'm quite confused.

Click to expand...

Amykins said:

Oh I know, but it's still a process nonetheless. The only reason I even brought it up was because of the photo I saw in this thread here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/181147/sexing-ducklings-please-check-here-first-d

Compare that to the one up above, and the two "proto feathers" look pretty similar. Yet she's VERY quacky, not monotone or raspy at all, so I'm quite confused.

Click to expand...

At this point I see no reason to doubt your vets prognosis.

Hey Amykins,

We thought our girl Sophia might be a drake for awhile. She was always a little smaller and had a pinker beak than our other Pekins. At about 16 weeks she was kind of a loner, and she started making this wierd low/raspy honking noise whenever she felt threatened. I watched her tail feathers like a hawk. But now at 6 months, I've realized she does make the same quaking noises as the other girls. I've also seen no sign of a true drake feather, and no real aggression towards the others. We think she's just the official "wolf cryer" of the group, with slightly poorer genes. But we still love her of course!
Anyway, don't know if that helps at all but I thought I'd relay our experience.