Crested Ducks

[JacinLarkwell]

*If you're here to tell me I'm an awful person for wanting to breed these, don't bother.*

I want to breed crested ducks. I found a hatchery with the breed I like and they have both normal and crested avaliable. I know that there are certain methods to help lessen the chance of anything going wrong geneticalls, but what are they? Is it as simple as crested x normal?

My plan was a crested male and uncrested females so that I don't have to worry as much about a crest being pulled during breeding. Is this a good plan?

 

[HappyDuckie]

Sounds like you have a good plan. Yes, it would be best to have the crested be male. Good luck.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

Sounds good.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

So if I breed the crested male to clean females, I should get about 50-50 heterozygous crests and clean ones. Will I still have problems with certain crested babies, or will they all be avoided because I won't have any homozygous crested ones?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@Isaac 0 , any chance you would know the genetics?


Just wanna make sure I know all I need to before I actually order these guys

 

[Isaac 0]

@Isaac 0 , any chance you would know the genetics?


Just wanna make sure I know all I need to before I actually order these guys

Unfortunately, I don't. @Pyxis, or @learycow would be people you would want to talk to.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Unfortunately, I don't. @Pyxis, or @learycow would be people you would want to talk to.

Okay, thanks. Figured you were a good bet since you always seem to know so much about ducks

 

[Isaac 0]

Have you read this link?

http://www.faithvalleywaterfowl.com/crested_call_genetics.html

If you desire to work on a crested duck program, but do not want to encounter
the lethal gene death percentage, you can get around it by not using all crested
parent birds. You will end up with the same amount of crested offspring whether
you use all crested parent birds or if you mate a crested to a non-crested parent
bird.

If you breed two ducks together that each have the crested gene, you will get:
25% of the ducklings that are dead in the shell
50% of the ducklings that carry the gene, but might or might not have a crest
25% of the ducklings that don’t have the crested gene

If you breed a crested parent duck to a non-crested gene carrier, you will get:
50% of the ducklings that carry the gene, but might or might not show the crest
50% of the ducklings that do not have the crested gene

It is interesting to note that in both breeding program options, you will get 50% of
the offspring that have the crested gene. The best crests will be produced from
the first breeding option however. Breeding a crested duck to a crested duck
seems to produce larger and more desirable crests. Breeding a crested duck to
a non-crested duck does produce 50% of the offspring with the crested gene;
however the crests tend to be smaller in size.

 

[Pyxis]

So if I breed the crested male to clean females, I should get about 50-50 heterozygous crests and clean ones. Will I still have problems with certain crested babies, or will they all be avoided because I won't have any homozygous crested ones?

Any crested duck can have issues because of the nature of the crest - the crest actually causes fat deposits in the brain. Sometimes these deposits are large, and have even been found to decrease size of the cerebellum, which may be the cause of some of the motor function problems some crested ducks have.

The crest is also fed by blood vessels that go directly through the skull under the crest and into the brain. For these reasons, crested ducks always have a chance of neurological issues.

Cresting is also a lethal gene. Two copies actually kill the duckling late in incubation. So when breeding crested to crested the 25% of offspring that inherit two copies die late in incubation, before they hatch. So all crested ducks actually only have one copy of the gene.

 

[HuffleClaw]

As a simple, general rule... Don’t breed crested to crested (can result in fatalities). Otherwise I think you’re pretty set.