I’ve noticed that ALL my Muscovy ducklings begin getting very loud at 16 days old! 🧐

[AmyA248]

Good morning,

I’ve been wanting to ask this question for awhile now.
We raise Muscovy ducks, and I’ve noticed with all my hatches that exactly at the 16 day old mark they begin to become very vocal.
Before this time they sound like quite song birds, but as soon as they are 16-17 days old they become VERY vocal and very loud!
It’s so odd that it happens at exactly the same time with ALL my ducklings.
They are very spoiled and are never hungry, thirsty, cold or lonely.
They have plenty of toys and are always clean and given plenty of attention.
They do it mostly when I come down in the morning and move them out of their brooder to their playpen.
It’s actually so loud it hurts my ears at times.
I can’t figure it out. Lol!

Any suggestions as to why?

Kindly,
Amy

 

[Miss Lydia]

Even when my Muscovy are talking to each other they aren't loud surely not like my Runners and Buffs anyway.
They sure are precious.

 

[Lor]

It is strange it happens around the same day mark.
Adorable babies!

 

[AmyA248]

Even when my Muscovy are talking to each other they aren't loud surely not like my Runners and Buffs anyway.
They sure are precious.

Thank you Miss Lydia. It’s funny bc it’s just in the morning when I come down for about the first hour. Very loud!! Lol!

 

[AmyA248]

It is strange it happens around the same day mark.
Adorable babies!

Yes it is, with ALL of the babies it starts on day 16. I’ve been marking everything down and their development for a year just for reference and as I look back at all our hatches it’s always started between day 16-18.. Odd! I think they are just happy to see me in the morning and want attention.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Thank you Miss Lydia. It’s funny bc it’s just in the morning when I come down for about the first hour. Very loud!! Lol!

They are just very happy to see you, because they know that now the fun part of the day will start. And happy ducklings are loud.
The ducklings i had last year were jumping up and zipping around in the brooder every morning (yes and were very loud) - because they knew i would pick them up and bring them outside so they could "play" with the grown up's in the grass.

 

[NewJourney]

As someone who raises Muscovy I would like your opinion whether my duckling is Muscovy or not.

My ducklings are 5 weeks old. I think the one I call "Maggie" is either Muscovy or Ancona. I think it's a girl but I'm fairly new to raising ducklings. At 5 weks old she is just starting to have a QUACK-like sound here and there in between peeps like my Khaki Campbell girls did at that age. Not a raspy drake voice at all. Definite quacking. And she's very vocal, very talkative. It's adorable.

I have attached a few pics taken from a video for comparison.


This is the first day I brought them home. These two ducklings were from the TSC Assorted Duckling bin.

The chocolate one turned out to be what looks like a Dark Campbell. Maggie is the black and yellow baby next to the chocolate one. She started out with clean markings and a mostly clean pink bill but has aged at 5 weeks old to have lots of peppery flecks around her eyes and all over her bill. Magpies don't change color, this one has. Do Muscovy change coloration/add detail color marks as they age? If it matters, the two noticeable chicks are similarly aged Easter Eggers.


In the front is my roughly 8 month old Khaki Campbell girl, in the middle of the photo is "Maggie" and behind her further up is the chocolate duckling that I think is a Dark Campbell; I call him/her Jessie. The two ducklings are very similar in size and body shape. At 5 weeks old Maggie's bill has changed from pink to orangy with a LOT of black coloration compared to when she was less than a week old. She has a very light colored "bean" at the end.




She has lots of quills forming for her wing feathers. Sadly, my Dark Campbell duckling was bullied repeatedly by one of my adult Campbells and is slow to regrow her/his quill feathers in his wings. But they seem to be growing at the same rate, in the same patterns of feathering.

One thing I notice that I'm not used to seeing is Maggie plopping down a lot. She plops down and lies there when drinking from a puddle, or when walking around the yard. Jessie (the dark campbell duckling) doesn't do that nearly as much, or at all. I've noticed Maggie is stepping on her own feet quite a lot, which I've not seen happen with Jessie or my adult Campbells, even when they were growing up. I hear that both of those things are common to Muscovy ducks.





Here is a video of her quacking up a storm LOL

Do you think she's a Muscovy?

 

[Miss Lydia]

If there is quacking it’s not a Muscovy. They are called quackless ducks because they don’t quack they make a trilling sound and drakes when mature make a huffing sound. You can hear the noise they make by looking Muscovy up on line.

 

[NewJourney]

If there is quacking it’s not a Muscovy. They are called quackless ducks because they don’t quack they make a trilling sound and drakes when mature make a huffing sound. You can hear the noise they make by looking Muscovy up on line.

I have seen many videos discussing Muscovy ducks and ducklings. Some mention that they start to quack then within a few weeks they lose their quack. *shrug*

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have many duckling and never a quack like a domestic duckling. Sometimes when I would catch one of my adult female she’d let out a quack but only one.