MALLARD THREAD...not rouens, Mallards!

[SJUDD]

Still has his drake curl but does look like a girl, other than that. Thank you... I was worried I was missing something in his diet or something. Appreciate the advice!

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

WOW i have been away for a while!!! I Love all of your guy's mallards!!! while I was gone my mallard was attacked by a hawk

he lived and has a broken wing and had a puncture in his side

This is him in his Bow Tie!
Also how in the world do you get the little caption below each message???

 

[ugly duckling]

What age did your drake start getting his colours, mine are about 6/7 weeks old now and beginning to get their adult feathers but they look like they are all females?. Also at what age to they start to fly?

 

[Learningstill]

What age did your drake start getting his colours, mine are about 6/7 weeks old now and beginning to get their adult feathers but they look like they are all females?. Also at what age to they start to fly?

The drakes do look like the females when their feathers first come in, then their tail area darkens and the head begins to show green in light. I believe their leg and bill color changed too. Around the plumage color change, you could hear the quack difference.

We have two babies that hatched June 9th and we can see differences between them. The female's peep occasionally lets out the honk like quack, the male has a quiet raspy peep. Also, the male's tail area is showing green in the darker color while in light.

Flying depends on when they are fully feather and have their flight feathers. Also, we noticed some experiment sooner than others and learn faster. We clipped one wing and that allows them to fly, but not high.

 

[RacerWife7]

My mallard confuses me SO much!! This guy/girl is 9 weeks old now and had female markings up to about 2 weeks ago. Now, the brown feathers have given way to more grayish feathers. He/She has never had a quack, to date. It's definitely closer in sound to my male Swedish Blue's raspy, quiet peep. And the bill that used to look more brownish orange now looks yellow. But, not yellow-green. Just yellow with some brown on it. Feet are orange - definitely a difference between the feet and the bill. But, no green on the head. However, the dark line that used to go from the bill, through the eye and back, down, toward the neck has faded a lot.

...Looks like the fuzzy duckling that I have thought all along was a duck might really be a drake. ...Am I wrong here??

 

[fowlman01]

It's a drake.

Walt

 

[rckirby]

Long time 'lurker'....first time poster. I have 5 red pullets that I got from TSC in April. Then 3 days ago, when I went out my road there was a mallard duckling sitting in the middle of the road.. Brought him/her home and fixed up a place on the DR table. He/she seemed so lonely that I went on CL to find another duckling for company. Drove over an hour to get a 2 day old Muscovy....they are getting along fabulously. I have some pics, but not sure how to post them yet.

 

[rckirby]

Hope this works....my grandson took the pics. The one with the black beak is the one I found last Thursday. The Muscovy I got today is supposedly 2 days old.

 

[philipchickymad]

Than

When you try it be there to watch for a while to make sure the hens don't start pecking on the duckling.   Hens are peckers and could put a hurting on the duckling who really has no defense

ks

 

[philipchickymad]

When I try to introduce my Aylesbury duckling to the mallard duckling the Aylesbury attacks the other one but the mallard is nmuch bigger than the Aylesbury please help