A couple muskovie questions

[Mamasan]

This is my muskovy flock. I think the 3 really big ones are drakes and smaller one with smaller legs is a duck? I'm wondering if all this white is normal. Are they full muskovy?

[/IMG][/IMG][/IMG]They are about 4 months old now. Also, anyone know what color the lighter different colored one is?

 

[learycow]

At 4 months you should be able to sex them by size.
So chances are you are correct with that. The large ones are males, small ones are females.
White is very common in colored muscovies. In fact, it is hard to find solid colored ones that have zero white on them! So yes, they do look like pure muscovy ducks and some may develop more white as they age.

As for the colors, the dark brown are chocolate. The lighter one could be one of a few things.
1. It could be a chocolate that is diluted from the sun and ready to molt. But if they are all the same age, and 4 months old, this should not be the case just yet
2. It could be a buff-chocolate. There is a lighter colored chocolate gene that some carry and this could be the case.
3. It's a blue fawn. If the feathers (it's easiest to tell right after a molt) have a blue hue to them, then it's a color called blue fawn. They can easily be mistaken for a chocolate if you don't have chocolates to compare with, or easily mistaken for a sun-weathered chocolate that has faded color. The only difference is they blue/gray color mixed into their feathers. But as they get sun-weathered, they can look identical to a chocolate duck

 

[Going Quackers]

I agree size is what gives it away an old pic but.. drake to the right, duck to the left lol



As for white, yes it's actually dominate. So is well found in scovies.


some of my March hatch of this year, both blues, drake in on the top, duck below.. you can see the white.

 

[Mamasan]

Thank you! I was thinking blue fawn. The picture doesn't really show how blue he is on the back and his brown areas are lighter than the chocolates. More like a buff or fawn color. I guess I better start looking for a couple more girls!

 

[learycow]

Here is a pair of blue fawns, white headed, that I used to have.
Top picture is the hen (behind her is a blue splash swedish for color comparison)
Middle is the drake, bottom is the same drake in the middle of a molt. As you can sort of see in the molt picture, he looks like a blue muscovy. But then his feathering changes color to the middle picture, thus making him a blue fawn as he doesn't stay blue

 

[Going Quackers]

Middle is the drake, bottom is the same drake in the middle of a molt. As you can sort of see in the molt picture, he looks like a blue muscovy. But then his feathering changes color to the middle picture, thus making him a blue fawn as he doesn't stay blue

This is a good point molting can bring forth some intense rather dramatic colour changes. I see it here with my one drake.