A few questions about ducks (:

[Chick1043]

Hi! I got a duckling a couple weeks ago and was wondering..

1. How old are they when they start to quack?
2. How old are they when you can tell if they're a boy or girl?
3. Is there anyway (other than venting) to tell if he/she is male or female?

Thanks! If I think of anymore I'll let you know!

 

[Chiko]

Hello!

First, you can usually tell if they're male or female when they start feathering out. Usually the male will have the curly sex feather at the base of the tail and the female will just have a normal looking straight tail.

The ducklings start to make adult noise at 2-3 months old. Females make the loud QUACK! noise that people think ALL ducks make, and males have a kind of raspy, scratchy voice.

I think there is only one way to sex ducklings besides vent sexing. By color. Mostly just the sexlink breeds can be sexed at hatching by color though sorry.

Hope this helps!

 

[Chick1043]

Thanks!! His/her tail is curled at the end, not straight..Is that a sign of a drake?

Hello!

First, you can usually tell if they're male or female when they start feathering out. Usually the male will have the curly sex feather at the base of the tail and the female will just have a normal looking straight tail.

The ducklings start to make adult noise at 2-3 months old. Females make the loud QUACK! noise that people think ALL ducks make, and males have a kind of raspy, scratchy voice.

I think there is only one way to sex ducklings besides vent sexing. By color. Mostly just the sexlink breeds can be sexed at hatching by color though sorry.

Hope this helps!

 

[Lute]

Sadly, yes it is. (My girl turned out to be a boy.)

Thanks!! His/her tail is curled at the end, not straight..Is that a sign of a drake?

 

[Chick1043]

I'm okay with it being a boy! But is that a bad thing?? lol

Sadly, yes it is. (My girl turned out to be a boy.)

 

[Ilovemyduckies]

1. It really depends. One of my ducks was about 6 weeks. And the rest of the girls were about 2 months when they started to quack. It seems like it took a lot longer than expected for the boys to get their quack. They were about five months.

2. I said before, that it took five months for the boys to get their quack, so it took about five months to tell the gender.

3. Not as ducklings, you just have to wait until they are bigger.

 

[Ilovemyduckies]

Thanks!! His/her tail is curled at the end, not straight..Is that a sign of a drake?

Can you see the curl at the end of his tail? That's how it will look if it is a girl. If is just a few feathers that are curled.

This is a girl. She has no curl at the end of her tail.

So that's the difference between the girls tail and the boys

 

[Lute]

Male Pekins make a lot of noise. They sound like a ratchet that just goes on and on and on and on....

I'm okay with it being a boy! But is that a bad thing?? lol

Ilovemyduckies, I hope that's a typo but you just discribed the male pekin duck to be a girl.

 

[Chick1043]

lol He's a cayuga Getting big too!!

Male Pekins make a lot of noise. They sound like a ratchet that just goes on and on and on and on....


Ilovemyduckies, I hope that's a typo but you just discribed the male pekin duck to be a girl.

 

[Ilovemyduckies]

Male Pekins make a lot of noise. They sound like a ratchet that just goes on and on and on and on....


Ilovemyduckies, I hope that's a typo but you just discribed the male pekin duck to be a girl.

Oh, yeah sorry. What I meant to say is that the top one is the boy and the bottom one is the girl