Are my ducklings developing ok? Is this angel wing?

[Eika]

Hi all,

I posted here a few (9 to be precise) weeks ago, begging for help concerning 3 muscovy ducklings that had a rubbish start to life. Thank you all for your advice, it was invaluable and really helped me out! A bit of an update, all 3 of my squishy babies are still with us and at 9 weeks they're growing up fast! As these are the first ducks I've ever had from eggs, I'd love everyone's opinion on how they are developing, is this normal, is this right, etc etc.

So the boys are about 2kg each now, they have most of their adult feathers and have been living outside in a paddock. Their wings are growing nicely and I'm not too worried about them. Here's pics:


As you can see the white one (I'm determine not to have a favourite child but in all honesty he's it - such a mummy's boy

) is already developing the red colouring on his beak. Is this normal? The other boy hasn't, so maybe it's a colour related thing and white drakes develop it earlier?

The girl on the other hand I'm a little bit worried about. It's probably nothing, but this morning when I went to feed them her wings were hanging down instead of sitting up on her body like usual. Is this angel wing? If so, how do I fix it? I've heard it usually from excess protein in the diet but I am definitely feeding them less protein now they're older. So is it normal for them to carry their wings like this or do I need to take action? She is also a bit smaller than the boys (1.8kg) but logically this is just due to the difference between sexes right?



And finally I'm facing the dilemma of rehoming vs keeping them. I can only keep one drake, and I really love their Dad. However I don't know if he's actually good genetics to be breeding from if I'm going to get really into breeding my ducks (looks like it's going that way) so can I get your opinions on that too? Do you think he's a good example of his breed?

 

[Amiga]

Eika, I have runners and buffs, so I want to let the Muscovy people help you out, but I wanted to say welcome and you have lovely, lovely ducks!

I think that sometimes developing wings droop until the muscles become accustomed to the weight.

 

[jdywntr]

I would agree with Amiga that is doesn't look like angel wing but that the wings are drooping due to weight and a lack of muscle strength. They do look low considering the age and that could be due to earlier poor nutrition but I'd wait until full feathers are in.

Your drake looks nice but there isn't a ton of info on SOP for muscovy. Shows don't even typically have/allow them and often colored varieties aren't recognized. Then people breed for size, overgrown caruncles etc

What are you wanting to breed them for? Size, color, show, etc. These will all depend on what you are breeding for.

For instance, one of my drakes first sons, is a good deal larger than his father. I breed mine for meat (and color) so this boy (who is split to chocolate) is a keeper. He will (hopefully) produce larger offspring and will throw chocolate when bred to my barred chocolate females.

 

[Eika]

Thanks both, it's interesting to hear about the importance of muscle development as I hadn't thought of that. She's had good food since day 1 so it shouldn't be a nutritional issue, but she did struggle to keep up when they were younger so maybe just weak genetics. I'll keep an eye on her and make sure she's not being bullied out of the food bowl! Thanks for the comments on my drake too, to be honest I'm not sure what I'm breeding for in particular yet, having only really learn about Muscovies this year. I like the idea of taking him to shows, but onloy know of one in the area and you're right in that I can't picture them having much in the way of breed standards - it's more of a family day out. They are pets first and foremost, so I suppose temperament and colouring are most important to me. I intend to breed for meat but don't want huge birds as we're limited on space here. Fella is about 1 year old now and 4.6kg, I'd like them maybe up to 6kg at most. I think I'll keep the babies for a few more months and see how the develop from here before deciding who to keep.
In terms of their weight, is 1.8-2kg healthy for this age? Also can anbody explain how to breed certain colours, ie what would happen if I crossed the white drake with a blue hen etc? I'm really keen on the unusual colours like lavender, chocolate, fawn etc as over here in Auckland I've only seen black, white and very rarely, blue.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks both, it's interesting to hear about the importance of muscle development as I hadn't thought of that. She's had good food since day 1 so it shouldn't be a nutritional issue, but she did struggle to keep up when they were younger so maybe just weak genetics. I'll keep an eye on her and make sure she's not being bullied out of the food bowl! Thanks for the comments on my drake too, to be honest I'm not sure what I'm breeding for in particular yet, having only really learn about Muscovies this year. I like the idea of taking him to shows, but onloy know of one in the area and you're right in that I can't picture them having much in the way of breed standards - it's more of a family day out. They are pets first and foremost, so I suppose temperament and colouring are most important to me. I intend to breed for meat but don't want huge birds as we're limited on space here. Fella is about 1 year old now and 4.6kg, I'd like them maybe up to 6kg at most. I think I'll keep the babies for a few more months and see how the develop from here before deciding who to keep.
In terms of their weight, is 1.8-2kg healthy for this age? Also can anbody explain how to breed certain colours, ie what would happen if I crossed the white drake with a blue hen etc? I'm really keen on the unusual colours like lavender, chocolate, fawn etc as over here in Auckland I've only seen black, white and very rarely, blue.

http://www.muscovyduckcentral.com/genetics.html

 

[Going Quackers]

Does not appear to be angel wing, more like a droopy wing.. what about swimming? do they do that at all? that creates good wing exercise. Do you have Storey's guide to ducks? he may refer to something in there.

Your drake looks good!, basically unless the drake looks nothing like a scovie male should, personality takes priority with me, drakes can be mean so it's important to use only those who don't attack other birds, people and are tolerant of young.

My one is a bit of a brat but he's not harmful, the other guy is much more docile. One is black(although he is going brown??) and white, the other solid white, i have ducks that are blue, white, chocolate etc.. so i get young that are usually blue, i did get one chocolate last year the others were bought, some black/white, the chocolate have only just starting breeding this year so still waiting to see what that produces..

This was the last clutch,

 

[Eika]

Gosh your ducks are perdy!

They've been swimming a couple of times in our pool but it's been so cold here recently I stopped putting them in there (they never went in of their own accord, I'd put them in, watch them swim for a few seconds then take pity on them as soon as they started cheeping for me lol). Maybe I should encourage them to go in there a bit more. I'm also thinking of separating them from the other ducks. They've all been in the same paddock for a few weeks now (I was watching like a hawk for the first few days) and had no issues: they stay away from the big ducks and the big ducks stay away from them. But recently as they've gotten bigger they go to the same feed bowl as the bigger ducks which results in the squabbles breaking out as a pecking order is established. Part of me thinks they need to sort out a pecking order early on, but part of me just hates seeing my babies getting pecked They're not huge pecks but a couple of times they've gotten hold of the little girl's wings and pulled them a bit which can't be good. What do you guys think? Is it really important to get them used to a pecking order early on in life? I need them to know how to behave like ducks because they can't stay dependant on me forever.


PS. Thanks for the link Miss Lydia, just had a look and found it very interesting. I now think I've worked out who the mother of the white duckling must be, and it isn't who I suspected!