Call duck ratio

[Eric 2016]

I currently have three call ducks, unfortunately I believe they're all male, but I want to eventually breed calls. I was told that if you have to many females and a single male he will breed so much that his penis will permanently fall off (if your unaware male ducks penis' do fall off after breeding season) but it seems odd to me that a calls would permanently fall off. Any thoughts or experiences on this. At the end of the day I just want to know how many calls I could keep in my 8x4 pen.

 

[Pyxis]

Drakes' penises do not fall off after breeding season. If they did, we would all be finding a bunch of penises on the ground in the breeding pens in the Fall, and that just doesn't happen. And no, a male will not breed so much his penis falls off. Where did you hear these things? You are the second person this month to think this and I'm wondering where it's coming from.

The proper ratio of drakes to females so that no female is overmated and you will have good egg fertility is three to four females per drake.

 

[Ravynscroft]

 

[frmboyinthecity]

Just by googling it I found multiple sources that claimed the same thing, that they do fall off.

Maybe I'll have to go see if I can find my anatomy and physiology of farm animals text book and find a more reputable source.

 

[Pyxis]

Just by googling it I found multiple sources that claimed the same thing, that they do fall off.

Maybe I'll have to go see if I can find my anatomy and physiology of farm animals text book and find a more reputable source.

I've seen these too, but the thing is, they all claim to be pulling this from the same study, which is linked on the page of that video. When you go and read the study, it says nothing about the penises actually falling off, so where it's coming from I don't know.

This is the study: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1686/1309

 

[frmboyinthecity]

New York Times says disappear, not fall off.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/science/01duck.html

 

[Ravynscroft]

Not to mention how ludicrous the likelyhood of any body part of an animal just falling off and regrowing yearly is??

 

[frmboyinthecity]

I've seen these too, but the thing is, they all claim to be pulling this from the same study, which is linked on the page of that video. When you go and read the study, it says nothing about the penises actually falling off, so where it's coming from I don't know.

This is the study: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1686/1309

Right. I don't believe they "fall Off" either. They obviously diminish, but if that were the result of "shriveling up and falling off" there would be a period where the penis was visible on ALL drakes as it shriveled up before it fell off. Seems like a liberal interpretation to say they get smaller so they fall off.

 

[Pyxis]

Right. I don't believe they "fall Off" either. They obviously diminish, but if that were the result of "shriveling up and falling off" there would be a period where the penis was visible on ALL drakes as it shriveled up before it fell off. Seems like a liberal interpretation to say they get smaller so they fall off.

I absolutely wouldn't doubt that when wild ducks aren't in breeding season that the penis shrinks some, such as if the lymph fluid that helps with erections is pulled out of it and blood supply is reduced, etc. But I definitely think we would all notice if foot long corkscrew penises were scattered around our breeding pens, lol.

However, they probably don't even really shrink on domestic breeds. We have bred them so that their 'breeding season' is practically the whole year. Now, for a wild breed, like the Meller's duck mentioned in the article, yep, I could totally see that happening. But I and many others have gotten fertile eggs in the middle of winter. If the penises had shrunk or fallen off, that would have been impossible.

 

[Ravynscroft]

New York Times says disappear, not fall off.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/science/01duck.html

Direct quote from that...


A bird phallus is similar — but not identical — to a mammalian penis. Most of the time it remains invisible, curled up inside a bird’s body. During mating, however, it fills with lymphatic fluid and expands into a long, corkscrew shape. The bird’s sperm travels on the outside of the phallus, along a spiral-shaped groove, into the female bird.



Also, this was written in 2007... before the studies were done...