Call ducks and Mandarins?

[lovin my birds]

I was just wondering if calls and Mandarins can go together? I would really like calls but would prefer to not have to build another pen for them. My mandarin pen is big enough for the mandarins and probably 3 calls. Plus extra room! Lol! I like to give my animals more room than they need.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

We have a mandarin drake who has lived with calls with no issues. He is getting a mate this fall and the calls are moving out to breeding pens to seperate color. However yes ours has done fine since March.

 

[lovin my birds]

Okay thank you! Can calls and Mandarins mate to create babies? I know my female probably wouldnt let him but just in case the call catches her(though I doubt it she is really freakin fast and my male is very protective). I dont want any mixes of them. I wouldnt think so because they are mated for life so my male wont allow the male call near his girl. But just in case. My pen is big enough I could probably split it in two if I really have to just would prefer not to. Thanks!

 

[philipkrug]

i have call ducks with my mandarins. i have no problems with them gettting along or cross breeding. they both pretty well stick with their mates

 

[KansasKid]

Quote:
Its genetically impossible for them to cross

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
No a mandarin is one of those oddities that can not cross to anything, you will never see a mandarin x anything.

Does this mean you are trouble free....NO
Calls should not be in any pen with migratory waterfowl.
Being a domestic bird, they are super "friendly" for a lack of another word to all female ducks.
They will bully your mandarin drake and usually never let him breed. The result is they can be housed together, but you will seldome get a fertile egg from your mandarins.

I have seen some kill migratory waterfowl in breeding season as well.
Personally, I would not put any form of domestic waterfowl in with any of my migratory birds. A new pen is way too cheap and easy to throw up for ducks, they dont need all the shelter and coops like other birds. So my advise would be to either get another species of migartory waterfowl for the mandarin pen (ring teal would be a great choice), or build a domestic duck pen too.

The mate for life thing isnt true either in captivity, male mandarins will mate with any hen that will let them, they are very aggressive breeders , and will take a new mate in a heart beat. In the wild, they will stay paired unless one of them dies or is killed, or they get seperated by some means, in which time, they both would quickly find a new mate.

 

[lovin my birds]

Cool! Thank you so much for your great advice. I think I have a idea for what I can do. I am not getting calls until next spring anyway and they will be eggs. So not until 2 years will they need their own breeding pen.

 

[Speceider]

"Its genetically impossible for them to cross"


I'd like to see your reference. There are reports (Gray, Prestwich, and McCarthy) that list mandarinxmallard hybrids in captivity. I have doubts about the genetics, but wonder if the issues are more realted to Patricia Brennan's work.

Clint

 

[chickensioux]

I have 2 pairs of mandarins in with all my calls and teals. Everyone does just fine.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
would love to see pics of them. I'm no geneticist, but it is common knowledge among breeders that there is some oddity in the chromosome number of them that prevent hybrid mandarins. I have read the reports listed above, well some of them, most were dated back in the mid 1900's, no a real scientific time, and largely based on speculation and guessing what this hybrid could be.

In most all cases, thought of mandarin hybrids always end up be honestly a wood duck hybrid.
The wood duck and mandarin are the only two species of duck in the genus AIX , so logic would say if a hybrid were to occur, it would be between those 2 species, yet there are no known photos world wide of such a hybrid bird, and Lord knows there are a blue million mandarins and wood ducks penned together across the world.

So to say it is genetically impossible is well pretty much spot on. We all know as soon as you say impossible though, someone will prove you wrong....in this case, I would love to see the photographic proof as would thousands of other fellow waterfowlers.

In most all captive cases, mandarins are almost always kept in a group community pen, so there are countless chances for them to happen that's for sure. Yet to date, I have never once seen one that was truly PROVEN to be a mandarin crossing.

There have been reports of mallard, wood duck, merganser, pintail, gadwall, red heads and even pochard crosses with mandarins, but when it come down to picture proof time, either photos were not provided conveniently, or it was an obvious wood duck hybrid in all cases I have seen or read about.