Can a female duck have a tail curl??

[HappyDuckie]

That's a strange voice! It is more of a raspy quack, rather than one or the other.

 

[Andrea PNW]

That's a strange voice! It is more of a raspy quack, rather than one or the other.

Right??!! And she's got butt curls!!!

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

that’s definitely a drake. i would say about 4 months old

 

[Andrea PNW]

Males change their coloring twice a year. They get their male colors in the fall to impress the ladies and they change again in spring to blend in when the ladies are laying. So that coloring isn't exclusive to females, it helps them blend in and raise young.

https://animals.mom.com/male-mallard-its-colored-feathers-11418.html

That makes me so happy. If they are all boys then I don't definitively have to re-home any of them. I know I still have to see how it goes as they continue to grow but fingers crossed that I'll have a mini monastery of monk ducks that will devote their lives to celibacy, chastity and quiet contemplation. Lo lol lolol lol. Fat chance but one can hope.

 

[Andrea PNW]

Well I am happy to help you feel better You might still have one that makes himself the boss.

Yeah - that's normal and Ruthie is already poking Barbe and Ed gently if they are in his way. And is Ruthie a mallard or a rouen? He seems huge compared to my cayugas but now that we know he's a "he" I'm not sure what to think of the eye stripes

 

[Jenwisp]

If he is large than he is probably a Rouen. Mallards are smaller and only have one stripe across their eyes. Rouens will have a second stripe under their eye.

Ours are half mallard and half rouen. Our ladies are significantly smaller than our males were, the males remained the same size as our mallard/cayuga cross ( although the cayuga may have rouen in him, so that may be why he was equal size ).

 

[Andrea PNW]

Our mallard males had female coloring and drake feathers for a while until they came into their mature colors.

Is she quacking or croaking?


Edit to add: I just looked at your pictures again and it looks like her tail is darkening and her underbelly is starting to fade to gray. That's what ours did. They had the curl before their colors changed.

3 of these revealed as boys. The black cayuga cross even quacked prior to coming clean!

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Problem is she is a rescue so I don't know how old she is. Someone dumped her by herself at a water reservoir. She had 3 zip ties around her foot. After about a week of concerned FB community postings about this poor lone pet duck that was abandoned I finally went to assess the situation. She essentially walked right up to me and I picked her up and that was that. She's def older than my 3mo olds. She taught them how to get in the kiddie pool for their first big swim, smacks them around a little bit and she's got a well-healed puncture in one of her feet. So I'm gonna say she might be an old broad.

 

[Andrea PNW]

Wait - ruthie with female coloring but has a butt curl IS a drake?

I didn't know a duck could look like a mallard/rouen hen but be a drake! Honestly if ruthie was a drake it would make my life a million times easier.

 

[Andrea PNW]

What does his/her voice sound like? Quacking or raspy?

She sounds more quacky but honestly I don't know. I took some video today (with audio) that I'll upload to youtube so y'all can hear them. I called my local vet and they told me they don't sex ducks. Lol

 

[Andrea PNW]

If you upload a video, I can tell you if its male or female.

Alrighty - 3 vids with audio. Note that in vid 2 at the end of the video Ruthie is hollering in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjFSiA5xwIM8gF0wyGYEvIQ