Can a female duck have a tail curl??

[HappyDuckie]

I couldn't really hear them in any of the videos. But yes, they both sounds and look like drakes.

 

[Mariella posey]

My mother was given a duck when I was young that was 8-9 years old and she had a curly tail feather but she laid and hatched eggs and never tried to breed the other ducks.

 

[Jenwisp]

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

 

[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.

 

[Jenwisp]

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

 

[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 ).