Can someone help me - What kind of duck?

mustang7682

Hatching
Aug 21, 2015
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This duck walked into our yard about 4 days ago, and now is living in our backyard. Can someone help on telling me what the breed is, and best care? Food? Winter time? Thank you!!!

Thank you!
 
This duck walked into our yard about 4 days ago, and now is living in our backyard. Can someone help on telling me what the breed is, and best care? Food? Winter time? Thank you!!!

Thank you!
@mustang7682 she is diff a Muscovy and a beautiful one at that. maybe 10-12 weeks old not your typical wild type color do you live close to a body of water or could a neighbors recently gotten ducks? just in case your wondering where she came from..

First of all she needs protection all manner of predators including neighbors dogs will want to kill and eat her some just kill for fun too. So a nice fenced in area with a secure house with a door that locks. and good ventilation so the ammonia from her poop won't build up and hurt her health, she can eat chicken fee and layer once she begins laying but mainly right now she needs to be protected a fenced in space with secure housing with [I like to use pine shavings for bedding it absorbs their poop well] and you can scoop out wet bedding stir up and replace easy. Chicken or water fowl food which ever you can get. You may need to clip a wing if she flew in and you want to keep her, Muscovy's make wonderful pets and are quiet ducks lay eggs too which is a bonus. She will be happy with a kiddy pool for bathing and splashing in and grit if she doesn't have access to ground where they would get it if foraging. TSC and other feed stores have all you will need. [Winter]You don't say where you are but if you get below freezing you'll have to have some way to keep her water from freezing in her water bucket. I don't put out a pool for mine unless it gets up around 40 during a day then I just dump it and use another time but they need a nice size bucket of water all the time especially when eating . I use 2 gal bucket for my scovy's Are you planning on keeping her? if so maybe you would want to think of a friend or 2 to go with her ducks are flock animals and love the companionship of other ducks.

Welcome to BYC
 
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Thank you all for replying! We have asked the neighbors, and no one knows where she came from. She is a joy to have, and responds to me and our kids. We live in Seattle, so we are wondering if she traveled far and ended up in our yard. But the truth is she loves our yard, and we are also really concerned about raccoons, and other predators that will try to get her so my husband and I want to make sure she is safe and are building a coop.

We do get freezing temps but only occasionally in the winter, are there any suggestions on what to do when the weather does get that cold? We asked a local pet store and they said they do pretty good in the winter, as long as it's not extreme winter.

Also is feeding her lettuce, corn, watermelon/various fruits like banana, ok in addtion to the chicken food? Our plan is to keep her in an outside built coop, where she will have lots of room and kiddie pool for water. I noticed that she likes to chase down flies and mosquitos, and loves to eat grass.

Also any advice on eggs? We have not seen any as of yet...
 
Thank you all for replying! We have asked the neighbors, and no one knows where she came from. She is a joy to have, and responds to me and our kids. We live in Seattle, so we are wondering if she traveled far and ended up in our yard. But the truth is she loves our yard, and we are also really concerned about raccoons, and other predators that will try to get her so my husband and I want to make sure she is safe and are building a coop.

We do get freezing temps but only occasionally in the winter, are there any suggestions on what to do when the weather does get that cold? We asked a local pet store and they said they do pretty good in the winter, as long as it's not extreme winter.

Also is feeding her lettuce, corn, watermelon/various fruits like banana, ok in addtion to the chicken food? Our plan is to keep her in an outside built coop, where she will have lots of room and kiddie pool for water. I noticed that she likes to chase down flies and mosquitos, and loves to eat grass.

Also any advice on eggs? We have not seen any as of yet...
She is still be too young to lay my Scovys hatch one year lay the next and she is this years hatch. They will eat their weight in flies and mosquitos and anything else you have grass hoppers etc. raccoons are a night mare for those of us who have poultry. so yes very important you keep her safe, and don't use chicken wire raccoons can rip it open and mink can go right through the holes hardware cloth or wire is the best for safety. and making sure nothing can dig under or climb over top. mine love thawed green peas and all the other things you mentioned. They are very hardy and mine are outside in extreme frigid temps even with all their doors to their houses open. they just hunker down behind things. a few of my drakes have gotten frost bite on their flesh knobs on their faces I just try to keep vaseline spread over them when temps drop way down in single digits. Sounds like she has already found a place in ya'lls hearts I am happy she found you all. dried meal worms is another fav.

There is alot of info here about coops and other poultry related things so look around and enjoy. Have you named your duck yet?your girl makes me think of my Joy
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it's called Blue fawn
 
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Thank you all for replying! We have asked the neighbors, and no one knows where she came from.  She is a joy to have, and responds to me and our kids.  We live in Seattle, so we are wondering if she traveled far and ended up in our yard.  But the truth is she loves our yard, and we are also really concerned about raccoons, and other predators that will try to get her so my husband and I want to make sure she is safe and are building a coop.  

We do get freezing temps but only occasionally in the winter, are there any suggestions on what to do when the weather does get that cold?  We asked a local pet store and they said they do pretty good in the winter, as long as it's not extreme winter.

Also is feeding her lettuce, corn, watermelon/various fruits like banana, ok in addtion to the chicken food?  Our plan is to keep her in an outside built coop, where she will have lots of room and kiddie pool for water.  I noticed that she likes to chase down flies and mosquitos, and loves to eat grass.  

Also any advice on eggs?  We have not seen any as of yet...
Yay, you're keeping her. Bless you guys. Her face is very cute.
 
Thank you for all the advice, we are new to this so definitely will read up on having a duck. We haven't given her a name yet because we weren't sure if it was a he or she, but now that we know we have a few names lined up. She has gotten to our heart, as many of the stray animals that love to find my husband and either brings home or ventures to our house end up becoming part of our family.

Good catch on thinking of chicken wire, now knowing that won't be safe we will go with something that will!
 
Thank you for all the advice, we are new to this so definitely will read up on having a duck. We haven't given her a name yet because we weren't sure if it was a he or she, but now that we know we have a few names lined up. She has gotten to our heart, as many of the stray animals that love to find my husband and either brings home or ventures to our house end up becoming part of our family.

Good catch on thinking of chicken wire, now knowing that won't be safe we will go with something that will!
Keep us updated and with lots of pics too. if she flew in you may want to clip one wing just flight feathers so you don't lose her, it's not that she'd leave because she is unhappy but Muscovy's love to fly and can find themselves in a back yard that is not friendly. I clip one wing on all my females. I don't have neighbors but I do have a mountain river down below that moves pretty fast I have a link that explains how to do it if you decide to. let me know.
 
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