Can you identify this duckling?

[scubagirlwonder]

Hi gang!

Those of you that have been following my story of Bear (the duckling who survived being mauled by a black bear) have been fantastic in your support and well wishes for her speedy recovery! Now I need a little help figuring out the breed of one of her duckling siblings!

I originally bought 4 fertile duck eggs to let my broody hen hatch-2 Pekin eggs and 2 Swedish eggs, well...it turned out that only three were fertile (we candled them throughout their incubation) and all of those three hatched... we ended up with one perfect little yellow duckling (Bear the Pekin), one cute as a button black duckling (Swedish) and one little stripey duckling (???).... so can any of you tell me what this mystery duckling is?

Here's pics from their first days (with their Mama Petunia), and then from today (at age 4 weeks)

 

[anaiyuk]

She looks swedish in conformation, I would venture to guess that a wild (or mallard) gene pulled through in a swedish egg, or that it was acctually a cross of mallard and swedish

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I have no idea but very pretty

 

[scubagirlwonder]

Update!

So now that my sweet duckies have more feathers I thought I'd post some updated pics! I am wondering if my "mystery duckling" is a Welsh Harlequin mix...the white with spots down his chest look an awful lot like the pics I've been browsing of welsh harlequins...and his head shape looks similar too....and definitely a drake too,(based on his coloring), right? They are just over 7 weeks old now and HUGE! (Well, my pekin that was mauled by a bear is still catching up, but has grown a ton in the past couple weeks!) What do you think?

Nap time with the chickens!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I think they are adorable

and the white one is the one that was mauled? oh my does she look nice.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

I would say some sort of welsh mallard mix or welsh rouen mix. Is it a boy? And I dont think your "pekin" is a pekin I think its a female welsh harlquin. And your other is a for sure black sweedish.

 

[scubagirlwonder]

Quote:
Ok..I think it's hilarious that you posted that you think my Pekin isn't a pekin, cause I JUST got done posting a question about why my "pekin's" feathers are coming in gray and white!! LOL....it would sure explain things! At least my Swedish is the breed it was supposed to be!! Oh, well, I love them regardless...and actually, after looking at lots of duck pictures recently, trying to figure out what kind of duck Smudge is, I kinda fell in love with the look of the Welsh Harlequins....so good news all around!
I haven't been able to figure out gender of these babes yet...Smudge (the one I call the mystery duck) seems to be a drake, has the raspy voice and coloring-wise I'd say drake...as for the Swedish, it still has the peepy duckling voice and so does the "Pekin"....I hope the Swedish and "yet to be determined pekin" are girls, I'd love to have some eggs! But I'd be fine with a Bachelor flock too...
Thanks for the info!!

 

[Oregon Blues]

Black Swedish behind, Splash Swedish in front, and I don't know what the brown one is, but I think he is too dark to be a Welsh Harlequin. He looks an awful lot like a Mallard to me. I think you are going to have to wait until his plumage is all the way in.