Can you sex & ID my duckys? **PIC OVERLOAD**

[RoxyOtis]

A few weeks ago I posted about my brown duck to see if you knew the breed(I think it is a Khaki Campbell). I got him/her a friend and was wondering if you could sex and ID them both now that they are older...any help you be appreciate it!!
I also have a few questions for a newbie duck owner......

1.) Where are the "drake" feathers?(not sure if that is the right term,sorry...Im new to ducks

)

2.) At what age will they be fully feathered out with adult feathering(Mine I believe are around 3 months old,I got them as day or week old not quite sure and have had them for 3 months now)
3.) I have my ducks in with my bantam chickens and they seem to get along very well,they all mingle and play together.But the ducks seem to not want to go into the coop at night, Our coop is about 2ft off the ground with a ramp.When I go to check on them at night they are asleep on the ground,I pick them up and put them away but they always come back out.When I feel them they seem very warm.The temps at night here in Cali is around 49 to 50 degrees with no rain.Should I be worried and should I put a box out for them on the ground or let them stay out in the open?(they are in a fenced and screened in run.

Sorry for so many questions!!Just want to make sure I don't miss something.

Here is one of them together(sorry they are all so blurry,they wouldnt hold still

)

Here is one of the lighter colored one.

The tail of the lighter one.

Here is one of the lighter ones wing(They both have pin feathers coming in on their wings)

Here is one of the darker one, Khaki Campbell?

Another of the darker one.

This is the darker ones wings,you can see the pin feathers on the wing.

Blurry one of the darker ones tail.


Again THANK YOU soo much for anyone that can help me a little bit

~Kayla

 

[70%cocoa]

Hi,

Drake feathers are found at the tail end, on the top side of the tail. They are feathers that curl up, rather than lying flat like the tails in your photos. Each drake has one or two (except when they are moulting when they fall out and then regrow). Your birds may be too young to have drake feathers yet - I am not sure about that.

At 3 months of age you should be able to tell whether they are drakes or ducks from the sound they are making. Ducks will have a definite 'quack' by this age, whereas drakes make a softer, huskier sound. You will not mistake a duck's (female) quack - it's loud and clear.

What do your birds sound like?

 

[RoxyOtis]

Well they are both making almost peeps still, but they sound like a classic "quack". Although the darker one sounds like it has a little deeper "quack"......I'm thinking they make be a little too young yet.
Thanks for the reply!!

 

[dumb_cluck]

I hope you are feeding them game bird starter with niacin. (and not chicken starter)

Ducks need niacin in their diet. The feathers are a little on the "shaggy" side. At 3 months their feathers should be a bit more developed. It could be what they are eating.

I hope your coop is predator proof. Otherwise the chickens and ducks could be killed by a nocturnal animal.

I can't really tell by the coloring and feathers, but just listen for the quack....females are loud, males are raspy and hoarse sounding.

 

[70%cocoa]

Yes, I was thinking the same about the feathers. The wing feathers look very underdeveloped for 3 month old birds. Looks more like a 5 or 6 week old bird's feathers.

If they are 3 months old I'd really expect to be hearing loud quacking from the female ones. But if they are a bit 'behind' in feather development they may be behind in other ways.

Some ducks do just develop at a very slow rate, even though their siblings develop normally. You could just have a couple of late starters. Or it might be that their feed is lacking. I'd be interested to know what you are feeding them as well.

 

[RoxyOtis]

Ok.....I take it back,I just checked my older post and I bought my duck on 2/16/11 and I am assuming they were about a week old since they were housed in a very very tiny cage with week old chicks.I bought them because they couldn't even stand up in that tiny pitiful cage.
So if I calculated right they should be around 9 weeks old,does that sound more accurate?
When I first got them the feed store told me to feed them the same starter that I fed my chicks.I recently moved them outside and they are currently eating lay crumble,scratch and food scraps that I throw out to them daily.

 

[70%cocoa]

They still look a bit underdeveloped for 9 weeks of age. It is possible that they were actually older than a day-old when you got them but because of improper food or not enough food (due to competing with the chicks) they did not develop as fast as they should. Good for you on rescuing them from that situation! They were lucky you came along.

Ideally, ducklings should be fed a starter crumble that's designed for ducks (duck starter or gamebird starter) - not chick starter. The main reason is that chick starter doesn't have the quantity of B-vitamins in it that ducklings need. If you can only buy chick starter then that is ok but you can/should supplement the feed with B-vitamins (niacin in particular). Chopped up greens are good for them too.

A lack of B-vitamins can lead to leg deformities amongst other things but from what I can see their legs look nice and straight to me.

At any rate they are now past the age at which they'd need starter feed and so feeding them a 'grower' ration is the way to go. They are too young for layer feed (it has too much calcium). Best to switch to a grower type feed until they are about 16-18 weeks old (when you can start to switch over to layer ration..although opinions will differ on exactly when to do this.....). Duck grower is the best, with gamebird grower pretty much just as good, with pullet grower a last choice if you can't get the other two. This should form the bulk of their feed (like, 80-90%). They'll love greens and peas as well though, and also some wheat or oats. Make sure the scraps are not too high a proportion of their diet (only because it's hard to ensure they get the right nutrients if they are getting heaps of scraps).

At this age they should have daily access to water that they can bathe in from a pond, tub or trough. This will keep their feathers, eyes, nostrils, bill and feet in good condition. Being outside and having sunlight is really good for them too as they need vitamin D which comes from exposure to sunlight as I'm sure you know.

Even if they are a possibly little slow growing they should catch up in size eventually.

I hope you are able to work out who's a he and who's a she soon

 

[RoxyOtis]

Thanks for the reply!! I am going to the feed store tomorrow so I will get some food specially for ducks or gamebird food. I have a nice size plastic tub with fresh water for them to play in

I will also try to give them less scraps so I can make sure they get more of the food.

 

[gofasterstripe]

My 2 young drakes are 3 months old, they have had their teen feathers and have molted out and now have all their adult feathers. Yours sure dont look 3 months old