Da' Cute and Cuddly Call Duck thread!

[buff goose guy]

Okay so I've asked this before but then several people just told me different.


Can call ducks fly as well and as high as mallards ?

 

[Amykins]

Yyyyyyyep. Dunno if they can, like, fly as far as mallards, those dudes are long-distance pros. But I've heard stories of escaped call ducks chilling with mallard flocks both north and southside, so I assume they travel right along with 'em.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Yyyyyyyep. Dunno if they can, like, fly as far as mallards, those dudes are long-distance pros. But I've heard stories of escaped call ducks chilling with mallard flocks both north and southside, so I assume they travel right along with 'em.

That makes me curious. Does Wobbles fly around your house?

 

[Amykins]

Nah, she hasn't figured it out yet, sadly. We wanted her to at least learn before we began clipping her wings, but so far, no dice. She flaps like crazy, but it's usually just exercising or stretching her wings. It's super cute.

 

[buff goose guy]

Yeah we had a call duck fly in with mallards about 2 weeks ago , but it was never as fast as them .

I just don't want to have to clip there wings ( since they'll be free range ) because I already have to clip all my mallards , but what really sucks about it is my black mallard is so he'd to cut since the prime flight feathers are dark .

 

[Amykins]

Yeah, I'd be so paranoid about that too! How can you tell the blood feathers apart?

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Yeah, I'd be so paranoid about that too! How can you tell the blood feathers apart?

I've seen some videos of it on YouTube, and I've also seen it done in person. It looks like a piece of cake, but I'd be freaked out too. If I'm ever forced into wing clipping, I'm going to take four of mine to our vet and have her do the first one while I watch, then have her watch me do the other three so she can tell me if I've got the hang of it. I'm thinking Wobbles will be easy once you know how to do it since she's white.

 

[buff goose guy]

I just wait a week or two after the feathers have grown back in then I clip them


On my normal mallards it's easy to clip there wings because ou can see if the blood is full in the bottom of the feather or not .

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I just wait a week or two after the feathers have grown back in then I clip them


On my normal mallards it's easy to clip there wings because ou can see if the blood is full in the bottom of the feather or not .

How often do you clip yours? I've mostly heard you need to do it once per quarter, but the opinions seem to differ on that as well as to whether they should have only one wing clipped or both. Sorry if that's dumb. I've just never clipped any of my own birds, including my cockatoos that could fly very well. I'm really hoping we'll be able to avoid it with our Call ducks

 

[keeperofthehearth]

I clip only one wing and also leave the first two-three flight feather alone (beauty clip). That way they look less "shorn"....lol. and still are able to at least get off the ground a bit and fly forward somewhat if a predator is after them. Clipping one wing keeps them off balance so they can't fly very far or high. I generally wait to clip until they are beginning to fly more than a few feet high or more than 10' out. MY older Calls have learned to fly and turn back to land inside the fence line & I'll leave them unclipped unless they start going over the fence in excited competition flights. If they do get out the silly things generally WALK back and run up and down the fence line fussing to get back inside.

We do have foxes and have lost a few Calls & it seems the older Calls have finally learned that it's safer inside the fence w/our dogs than out w/foxes and who knows what else. Hopefully, they will pass that knowledge on to the youngsters. You shouldn't need to clip more than twice a year....after each molt once the flight feathers have grown back.