Diaper sizing & bill freckles

[KCNC06]

Obviously two very different questions but I'm lazy and didn't feel like making two posts.
First, about diaper sizing. I bought a diaper harness for my Bill Bill about a month ago from The Goose's Mother & Father. "His" snap measurement from neck to oil gland is ~9". I can't remember exactly but think that's the only measurement they ask for. Bill was 2 months old when I ordered his harness and weighed 4 lbs, I included this info with my order and entered "white layer" as the breed. The harness I received is a size 3 which seems big even when I have the belly straps pulled to their shortest length. I wouldn't think this was an issue except Bill has a tendency to kick out of the belly straps when he's having a diaper tantrum. I emailed the goose parents about the size, and asked if I could/should try a smaller size when I order a second harness. They said this was the right size, Bill would grow into it. Bill Bill is now 3.5 months old, still weighs around 4 lbs, snap measurement is still ~9", and the belly straps are still loose. I really don't think he's going to to grow much more... especially since I'm fairly certain he's a girl and his dad only weighs 5 lbs. So I guess my question is, for anyone who has ordered/uses Goose's parents' diaper harnesses, do you think I can request a smaller size harness? Or should I give a different duck breed in order to get a smaller harness? (They said "white layers" are also known as "jumbo Pekins"...) I'm also going to need a diaper harness for Bill's younger "brother" Pipsqueak who is almost 4 wks old. Pipsqueak just moved up to the largest pants from his pack of baby diaper harnesses.

Now for question #2. Are there diseases that cause freckling on ducks' bills or is it safe to assume that Bill Bill just has adorable bill freckles? I tease and say he caught freckles from my husband. I've been assuming that it's just his color genes turned on and giving him cute freckles but I'm absolutely in love with this baby and would hate to find out too late that freckles are a sign of something bad. (Because that's how my life goes sometimes.) He hasn't always had a freckled bill. They've been coming in slowly. It was one smallish freckle at first, I thought it was dirt but it wouldn't wipe off. Then it turned into a bigger freckle, followed by a few more big freckles. Then a few days ago I noticed a lot more tiny freckles. He also has a couple black spots inside his mouth that I can only see when we're snuggling and he yawns.
Here's Bill's super cute freckled bill.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Obviously they don’t know a Jumbo Pekin from a white layer. Have you thought about ordering from someone else Crazy K in Texas has diaper harness also. Plus I understand Amazon an EBay also carry them, as for the freckles they are normal hormone changes. Cute face.

 

[KCNC06]

I haven't seen diaper harnesses (pants) on eBay or Amazon that are shaped like the Goose's parents' pants. I tried some that said they were for ducks, geese and chickens, couldn't get them to work. Bill seems to tolerate the single back strap best...not that he's particularly fond of his pants.

Glad to hear the freckles aren't anything bad. If they come from hormonal changes, does that mean they might go away? I hope not. They're so darn cute!

 

[KCNC06]

I looked at Crazy K's website trying to see what the diaper harness looked like but couldn't really tell what was going on there. The chicken/duck diapers I've tried have two straps on the back and the poop pouch seemed a little narrow. Not to be too gross, but the narrow poo pouch opening worked fine when I had to diaper our bantam chicken hen while she was recovering from rooster attacks. Our only issue was she didn't have much of a butt to hold it up. But chicken poos are normally pretty solid and plop into the poo pouch just fine. But with Bill...well, his butt is obviously much bigger than a bantam chicken butt and even with a larger harness, the poo pouch still seemed narrow in the butt region. The pouch itself was probably fine but the opening was narrow. They all seemed like they could easily shift to the left/right and leave Bill's pooper exposed. And a jet blast of duck poo missing the poo pouch would be more clean up work than poop without a harness (since I'd have to clean the poopy pants too).
So, are the Crazy K harnesses wide enough in the behind for a duck butt? And do they have just a single strap on the back? I don't mind trying styles even if they end up not working, but it would be nice to know how a harness has worked on duck butts before ordering.
The ridiculous part is I halfway don't care if I have to go around cleaning pwops off the floor all day. I have sheets down on most carpets to catch poo and it's easy enough to wipe poo off wood and vinyl floors. Though I suspect the wood floors don't appreciate being pwopped on all the time. Cleaning poo off the floor seems easier than diaper training. Good thing I don't have human children. I probably would have given up on potty training and would have ended up with a half naked kid pottying in the yard.

 

[Miss Lydia]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/533306...6929&msclkid=0dacebb3de921db0a233b61b83dd1010

 

[KCNC06]

Those are super cute and it sounds like other ducks don't mind them. Which sounds promising! Have you diapered any of your ducks? I'm wondering how long it normally takes them to stop fighting them. Bill has a habit of yelling and trying to preen his off. Often running to the dogs' water dish and throwing a tantrum in the water while yanking his diaper harness off. After he gets his diaper harness off he preens for a bit and then come over to the couch (or wherever) and begs to get up to snuggle. I'm not sure if he has these tantrums because the diaper harness isn't as comfortable as I think it should be or if it's just because he's an absolute brat. He'll fall asleep on my lap for hours wearing his diaper harness as long as I'm petting him. As soon as I take my hand off him, literally just long enough to fast forward through commercials, he turns around and starts trying to preen his pants off. But when I'm petting him and he's sleeping, he gets so relaxed that he'll drool a bit. I hadn't considered that ducks could drool...until I felt something wet drip onto my lip one night and looked at Bill...and saw another drop of drool coming off the edge of Bill's bill.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oh my gosh duck drool. Yes my duckling I raised after his mama didn’t want him he wore a diaper for a while. It turned out better for me to just keep old towels for laps and spray and paper towels for our old wood floors. He didn’t like his diaper harness either.

 

[Raenh]

I got Speedy and Fancys diaper from sew sammi - I like the goose mothers design, and you might be able to adjust the strap yourself, if you're able to see even just a little. You'd take the strap that's loose, fold it until it's the length you want it, pin it and take it off him - then just stitch a single line across the fold to hold it there. That should fix your problem with that diaper...

Mine is they hate the velcro sound and now I have to replace the snap because skye chewed it.

 

[Skylar Marie]

I wouldn’t worry about the bill freckles. Ducks bill color is determined by the Melanin (color pigment) in your ducks beak. So the black spots are usually just extra pigmentation which is completely normal. You can’t see most ducks spots because of the xanthophyll in certain ingredients of their feed and the green plants they eat produce it as well. Xanthophyll Gives them the yellow coloring to cover those spots. My female duck Waffles likes to eat her eggs when they crack, which contains a lot of xanthophyll from the egg yolks, so her beak is a very faded yellow compared to all of my other ducks, she also has a a lot of black dots on her bill as well despite that.
Some ducks you will see more black spots then others because their difference in melanin in that spot, and the xanthophyll just can’t cover it, which is nothing to worry about it is completely natural and isn’t something that will harm her!

There is most likely nothing to worry about, but if you think there is an underlying cause still, you might want to consider having a vet check her out. It’s less likely that there is something wrong with her that is causing this, however sometimes injury, infection, or a fungus can cause change in color.

I hope this helped! (Below is a pic of Waffles w/ all of her spots)

 

[KCNC06]

I got Speedy and Fancys diaper from sew sammi - I like the goose mothers design, and you might be able to adjust the strap yourself, if you're able to see even just a little. You'd take the strap that's loose, fold it until it's the length you want it, pin it and take it off him - then just stitch a single line across the fold to hold it there. That should fix your problem with that diaper...

Mine is they hate the velcro sound and now I have to replace the snap because skye chewed it.

I thought that about trying to adjust/tighten it. I just wasn't sure where to start and didn't want to ruin otherwise good pants. I'm sure my dogs aren't too keen on the idea of the ducks getting pants that fit well enough to wear more often. The poor dogs hide from the ducks up on the couch. The ducks like to nibble the dogs' toes.
Bill and I also have an issue with the Velcro/snap around the poop pouch. He (she) doesn't mind the Velcro sound but I hate that it sticks to the pants all the time. The snaps are easier for me to use but they don't get the pouch tight enough. There are few things worse than settling down for a good duck snuggle at night only to have their pants leak...then you have to clean duck pants and your own!