Do Muscovy need a pool to swim in?

Since after having to rehome my 2 ducks, i have wanted muscovies, due to them being pretty quiet(no quacking).
But do they need a pool or water to swim in constantly. Or would a bath once or two times a week work?
Id still have water deep enough for them to clean their face/beak.
They definitely don’t need a pool but it’s good stimuli. Kind of like how cats don’t need toys to live but it provides good mental stimulation. Same for ducks! I had a Muscovy who loved to swim but she’d only swim twice a day :) if you decide to only give them a pool twice a week then that would work but no pool might just make them swim in their water bowl lol
 
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Muscovy hen just hanging out in the water.
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Muscovy hen teaching her kids to swim.
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Muscovy hen pointing out that muscovies are perching birds and ideally should have roosting perches.
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Some males can be a bit soapy and rarely get in the water.

"This isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
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"On second thoughts..."
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You already have the perfect answer but just add from someone in Florida where our weather gets extremely hot, I have a Muscovy hen that bathes two or three times in a seven day week. You can easily let the water go that long in a kiddie pool before you have to refill it again. Also you don't have to fill the kiddie pool completely up, just enough water for it to reach the underside and they will flap their wings to bring the water above them and dip their head down in a swan like motion to get the water over their backs. Muscovies are not waterfowl so they don't get in the water just to float around like my Mallard derived ducks do. My Muscovy hen gets in, does her business and gets out. I have 2 x 125 gallons and 2x kiddie pools so it's not because of the lack of options LOL 😂
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I didn't realize Muscovies would be that way around water. We have a creek down a hill with a path that the chickens go down there, but of course, just foraging. Ducks I'm told I can't have because they'd swim a little farther every day and one day wouldn't be able to come back, or a predator would get them.

Perhaps Muscovies would go down there, "do their thing," and come right back up here to our yard and free range with the silkies?? As long as that's as far as they would go, there's no predators right there in that area, but downstream there would be. Our dogs patrol down there many times a day.

In winter, we could build them a shelter near the coop.
 
I didn't realize Muscovies would be that way around water. We have a creek down a hill with a path that the chickens go down there, but of course, just foraging. Ducks I'm told I can't have because they'd swim a little farther every day and one day wouldn't be able to come back, or a predator would get them.

Perhaps Muscovies would go down there, "do their thing," and come right back up here to our yard and free range with the silkies?? As long as that's as far as they would go, there's no predators right there in that area, but downstream there would be. Our dogs patrol down there many times a day.

In winter, we could build them a shelter near the coop.
Well I wouldn't go as far as to say I wouldn't worry about them going further after bathing. Muscovy's do have a tendency to want to wander and even fly away if you don't keep them clipped. I could easily imagine a Muscovy going down to a creek forging nearby taking a dip to clean off and then hopping back out and following the creek further down while foraging afterwards.
 
My muscovy drakes are by and large stinkers. One, Daffy, bathes daily but the others don't bathe from one month to another and require hosing down when they get too ripe [and they don't like being hosed down.] My son had a beautiful female muscovy who held her own having splashy baths multiple times a day with his pekins!! But I don't know that she would have been such a sparkling clean girl if she didn't have pekins to compete with!!
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You already have the perfect answer but just add from someone in Florida where our weather gets extremely hot, I have a Muscovy hen that bathes two or three times in a seven day week. You can easily let the water go that long in a kiddie pool before you have to refill it again. Also you don't have to fill the kiddie pool completely up, just enough water for it to reach the underside and they will flap their wings to bring the water above them and dip their head down in a swan like motion to get the water over their backs. Muscovies are not waterfowl so they don't get in the water just to float around like my Mallard derived ducks do. My Muscovy hen gets in, does her business and gets out. I have 2 x 125 gallons and 2x kiddie pools so it's not because of the lack of options LOL 😂
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those 3 dark colored ducks look like crosses, theyre beautiful. what are they?
 
You already have the perfect answer but just add from someone in Florida where our weather gets extremely hot, I have a Muscovy hen that bathes two or three times in a seven day week. You can easily let the water go that long in a kiddie pool before you have to refill it again. Also you don't have to fill the kiddie pool completely up, just enough water for it to reach the underside and they will flap their wings to bring the water above them and dip their head down in a swan like motion to get the water over their backs. Muscovies are not waterfowl so they don't get in the water just to float around like my Mallard derived ducks do. My Muscovy hen gets in, does her business and gets out. I have 2 x 125 gallons and 2x kiddie pools so it's not because of the lack of options LOL 😂
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So glad to hear about your Florida Muscovy. Wanted to add some to our homestead but was wondering about the Florida heat. Love the pictures!
 

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