Does anyone know why my mandarin male is no longer colored ?

[Petrisor]

What form of protein do you give them? Also, what multi-mineral/vitamin supplement?

I try to feed them as natural as possible, as in the wild, without minerals or supplements. I forgot to mention that they have also access to grass and few aquatic plants.

I asked a breeder in my country and he said: It might be caused by food... He had a similar case few years ago but the duck has recovered its plumage in the next year without any help...

 

[chooks4life]

What form of protein do you give them? Also, what multi-mineral/vitamin supplement?

I try to feed them as natural as possible, as in the wild, without minerals or supplements. I forgot to mention that they have also access to grass and few aquatic plants.

In the wild they have perfect access to a complete spectrum of vitamins, proteins, minerals, all nutrients etc and therefore need no supplements, whereas in captivity we restrict them from such a wide buffet of food choices, that's why we have to supplement them.

Some grasses are a serious health issue, they 'tie up' certain nutrients which causes others to be imbalanced and causes disease; I don't know what sort of aquatic plants they eat or naturally have access to so can't comment on that.

I asked a breeder in my country and he said: It might be caused by food... He had a similar case few years ago but the duck has recovered its plumage in the next year without any help...

Can you ask the breeder what he feeds his, or ask other mandarin keepers what diet they give theirs, for a comparison?

Best wishes.

 

[muus]

I think it could be stress, male ducks when they aren't in a confortable or they think aren't in an appropiate place they didn't change the eclipse feathers. This happen with wild ducks but maybe is this the problem of this male...

 

[Petrisor]

Can you ask the breeder what he feeds his, or ask other mandarin keepers what diet they give theirs, for a comparison?

I asked two keepers meantime about that. The first said as you told me: It might be caused because of PVC that I used for pond.
And the second told me that I have to get them some vitamins for the water, he even gave me some names of vitamins, but it is totally useless now. It could work in the summer when they're gonna change their plumage.

 

[Petrisor]

I think it could be stress, male ducks when they aren't in a confortable or they think aren't in an appropiate place they didn't change the eclipse feathers. This happen with wild ducks but maybe is this the problem of this male...

Yes, it can also be a cause.

 

[cajunfowl0]

Looks to me like he's going thru a tough molt maybe it's hard to tell

 

[chooks4life]

Will be educational to learn what happens in this case, if you give an update sometime on how he's going. Haven't heard of adding vitamins to water to treat a waterbird before! Interesting.

Best wishes.

 

[Trefoil]

Can you ask the breeder what he feeds his, or ask other mandarin keepers what diet they give theirs, for a comparison?

I asked two keepers meantime about that. The first said as you told me: It might be caused because of PVC that I used for pond.
And the second told me that I have to get them some vitamins for the water, he even gave me some names of vitamins, but it is totally useless now. It could work in the summer when they're gonna change their plumage.

If the problem is due to diet, then what you are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg and should be corrected immediately.

 

[enola]

If this color change is due to a deficient diet, his diet needs to be corrected NOW if you want his plumage to be normal next molt.

 

[chooks4life]

X2 what enola and Trefoil said. It's ALWAYS the tip of the iceberg; what a succinct way to put something that usually takes me a whole paragraph, LOL. Thanks.

By the time you can see the obvious visual symptoms of deficiency, its effects are widespread and advanced throughout the body, and no matter the nutrient the animal is deficient in, the end result is pretty much always death, sooner or later, from deficiency disease, if the deficiency is not corrected in a timely enough fashion. Some damage is irreversible too.

If you are not 100% sure the bird is on an adequate diet (I'd actually have this bird on a special recovery diet personally just to cover all bases) then now is the time to do the research and make sure.

This following PDF file is mainly based on parrots but mentions poultry of a few other species as well and generally the same nutrients perform the same or extremely similar functions in all species, so it's well worth reading up on it:
Quote:
Good luck and best wishes.