does Ideal Poultry clip mallard toes?

[flynntheduck]

In my search to find out if my boy is a Rouen or Mallard I called the feed store I bought him from and they get ducklings and chicks from Ideal. I can't find much on ideal's website so I thought I'd ask here. My boy has all his toes so I am assuming Rouen if it is true that breeders have to clip mallard toes. Anyone know if Ideal does this? Thanks in advance!

 

[Learningstill]

I am unsure about Ideal,but we bought our mallard from a feed store and the hatchery they used did not cut their toes. I was confused by this same thing too. We were scared last spring because none of our mallards were marked as domestic and we were breeding them.

 

[flynntheduck]

Yikes! I thought it was a law?

 

[flynntheduck]

Ok I called Ideal and they do not clip the mallards unless requested by the ordering customer. :/ so that gets me nowhere. Haha!

 

[Learningstill]

I do know that there is nothing that can be done once they are no longer hatchlings. I would keep your proof that they came from ideal and have it in a safe place, just in case.

 

[flynntheduck]

I got them from a local feed store and they buy from ideal. I have no proof as I paid cash. Its such a tiny store that they dont even do receipts for cash purchases if you dont ask for one. So no proof for me. Lets just hope he's a rouen.

 

[Learningstill]

That is exactly what happened to us. My daughter bought them with cash and did not get a receipt, so I was freaking out when I read the law stuff too. Not sure if yours will turn out to be a mallard, but ours did. Actually they turned out pretty close to the wild standard which is hard to achieve, because the wild birds eat so differently than the domestic. The judge told my daughter the longer pointier the face the better. Also they are pretty small. We were told ours was a little to fat. I have a picture of him while he is molting, but you can get the idea of his size for future reference (this was taken last summer right after the judging). He looks so much better now, but he gained more weight because it was so cold this winter we fed them more.

 

[flynntheduck]

That is exactly what happened to us. My daughter bought them with cash and did not get a receipt, so I was freaking out when I read the law stuff too. Not sure if yours will turn out to be a mallard, but ours did. Actually they turned out pretty close to the wild standard which is hard to achieve, because the wild birds eat so differently than the domestic. The judge told my daughter the longer pointier the face the better. Also they are pretty small. We were told ours was a little to fat. I have a picture of him while he is molting, but you can get the idea of his size for future reference (this was taken last summer right after the judging). He looks so much better now, but he gained more weight because it was so cold this winter we fed them more.

He is full grown in this pic right? Mine is only 7 weeks and appears to be about that size now, if not bigger.

 

[Learningstill]

Yes he was over 2 yrs. in the photo.

 

[Speceider]

At 7 weeks, he should be very close to his final size...

Clint