female or male

[kels bels]

is there a way to tell the sex of ducklings?

 

[Amiga]

When they are very very young, people who know how to do it can vent sex them - but one needs to know what one is doing - mistakes can be awful - damaging, perhaps fatal, I have just heard it is very serious if it is done incorrectly. But there are folks who know how to do it.

When they are a month old or more, their voices change.

 

[Amykins]

Yes. I know how to vent sex, but I was shown how by one of the best call duck breeders in WA state. Their wee little GI tracts were only recently pulled into their stomachs, typically just a few days before hatch, so you're not supposed to apply any pressure! Nonetheless if you accidentally do it can cause...well, some very bad things, as you can imagine.

What kinds of ducks are these? I swear male call ducklings have a slightly lower peep than the females. That's the correlation I've noticed after vent sexing, anyway. I couldn't tell you how it was for other duck breeds. But when it comes to 1> week old calls, that's been my experience. Older than that and their peeps sort of even out.

 

[JLynnsDuckies]

This is the behaviors I've noticed in both pekin ducks and calls so far. I have a pair of both... The males seem to have a "herding" tendancy towards the female. They always seem to be in protective mode and up behind the female or in front of them. They seem to be the more dominant of the pair. When voice sexing the males have a raspy cricket sounding quack (if you can call it that... lol) Female ducks have an actual loud quack. Though I haven't heard this from my female call. She chirps or does the "Joker laugh" as Amykins calls it... Voice sexing is pretty reliable once you recognize what you are looking for. You can Google it to listen to the distinct differences between male and female ducks. I wouldn't try to vent sex a duckling myself as I'm unexpirienced. At three weeks I knew I had a female and a male pekin as my female started to quack around then while my male still was peeping. Her first quacks resembled almost a cough like sound... Anyway, I hope my ramblings helped!