Gender guesses on 6 wk old Muscovy ducks

[Jmiller89]

Any idea on gender of these two Muscovy ducks. We ordered girls but there were issues when picking up and the guy that sexed them didn’t look very confident in what he was doing (the guy that normally sexes the birds was gone for the day). I read somewhere that the males have U shaped tailed by and females V but that you couldn’t tell until they were 12 wks. These Theo have U shaped tails right now.

 

[JaeG]

I would guess the one at the back is a girl and the one at the front is a boy. The front one looks to have thicker legs, bigger feet, and has a lot of length from the top of his legs to his tail tip. It may just be the angle of the photos though. If that is the case the boy will be quite a bit bigger by 8 weeks old. Boys also develop a more prominent breast.

 

[Jmiller89]

Here are some updates pictures. 16 weeks old now. Last two pics are the same bird.

 

[SolarDuck]

I would guess pic 1 is a girl and pics 2 and 3 are a boy. You should know for sure soon when the boys start hissing and huffing all the time.

 

[Jmiller89]

I would guess pic 1 is a girl and pics 2 and 3 are a boy. You should know for sure soon when the boys start hissing and huffing all the time.

It kinda looked like 2 was hissing at me when I went to take pictures. But it’s so windy out I couldn’t hear anything. Hope you are right about 1 being a girl. The two look that same size/ tail shape/ leg thickness.

 

[SolarDuck]

Do you know how much they weigh? Girls usually max out around 6-8lbs but the boys can get all the way up to 15-20lbs if they are the same size and you know that they are from the same clutch, they're probably the same sex.

 

[Jmiller89]

I have no idea what they weigh. If memory serves me well then they are the same size or a tad smaller then a full grown female.

 

[SolarDuck]

If they're smaller than a full grown female they're probably both girls