Good pet ducks?

[Miss Lydia]

Runners and Buffs and Muscovy make great backyard pets

 

[Loopeend]

What ducks are good pets;
None.

What ducks give many joy but major poops;
Many.

Pets.. pets..
I don't know. With a word like pets I think about an inside animal.
My indian runner ducks are in between.
They want to sit on your lap, desperatly want to be with you, if your watching t.v. be on the couch with you, do gardening with you, and would really like to sleep with me in bed if I let them. They are way too happy to see you. Even if your were only 5 minutes gone. Like a dog. The follow you everywhere. They reconise everyone that has been here before (and was nice and gave treats). They chase cats away from the garden. They quack when stranger-danger (mail-man). They get jealous when I give other pets attention.
BUT THEY POOP EVERYWHERE. And not the rabbit/rats/guinea pig droplets you can pick up. These wet dropped palette if Bob Ross only had used black-brown-green-white and painted big happy little duck poos. With acid in it that burns through your carpet.

They fall in the category for an award for 'best pets for outside, that resemble inside pets'.

 

[MIDuckLady]

Personality-wise I like my Blue Swedish better than my Khaki Campbells. The KCs are a bit flighty even though they were hand raised. Both are friendly. They do raise the alarm when there is stranger danger. The Swedish lay eggs that are like twice the size of the KCs, KC eggs are close to chicken egg size (not sure if this is a priority for you).

Love the big Swedish eggs too. They started laying earlier than my Saxony girls too.

 

[MIDuckLady]

My Pekins are pretty friendly, they'll let me pat their fronts, and they always eat from my hands. They don't like being handled, but never bite me.
Mine have a checkered past, they were surrendered (the story is they were deprived of water) to a shelter, split from some siblings then I got them.
I'm sure if I had raised them as babies they'd be friendlier.

Please post pictures of your Pekins if you can. They one you are holding in your picture looks HUGE!

 

[thumper650]

Please post pictures of your Pekins if you can. They one you are holding in your picture looks HUGE!

Roscoe, he's around 7 lbs

Scooter is on the right, he's bigger, about 10 pounds! The vet was impressed with his size.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are all four gorgeous dudes

 

[MIDuckLady]

View attachment 1621919
Roscoe, he's around 7 lbs
View attachment 1621920
Scooter is on the right, he's bigger, about 10 pounds! The vet was impressed with his size.

Was wondering what you are feeding these big boys. They both look very healthy and fit not fat.

 

[thumper650]

They are all four gorgeous dudes

Thanks!

Was wondering what you are feeding these big boys. They both look very healthy and fit not fat.

That picture is a few months old, and the one on the rock (Roscoe) is the skinny (er) one. They looked a little rough for few weeks during our cold snap. It's in the 50's now and they're bathing and preening and looking good again.

I feed them Blue Seal all flock from TSC. We're battling bumble foot on on the pekin from time to time, but I just discovered a sharp metal object on their run that I think is responsible for it.

 

[Upper Brook House Farm]

Hi!
What ducks are have been your favorites? Pros, cons?
Can’t wait to hear what you all have to say!
Thanks!

Hi,

It’s difficult to choose a favourite (I’m a top breeder and exhibitor in England and do many breeds) but I would have to say appleyard ducks or, preferably, call ducks. Call ducks are tamed incredibly easily and, in particular, the exhibition ones are really cute and chubby, like a bath-time duck! However, call duck females are renowned for being noisy. If you have close neighbours who would mind, buy a few males, they’ll be just as tame, but won’t make the noise.
Appleyard ducks lay around 280 eggs a year and are very good meat birds. However, they’re not great pets and don’t tame easily unless you get them when they’re no older than 3 or 4 weeks old.
I’ve included a link to my website so you can have a look at some of our birds. Let me know what you think?
Thanks
James

http://upperbrookhousefarm.weebly.com/

 

[Upper Brook House Farm]

A couple of photos attached.