Has my female mallard turned into a male?

[rainplace]

Holderread in his book, "Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks," talks about a female mallard he had named Tiny Tina who turned into Tiny Tim at around age seven. It does happen.

 

[danischi24]

It is fairly common in ducks. From what I remember, if something happens to one ovary, they start producing testosterone & grow male plumage though they will never be fertile males.

 

[sourland]

This can happen and generally involves an ovarian tumor. A friend of mine has a 6 or 7 year old RIR hen who developed rooster secondary sexual characteristics her last molt. She now has pointy hackle. saddle and wing coverlet feathers. She has also developed long flowing tail feathers, but hasn't started crowing yet.

 

[linda_zeagler31002]

There is some articles and feed back from some other people having this to happen to them, I say its evolution & survival of fittest, but the articles are on http://www.gbwf.org/phpBB3/index.php or gbwf.org Avicultural Forums, but sourland is right with the reply posted from what I have read.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I had a white female call duck go through a similar change. She obviously didn't change color, but she did grow a curl on her tail. She also stopped laying eggs. It was funny to see a duck that looked male running around quacking like a hen!

 

[horsin_around_cowgirl]

Will she ever change back to normal? Does this happen with males also?

 

[destinduck]

No and No

 

[horsin_around_cowgirl]

Thanks so much for the information! I don't feel like I'm crazy now! (well, at least not when it comes to the ducks, lol)