Help! Adult call never grew in all her adult feathers.

[k0r1nag]

I have a 8 mo call duck who has never grown in all of her adult feathers. She is covered on her belly, around the back of her neck and down her back with soft down, but not feathers. And her wing feathers, which are more like actual adult feathers, seem to be extra soft and barb-less like a silkie chicken. This is not due to wet feather or parasites or anything like that. I've checked. She lives with all of her hatchmates and they are doing great, living with clean water, high protein and room to roam.

What is wrong? Is there such a thing as a silkie call duck? Is she just a "late bloomer"? The worst of it is she is my best show worthy girl in terms of confirmation. Dare I breed from her on the off-chance that I get "normal" feathered ducklings?

Thanks for any input!
Korina

ps- I would post pictures but I am on dial-up and I cannot get the new photo upload feature to work. Any thoughts on this issue would be helpful, too.

 

[wordgirl]

I think this is actually a separate breed, but are her feathers anything like these ducks?

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Ducks/Silky/BRKSilky.html

ETA: I don't know if you've tried it, but you can upload photos directly from the reply box by clicking the little picture-of-a-house icon above, near the film reel icon and the paper clip. Don't know if this helps!

 

[k0r1nag]

Thanks for the link. Neat breed! And for the help uploading photos!

However, she is definitely a call duck as the hatching eggs I bought were from breeders that were only with other call ducks and in a completely enclosed run. There were no other types of ducks (or other fowl) being raised there either. As to the silky qualities, her wing feathers do look like the silky ducks, but the rest of her covering looks like duckling down.

Here she is - notice the "ruff" of fluff around her neck. This extends down the middle of her back between her wings.




Here is her belly fluff. You can see the colored adult feathers along her side. If she had all adult feathers she would be a pastel female, right?






And here is a close-up of her wings. See how the feathers don't stick together? It is not wet or dirty and it has been like this since she began growing in her adult feathers (she is 8 months old). And you can also see that her coloring is poor in all the areas that do not have "normal feathers", even though her head has the pastel coloration of her hatch mates.



You can't tell from the photos as I took them one handed while she was trying to escape from me, but she has a nice small bill, well rounded body and good head set and when she hatched she was the most promising one of the group. Should I keep her and try to hatch "silky" calls?

I'd appreciate any info.

 

[StevenW.]

Shes definately a silky bantam duck. Very cute! Breeding her with a normal feathered call drake should give you a 50/50% of normal and silky feathered ducklings. I'm pretty sure shes a pastel.

 

[hollyk]

I don't know a thing about this, just wanted to say that she is so CUTE!!!

 

[k0r1nag]

Shes definately a silky bantam duck. Very cute! Breeding her with a normal feathered call drake should give you a 50/50% of normal and silky feathered ducklings. I'm pretty sure shes a pastel.

Thanks for the information. I think she is quite pretty in her own way. It looks like she is wearing a boa over her shoulders

I wonder if this is a common issue in call ducks due to excessive inbreeding? Does anyone know? And if I were to breed her to one of her progeny who is also silky, would I be looking at a lethal gene combo?

Should I breed from this little hen? What are the down sides to breeding "silky" calls? I have noticed she doesn't go into the big pond I have for the ducks. Is it likely that she would soak up water and drown due to the silky feathering? She seems to do fine in a shallow tub to wash in and seems to dry as rapidly as the other ducks.

I have a lovely white male who has great confirmation, but is just too big to be showable. Would it be worthwhile to mate him with her. In my limited understanding, the white is dominant so her babies would be white. I think that given how degraded her coloring is, it might be better to aim for a white silky call duck as a possible breeding project.

Again, any input is greatly welcomed.

Thanks!

 

[All-American-Chick]

I too think she is adorable.
here is a link to some silkie ducks too
http://holderreadfarm.com/photogallery/silkies_page/silkies_page.htm