Help! Call Ducks Due!

[Kleonaptra]

Kleo, that wasn't meant to be demeaning to people who don't feed what I feed. I think at least most of us who post here do what we have with what's available, what our other circumstances are like other poulty, and what we can afford. That's one reason I almost never mentiion exactly what I feed mine. Feed is important, but it's not a panacea. I've heard from people who are the best caretakers and feed only chicken feed or all breed feeds, and their ducks do fine. I feed only expensive duck feed, and I had four deformed ducks this year.

I didn't take it that way hun, no need to explain. Just putting in my 2 cents. I'm always plugging coprice brand because they never let me down over poultry, horse, cow cat dog the lot, but its an Auzzie company so I don't know if you guys could get it anyway.
I do agree100% everyone does their best with what they have and we find what works within our means.

 

[htyrrell]

Ok so at the feed store they told me that an older Drakke fertilizing eggs will cause more ducklings not to make it. Is this true?

 

[Kleonaptra]

Hmm, potentially yes. An older breeding male can have lower fertilization rates. I think the jury is still out on age affecting sperm quality and therefore producing less viable embryo

 

[Lacrystol]

Ok so at the feed store they told me that an older Drakke fertilizing eggs will cause more ducklings not to make it. Is this true?

I don't believe this and the reason why, every year a Drake will lose his love toy, yes they lose it, HOWEVER, it does grow back only longer. SOO that means, more sperm.

Wishing this happens with Humans. LOL. hahahaha

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Ok so at the feed store they told me that an older Drakke fertilizing eggs will cause more ducklings not to make it. Is this true?

I agree with @Lacrystol , but for a somewhat different reason. (I did enjoy the explanation, though. LOL.)

You have to be very careful of believing what anyone in a feed store says. They sometimes actually give you a wrong answer to a question, but they more often know a little, just enough to think they have answers. It's very common for them to make sweeping generalizations like that, so they gave you an "answer," but it really means nothing at all.

Sperm counts, motility, etc., decrease in at least most male animals as they age, same as they do in human males. That doesn't mean a 3 year old drake would have any less chance than a 1 year old drake, but once they start getting up there, say 6-8-10 years old, it's certainly possible they'd be less fertile. Comparing a 2 year old drake to an 8-10 year old drake is probably about like comparing a 20 year old guy to a 55-60 year old guy. The latter of course doesn't have quite the same chance of fathering children, other things being equal.

You can really increase chances of healthy ducklings simply by keeping the ducks and drakes in healthy surroundings and making sure they're meeting all their nutritional needs. That applies no matter what the age of the parents

 

[htyrrell]

Ok thank you my next question is how do I tell the age of my ducks?

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Ok thank you

my next question is how do I tell the age of my ducks?

I thought you hatched them. Do you mean you don't know the ages of the parents and that the parents belong to you as well?

 

[htyrrell]

No I did not hatch them. I bought them. They belong too me and they seem happy, they stopped laying eggs for the year though I think.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

No I did not hatch them. I bought them. They belong too me and they seem happy, they stopped laying eggs for the year though I think.

So they were already adults when you bought them? If so, did the person who sold them to you not have any idea how old they were?

I don't know of any reliable way a lay person can accurately determine the age of a duck that's already an adult. You can take some guesses based on plumage, e.g., some dark colored ducks will develop white feathers as they age. It's kind of like a human getting gray hair, but even the white feather thing is more common in ducks than in drakes, so you could have two exactly the same age and one gets white feathers while one doesn't. Some people believe you can tell the year of a drake by the number of curls of the sex feathers, but many people who really know their stuff about ducks say that's nonsense.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

[Kleonaptra]

The drake I hatched last year has 3 curly feathers, lol!