Inbred ducks

[Emelyn]

We bought a Cayuga trio last year and the guy who sold us them told us they were siblings. Well about that...we hatched out their babies and got some weird results out of the 3 we hatched. Here's what the results were (please be aware I'm not sure who's the youngest or oldest) and they're 4 1/2 months old

Cayuga #1: Normal (by that I mean no mental or physical problems and grew normally)

Cayuga #2: Grew fine at first but then after she turned 2 weeks she became SUPER mentally and physically unstable. She was fed the same diet as the other 2 ducks and I've tried a lot of things to help her. In the end though we just gave up on her because we spend A LOT of money and time for just her. So she passed away.

Cayuga #3: Same like Cayuga #1 except has a bunch of white feathers all over her which is odd

If I sold Cayugas 1 and 2 will their offspring be mentally/physically unstable? We're not planning to sell them but I'm just curious if we sold them to someone who also had ducks and in no way possible the ducks they had were related to ours.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Re #2: what do you mean by "mentally and physically unstable"?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Normally you can inbreed for 1-2 generations with ducks before you start to see wonky genetics. Are you sure #2 wasn't a niacin deficiency and were they treated with a B complex (NOT Brewers or nutritional yeast). The white feathers actually do happen on Cayuga's as they age. Usually it starts after their first adult molt, but every Cayuga is different. As for your question if what they are experiencing is truly due to inbreeding you could cross them with new blood. Breeders of many species do what is called "Line Breeding" where you inbreed and most have to eventually introduce new blood then go back to inbreeding.

 

[Emelyn]

Re #2: what do you mean by "mentally and physically unstable"?

She had a Niacin deficiency that was nearly impossible to cure. I've read multiple threads and followed every thing I read and at the end we killed her since it was just torture for her and us

 

[Lilybljm]

I started with four females and a male (all unrelated) and by now I’ve had a total of about 40. (Have fun with that math) I’ve kept 23 of them and none have had any issues at all. It might just have been an unfortunate fluke.