Is this wet feather?

[Crazy Maizie]

Do you have a drake? My girls feathers are a bit ragged from being mated. Even if you only have one sex, ducks still tend to mate (or dominate) one another.

 

[Debby Duck]

All 4 are drake's. And their feathers are definitely not soggy wet like yours were KaleIam. They just stay damp and brittle as you can see on the new picture I took. I should mention that we're in our rainy season now so there's that.
I guess this would be their first real molt, so I don't know what it should look like. They turned 1 year old just this month. They lost a lot when their adult feathers came in but its probably not the same.

Since we had him for a picture of the wing, we took a look at the preen gland. I don't know what it should be like so I got one of that too, and a gif from the video.

Does it look normal?

 

[Crazy Maizie]

My ducks (drakes and hens) feathers get like this towards the end of the year before they molt. I have muscovy and though different in some ways, are still very similar. I don't see anything wrong with the preening gland. It looks nice and clean with a good yellow color. One of my girls has had wet feather and when she got it, her preening gland was a bit clogged with dirt that you could see.

 

[KaleIAm]

That preen gland looks great to me. Here's Thimble's, after being looked at by the vet and declared healthy. But it is just me holding her and photographing so the photo isn't great.



That's a great wing photo. My girls, aside from Thimbleberry who had such poor feather quality, have never looked like that before molting. Their feathers do look less pristine than right after molting, but not even close to that ragged. I'm absolutely not saying it isn't the case for some ducks, clearly it happens to Crazy Mazie's ducks.

Unless your ducks are having thermoregulation issues I might just wait for them to molt their feathers and grow nice new ones. If they have problems after that you'll know there is an issue. Thimble had issues a few weeks after molting.

For all my molting ducks one day I just suddenly notice long flight feathers on the floor of the barn. It takes about 3 days for them to drop them all. Then they look really silly and naked while growing them back for a few weeks.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Like I said, I have muscovies. Except for one case of wet feather, my ducks feathers are really nice looking after the full molt. But, once breeding season starts the feathers get a little ragged. Drakes can weigh 12 pounds or more and the hens are around 8. I'm not sure about all muscovies, but mine pester each other and like to grab tail feathers as they walk by. I've had them for over 3 yrs now and they all do it. Maybe a learned behavior within my flock?
So, as the seasons go by the ducks look more tattered until they molt again. I love the way they look right after their new feathers come in, but it doesn't last long with my crew.

Edited to add that muscovies do love water, but they don't use it all of the time like mallard derived ducks. Maybe that's the difference as well.

 

[Debby Duck]

That preen gland looks great to me. Here's Thimble's, after being looked at by the vet and declared healthy. But it is just me holding her and photographing so the photo isn't great.

View attachment 2743617

That's a great wing photo. My girls, aside from Thimbleberry who had such poor feather quality, have never looked like that before molting. Their feathers do look less pristine than right after molting, but not even close to that ragged. I'm absolutely not saying it isn't the case for some ducks, clearly it happens to Crazy Mazie's ducks.

Unless your ducks are having thermoregulation issues I might just wait for them to molt their feathers and grow nice new ones. If they have problems after that you'll know there is an issue. Thimble had issues a few weeks after molting.

For all my molting ducks one day I just suddenly notice long flight feathers on the floor of the barn. It takes about 3 days for them to drop them all. Then they look really silly and naked while growing them back for a few weeks.

Oh good. I guess I consider them looking worse than they are because I'm comparing them to what they used to be. Like you said, all pristine.

"Then they look really silly and naked while growing them back for a few weeks."... And their crests were finally just filling in again after beating each other up the whole mating season. Oh well!

 

[Debby Duck]

My ducks (drakes and hens) feathers get like this towards the end of the year before they molt. I have muscovy and though different in some ways, are still very similar. I don't see anything wrong with the preening gland. It looks nice and clean with a good yellow color. One of my girls has had wet feather and when she got it, her preening gland was a bit clogged with dirt that you could see.

Thank you! Always learning something with ducks!

 

[Debby Duck]

Thank you everyone. I don't know what I'd do without this forum. You all are the best!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Here are two of mine. This girl keeps herself pretty nice and doesn't let any other ducks bother her. My guy is handsome, but you can see his tail is tattered. Once he molts he will look very spiffy.

 

[SolarDuck]

For clarification my duck was soggy dripping wet. Her feathers wouldn't "zip" together and they were brittle and many of them were broken. She struggled with wet feather for years as a result of arthritis causing her to not preen well.

My ducks molt their flight feathers in early and mid fall, but I'm in Washington. I'm not sure about Florida. @SolarDuck when do your girls molt their flight feathers? Also I'm not sure if drakes molt their flight feathers at different times.

I've only had 1 molt so far and it was in December