Leg Bands on Duck(lings)

[natem1270]

Hello, my three Pekin ducklings will turn a month old on Monday. You can see where their feathers will soon grow in and they’re turning white slowly. I’ve been considering banding them to tell the three apart. All of our ducks are pets and therefore all receive names. I was going to put leg bands on the three of them when they get older to be able to call them by their proper names. My question is, what age is appropriate to put on their bands?

 

[casportpony]

I band some of mine the day they hatch with colored zip ties. As they grow, I will cut the off and put on new ones. This allows me to track their weight and their health. I highly recommended doing this if you are the type that can monitor them. If you cannot monitor them, do not do it. I say this because they grow fast and if you forget to check them as they are growing, the leg band can get embedded, which can cause lameness or worse.

 

[CoriM]

@natem1270 Can you tell your ducklings apart right now? I had three pekin ducklings this summer and was able to distinguish between them as they grew due to size variation and little characteristics they had. They're full grown now and I can easily tell them apart - different sizes and very different personalities. Probably doesn't work for everyone, but it did for me.

 

[quackiemama]

Same here I can tell my 3 pekin girls apart, they hatched end of April so as they grew I kept up with each one's traits. If I had more forget about it, I would need to band them.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I band some of mine the day they hatch with colored zip ties. As they grow, I will cut the off and put on new ones. This allows me to track their weight and their health. I highly recommended doing this if you are the type that can monitor them. If you cannot monitor them, do not do it. I say this because they grow fast and if you forget to check them as they are growing, the leg band can get embedded, which can cause lameness or worse.

I was gonna say pretty much the same thing.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

This question reminds me that i wanted to write an article about leg bands for ducklings for a long time…
For the 2019 Spring Ducklings i have tried a lot of things from Spiral Legbands to numbered click-on rings and in the end i resorted to colored zip-ties as @casportpony has recommended too. Though the legbands are definitely the better solution as they cannot be tightened by a freak accident (none has happened here), applying them to a flailing duckling is definitely a four hands job…

 

[natem1270]

I was able to tell the khakis apart near instantly. I figure I could probably figure out the three... but I’d rather just band them if it’s not a risk for them. At this point I can only tell the largest duck apart from the others

 

[casportpony]

the three... but I’d rather just band them if it’s not a risk for them.

It's not a risk if you remember to change them as they grow.

 

[natem1270]

Bought the largest band size at tractor supply yesterday. They fit... for now. It looks like my boys will outgrow them quickly. Anyone know of where I could get some actual leg bands that would fit adult Pekins? I'm not against the zip tie idea per se, I am a little worried about accidental tightening like @WannaBeHillBilly mentioned.

 

[Jpat]

i sprayed my three last ducklings with blukote to tell them apart, Blue tail, blue neck, and blue leg. If you had alot of ducklings youd run out of ideas for that quickly