mandarin duck egg color?

[jsvand5]

Wow, that drake in the first pic just looks perfect. Mine are looking pretty ratty right now. Does anyone know if they are supposed to get better looking after their first season? I am not sure what they are called, but the tan feathers that stick up and fan out a few inches infront of the tail are all stringy on mine and not all perfect like in the pic. I am wondering if this is because they are first year birds, or maybe they were damaged on the shipment to me. Both the white and normal ones I have are like this. I'll try to get a pic when I get home.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

NO they look as good on year one as any, shipping damage if it was recent, also they need ponds of some form to get in and preen, if they are not kept like this, they will always be ratty looking. How do you have the penned? Got a pond or pool for them? All that will help tremndously with preening, bigger the pen the better. And like I said, if they got all mashed up in shipping, that may just be all it is, they should straighten it up in a few days, or will be molting soon and get new ones later on in a few months

 

[1lpoock]

My mandarin drake is looking really ratty right now, I thought they didnt molt until summer. His sail feathers are not together and it looks like some are missing. His breast feathers are also missing more and more every day and its just fuzz...he looks pretty bad.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
ONCE THEY ARE DONE BREEDING, THEY USUALLY DROP THEM. tHEY ARE FOR MATE ATTRACTION, AFTER THAT THEY WANT TO GO CAMO AS SOON AS THEY CAN

Sorry about the cap lock, too lazy to fix it, LOL

 

[trinitymare]

This is what my new male looked like when I got him... he was kept in a pen with no water... all I have is that little tub for them but I change it everyday or twice a day if I have time., if you don't they start to look raggy...

this is him now bottom picture.

 

[Scott]

Wow. He cleans up well!

 

[jsvand5]

Mine have a pond that is about 15' x 12' and 2-3 feet deep. The land area is about 20' x 15'. During the peak of breeding season the feathers on mine all looked perfect like in trinitymare's second pick but the sail feathers (thanks for the info) looked a bit worse than the first pick and never got any better. Right now they are both losing their mating plumage anyway but I am just hoping they look better for next season. They did get beaten up pretty bad in shipping. It took the USPS 2 days to get them to me even though they were shipped overnight. The white hen was actually pretty bloody from damaging and even knocking out most of her flight feathers.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

they will, once they molt out, they'll come back perfect, That's a prime example of what I was talking about with them needing to be on water though, they will get RUFFFFFF looking without it

 

[jsvand5]

Quote:
That is pretty amazing. I would not have believed that it was the same bird in the pics.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
That is pretty amazing. I would not have believed that it was the same bird in the pics.

ruff looking at first wasnt he!