Muscovies and swimming..

[Wolf-Kim]

I've been doing some research on Muscovies and I noticed that some sites state that they "don't swim much due to underdeveloped oil glands".. Anyone find any truth to that?

-Kim

 

[conny63malies]

i have no other ducks to compare to . My scovies are justas happy with a big bowl of water. 2-3 times aweek i see them sitting in there for a minuteor so. they do fine without a opnd/pool

 

[DuckLady]

Mine get in the pond and take a bath, splashing half the water out. Occasionally they will zoom around under water, but only if the water is very very clean. Then they get out and are happy out of the pond. The other ducks will float in there all day.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Oh okay.

So, is it possible that the Muscovies would do better in my turtle infested pond than those that float all day long?

I wanted to raise geese with my Muscovies, is this going to present a conflict in interests, where they will seperate during the day because the geese want to swim and the ducks want to graze?

I know, I'm weird, but I ponder these things.

-Kim

 

[crtrlovr]

unless by turtle-infested you mean tiny green water turtles, I'd NOT put the ducks in that pond because turtles can and will bite the feet right off ducks. My neighbor lost one duck that way, and another lost most of one foot but survived and adapted quite well, to my surprise. Turtles will take baby ducks completely, and will attack anything they can get their jaws around. Snapping turtles are difficult (read: next to impossible) to keep out of a pond; they can "smell" a water pond for a VERY long distance.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Guess I'll be working on the turtle problem then.

Thanks everyone.

-Kim

 

[CountryMom]

We have large turtles in our stock tanks (two small ponds really) and they are infested. I am not sure what kind of turtle they are. I know that in the past the baby muscovies have been eaten by them. However, we have never had a turtle eat the feet off our Muscovies. In fact, if it were not for the coyottes, we would have more Muscovies. We have various wildlife that come to the tank that include wild ducks, cranes and even some spoonbills. The ducks just ignore them and there never really has been a conflict between them. Muscovies have always enjoyed swimming around the tank (on top of the water), taking bathes, and when preditors are around have been known to sleep in the middle of the tank over night. At least the smart few left have!

 

[chickmommar]

My muscovies swim a lot too. But any duck will adapt well to a pond or not a pond - they are very adaptable and normally happy either way.

All kinds of turtles eat baby ducks but snappers will maim or kill even the largest adult male muscovy (or goose). If you have snappers, you really do need to get them out of there before adding ducks or geese. I use the snapper traps at www.dixiegardennets.com and have had a lot of success with this. The traps are humane so all kinds of turtles go in them and then you can decide for each one what you want to do with it; release or whatever. I have a no tolerance policy for snappers as I do duck rescue. I'm sorry that will offend snapper lovers. I've had horrible duck injuries and deaths from the snappers before I knew what was happening and began trapping. Please don't put ducks or geese on a snapper-infested pond. Even once you get the snappers out of your pond you will need to keep a trap set throughout the summer and fall as turtles walk from pond to pond and can show up at any time. Best of luck. Feel free to email me if you need more info on trapping the snappers.

By the way, muscovies are really smart, curious, friendly, quiet ducks.

 

[conny63malies]

Quote:
i have both a gator snapper and muscvy ducks. if you dont care about how th turtle is caught , throw a fishing line or yet better a steel cable and hook baited with chicken in there and tie it to a tree or pole. works great with the snappers and they make good eating. i personally feed mine meat bits , chicken, mice a prekilled injured chick(might as well get some use out of it)

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

I have muscovys, and I've noticed they like to get in, take a bath, and then get out. But sometimes they will fly over to the marsh and swim for hours, the only thing is if they swim too much they cant fly back out because they will be water logged.