Muscovy Drake Concerns! ADVICE PLEASE!

[Quackattack717]

Alright! My duck people! I’m stressing out a little bit about my flock!

I’ve got a hen (chicken hen) that I THINK is broody but then I read about egg bound and now I’m super worried maybe she’s egg bound! But she has many signs of broodiness and we already had to break her broodiness awhile back when she first started laying!
Along with my possibly (hopefully) broody hen, my drake Muscovy seems to get very wet! I googled it and wet feather came up. I was going to comment on the post I was reading but couldn’t find it in the app, so I just decided to make my own post! I wouldn’t say he looks ragged, he just gets really wet whenever he goes in the water and it doesn’t seem like he’s as water proof as the other ducks?

I’m hoping this is just me being stir crazy (because I’m stuck at home because of the crazy things happening in the world right now, so I’m spending ALOT of time with the flock) but I wanted to post, get some advice on it!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Muscovy aren’t as water proof as other domestics to begin with, his feathers don’t look bad does he bath often and do much preening the preening is what they do to spread the oils over their feathers for water proofing. Also my solid white Muscovy always had a problem with keeping their feathers water proofed much more than my other Muscovy with colors. I have no idea if that is a problem.

 

[Quackattack717]

Muscovy aren’t as water proof as other domestics to begin with, his feathers don’t look bad does he bath often and do much preening the preening is what they do to spread the oils over their feathers for water proofing.

In the enclosure they have a baby pool, I don’t see him in it nearly as much as I see my girl muscovies. More often I see him dip in whole head in the water (larger rubber drinking bowls) and get all wet and preen himself. He does lots of preening. Anytime he gets wet, he spends lots of time preening himself. And he likes to preen on his perch. Preening is the same thing as cleaning right? Like it looks like they’re cleaning themselves?

 

[Quackattack717]

Today is a rainy wet day, so he was outside in the rain all day, then we let them free range, so he got in the creek. We weren’t outside with him the whole time, but when we put them away he went right in the coop, and started cleaning it preening himself. He was in there for awhile, maybe an hour or two, then I did finally see him come out, and was eating. But it was very unusual to see him go into the coop during the day for such an extended period of time. So that raised concern and made me want to post about it.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If he isn’t good an water proof and it’s cold where you are still he may have been cold. Did he have his big molt last fall? And yes when they preen they rub their bill over their preen gland it’s where the tail and body meets on his back. Maybe check it out the feathers around the preen gland should be yellow.

 

[Quackattack717]

He is still under a year old. He’s approaching his first birthday in the next couple months. Maybe May or June? I think we got them in July, and they were a couple weeks old at that point. So he hasn’t molted yet. Haven’t been through molting with any of our flock yet! He does have yellow on his back, is that what it’s from? A local lady we bought our new Muscovy hens from said she thought it was from pollen. So we just assumed that’s what is was.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If it’s down around his preen gland it’s not pollen. It’s normal on the white ones to see the oil. Okay he’ll have a good healthy molt late summer, fall then when his new feathers come in he’ll have nice water proof feathers. What are you feeding? Adding some quality protein can help with feather quality too.

 

[Quackattack717]

If it’s down around his preen gland it’s not pollen. It’s normal on the white ones to see the oil. Okay he’ll have a good healthy molt late summer, fall then when his new feathers come in he’ll have nice water proof feathers. What are you feeding? Adding some quality protein can help with feather quality too.

He eats the layer feed that the girls are on. They also snack on mealworms, romaine & kale, peas, blueberries, scratch, & cracked corn. I read about BOSS (I think it was Black Sunflower oil something) helping with the oils and water proofing.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Worth a try. Keep us updated on what works.

What breed is your chicken?

 

[SkyeT]

My Scovy drake is a mess. Half the time he looks like a pigsty. IF he takes a real bath, his feathers look terrible for a couple of days, then suddenly he is bright and shiny.

Most of the time, he dips his head in water and shimmies, shakes and flaps like he is in water... but not. It's comical.

I was worried about his appearance until I came to the conclusion that I have a drake that couldn't give 2 flips about his personal hygiene.

EDIT:I do... make him take "showers" when his mess is just too much. I take the hose and make it rain. He tries to run, but eventually just stands there and glares at me.