muscovy drakelet or ducklet?

[livininbrazil]

Hi, I´ve been reading up about how to tell the differences in sexes ,i.e. drakelets have wider stance, bigger legs, redder faces, no flight feathers...females have flight growth, rounder, feet close together....but I can´t decide on these that I have here...please help, I want to keep a female, as these are unrelated to the ones I already have, and then I can sell the others on, but I just can´t decide. For instance, this one has a bit of caruncle (more than the others), but has flight feathers already growing and has feet close tog. The other in this pic is the one on the left in the pic below. These two aren´t related, the smaller one here is 1 or 2 weeks younger than the other.



In the pic below, the one on the right has slightly less caruncling, and also has flights growing, whereas the one on the left has less feathering. However, it´s also a little younger than the one on the right, the one on the right being the same age as the one above. I´m guessing the one on the left may be a male, but it´s still small, as can be seen by the same-age chicks in the pics next to them. I´m also guessing that the one on the right below is more likely to be female than the one above. Confused...experienced opinions, please.

 

[Going Quackers]

How old? I've owned A LOT of Muscovy and i'll tell you it can be tricky, especially with pictures. Not to mention some can fool you lol

The pic of the first looks a touch drake me .. but again, it's hard to tell.. the males will outside the females.. i'll see if a pic of my last hatch can be of any help, the white duck in the middle is obviously mama lol and that wee little thing in the back(second bird to the back row left) is the only ducklet of this hatch...

 

[livininbrazil]

Hi...I already saw your ducklings´photo today when I was searching around. I remember you said the chocolate at the back was the only female. All your drakes seem to have long legs and feet don´t overlap. My ducklings are about 2/3 months or so....can´t remember exactly as I have little things hatching out all over the place!! The thing is, with this caruncle business, I know that some birds have a huge amount of caruncling on their faces, and others not. So, I suppose the females with the redder faces may have had more developed caruncling when ducklings? With the feathers....a couple have definite flight feathers protruding while others don´t ...is this more reliable than the caruncling? I caught them up and put them in with the chickens so I could study them a bit to see, decide which to keep and sell the others, but maybe I´d be better off letting them all go back to the pond ´til they get older.

 

[livininbrazil]

Just an up-date for anyone wanting to know....the duckling in the first pic turned out to be a female, the second pic has a duckling with bald wings showing...this was the only male out of nine. With mine, it seems the wing feathers growth was the more reliable way to tell, the caruncles development seems to be an inheritance thing, some have more, some less. At this age, my one male still has no flight feathers, the females´are all developing well, easy to see when they stretch their wings. I have 3 unrelated ducks sitting now....see if this method works for them all!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just an up-date for anyone wanting to know....the duckling in the first pic turned out to be a female, the second pic has a duckling with bald wings showing...this was the only male out of nine. With mine, it seems the wing feathers growth was the more reliable way to tell, the caruncles development seems to be an inheritance thing, some have more, some less. At this age, my one male still has no flight feathers, the females´are all developing well, easy to see when they stretch their wings. I have 3 unrelated ducks sitting now....see if this method works for them all!!!

Wow what a nice gift only one drake in the bunch. Congrats on the broodies and keep us updated on progress.