Muscovy duck?

[glavstone]

A neighbor girl brought me this duck a few weeks back that she found on the street. Any duck experts able to tell me anything about it? muscovy/mix, wild/domestic, Male/female, guess at age?

It doesn't like water, and is usually pretty scared of everyone. It squeaks every now and again, I rarely see it eat, but it does like bread. It has started warming up to my female Pekins who are 4 1/2 months old, but they aren't totally friends yet.

thanks

 

[glavstone]

oh, and it roosts with the chickens at night.

 

[Going Quackers]

Looks like a 'scovie duck.. hard to say if it's pure looks to me as if it is.. they don't really quack much 'scovie girls that is drakes only hiss and the bread i would skip.. i have heard that fill birds up with not needed nutrients. On the whole Muscovy are not as into water as others breeds, i find it varies i have some that are real pool babies others prefer to almost never get in them and yes a unique trait of a 'scovie is roosting, they are one of the few that do that.. they are not mallard derived birds.

 

[Going Quackers]

On a totally unrelated note, what type of fence is that? lol ty!

 

[Texasmja]

That is a Muscovy hen, very pretty.

 

[glavstone]

Thanks for the replies. So I guess I am free to keep my eyes open for a male duck for these three ladies.

I think the fence is the 3ft high stuff they sell at Mills Fleet Farm.

 

[Texasmja]

If you breed any kind of drake other than a Muscovy to her you will produce mules, sterile offspring.

 

[hdowden]

i'm really not convinced that's a hen yet i would wait till it either laid or tried mounting the other 2. i would guess that one is around 2.5-3 months of age due to size in comparison to the other 2 and what looks like the last little bit of baby fluffy coming off of the head. i'm really leaning towards a drake on this one but i'm not good at sexing ducks from a pic unless they have those curled tail feathers which muscovy's will not have

 

[jdywntr]

Looks like a hen to me. Probably a little older since she's got a fair amount of caruncles (the red stuff) on her face. She will be much smaller than your pekin. Muscovy ducks are very petite its the drakes that are massive.

Texasmja is right any drake other than muscovy will produce mules with her but a muscovy drake mated to your pekin will also result in mules. So, depends on what you want, eggs and one generation of ducklings or ducklings that can reproduce too. You should be okay with just one drake having only 3 girls. If you really want a drake, I would research the breeds and decide what is best for you. For instance, Pekin lay well but usually don't go broody. Muscovy lay fairly well and are good broodies and good mothers. Also, if you decide you want ducklings, make sure you know what you will do with them. Pure breeds will sell better than crosses.

 

[glavstone]

Thanks for the further replies...I think she laid an egg... no one was claiming it, but it was half the size of the eggs my pekins lay and there was no yolk. So unless one of the pekins just wanted to squeeze out another yolkless egg I am guessing it was hers.