Muscovy Losing Feathers + Lethargic

[chickmamat]

Hey all! To start, yes, I know Muscovy are not technically ducks. Now that that’s out of the way lol....

I am a chicken person, never owned water fowl. A friend at our local animal shelter reached out because they had a Muscovy that was dumped at a local park. She is unbelievably sweet and needed a nice home; I fell in love and brought her home.

She layed an egg everyday for almost Everyday for 3 weeks and then stopped. I assumed she was stressed because the chickens had started chasing her.

She voluntarily made her way to our back patio and now lives there. She’s swims in the dog pool, has her food and water and sleeps in a crate at night. Shes been up here about 3 weeks and still no eggs. We have a very large patio, she has access to dirt for grit. Is fed Scratch and Peck duck and chicken layer. She will scarf down organic greens when I provide them and eats the rose petals off the bushes (no we don’t use any pesticides). I noticed she is now dropping a lot of feathers, she’s lost almost all her flights feathers and she sleeps quite a bit during the day.

Is she just molting?? I can’t find definitive info on Muscovy in particular and if they molt.

 

[Pullet Press]

I would assume that Muscovys molt since they're birds, maybe she's just molting.

 

[Freie Family Farm]

They do molt. Well the females do yearly. Males don't after they hit maturity from what I've seen

 

[KaleIAm]

@Miss Lydia has had muscovies for many years. Maybe she can clear this up for us.

 

[Isaac 0]

Muscovies, along with all other birds, molt. As long as she is eating/drinking well, pooping normally, I would say the lethargy is due to her going through the molt. You can try offering her scrambled eggs, fish, or other high protein treats to help her get through the molt.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yep my Muscovy are in molt and they lose their flight feathers lay around a lot too so sounds like she is normal. Once they start molt they won’t lay again until next year unless your in the south? I’m in Mountains of Western NC and mine stop laying in Oct start their molt and resume laying next March. They are ducks just aren’t Mallard derived. She sounds sweet how about some pictures?

 

[chickmamat]

Yep my Muscovy are in molt and they lose their flight feathers lay around a lot too so sounds like she is normal. Once they start molt they won’t lay again until next year unless your in the south? I’m in Mountains of Western NC and mine stop laying in Oct start their molt and resume laying next March. They are ducks just aren’t Mallard derived. She sounds sweet how about some pictures?

This is miss Ruby! Idk her story before we got her, because she was dumped at a park. But she’s a sweetheart. I’m currently looking for a friend for her but she’s spoiled nonetheless

 

[KaleIAm]

This is miss Ruby! Idk her story before we got her, because she was dumped at a park. But she’s a sweetheart. I’m currently looking for a friend for her but she’s spoiled nonetheless

I love her!

 

[novak]

This is miss Ruby! Idk her story before we got her, because she was dumped at a park. But she’s a sweetheart. I’m currently looking for a friend for her but she’s spoiled nonetheless

so cute