muscovy sexing question...

[SundownWaterfowl]

I have no clue. I just got my 2 muscovy ducklings last week. When do they start getting the red bumps?

 

[aleciasayshii]

I'm not sure. Mine is two months and still hasn't got his. They should be coming within the next month I think.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Thanks.

He is very beautiful by the way.

 

[aleciasayshii]

Thank you! I was surprised when he came out almost completely black. He was a yellow duckling with a little black on his tail. I thought he was going to be white .
Well, good luck with your ducks!

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

My drakes get a bit of a red line along the edge of the beak when they are 6 months old and from then on their face slowly gets redder and redder.

aleciasayshii- your boy is what is called a barred, they hatch white with dark tail and bluish beak and then feather out like your boy did and then with the next molt turn solid black. Its a juvenile colour phase, thats why they are only barred as youngsters.
So your boy will end up being black after his next molt or so, usually barreds will be pretty solid in colour by the time they are yearlings.

I love barred muscovies, although I like ripples(permanent barring that does not molt out) even better but haven't been able to locate any of those in canada yet.

That is a great looking scovie!! I wish I had any baby scovies yet, but my hen just started laying last week and has 8 eggs in the nest so far, can't wait to see what she hatches out of those.

Hopefully no pieds, my adults are solid coloured out of SQ stock, last year had a dif hen and got all pieds......

 

[aleciasayshii]

Awh man, so my little duck is gunna get all black?
Well poop. He has a white spot on his neck, its my favorite little spot and he's going to loose it.
That's really weird they don't stay that color though. His mom was gray from what I remember and his father was black with a greenish tint.

Do you have any idea on his gender though?
It's been driving me crazy for the past two months.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Quote:
He may keep that white spot, or it may get larger when he molts. Its difficult to get good solid coloured scovies, with age they usually keep molting in more and more white feathers, esspecially in the head and neck area.
My Black drake ahs been great when it comes to colour, the arms are white(but not the flight feathers themself which I was told is very good by a scovy breeder who breeds some of the best in the country) and the body solid black, when he was 2 he molted in about 2-3 small white feathers on his head and now at 4 he got more like a dozen white feathers(which according to the breeder is still very little for a 4 yr old drake).

I still think (even with the new pics) yours is a drake, he got quite the head on him and in combination with those feet that just screams drake.
If only his feet were big I would be on the fence on gender, had a chocolate pied hen that I swore was a drake just by foot size alone(her feet were almost as big as her clutch mate who was twice her size and definitly was a drake, he was named gozilla cause he was gigantic and ugly without even having caruncles, tasted good though

) but her head was very fine and feminine. Only muscovy I ever had that had me wondering for months before I was certain.

 

[MDC]

Even though they will get mostly solid feathers as adults they are still considered 'barred'. You can tell barred adults by the barring found on the feathers along the belly & under the wings and that patch along the back between the wings when they're resting against the body. You can see in the following picture what I'm talking about with these barred birds.

If you pull out your ducklings wings, is it getting its primaries in already? Honestly, if your duckling has primaries coming in with no sign of caruncling, which I cannot see in the photos posted, I'm still thinking ducklet. I can look through some photos to see if I have a good picture of a young drakelet that might help but I have limited access, most of my pictures are on an external hard drive at home.

 

[aleciasayshii]

Welp, on the beginning of his wings his feathers are almost two inches. Then on the tips of his little wings they're about a centimeter. (The black feathers, not counting the keratin)
No caruncles yet but its starting to look red around his beak area. Although on the top of his beak it is black and purpley and it feels fleshy. They don't come in just red right? So that might be it too?
He is my first duck so I'm just kind of new to this stuff. Iv read quite a bit but I don't know all the details.
Thanks for you guys' help [=.

 

[MDC]

OK. I think this photo will help. This is a little drakelet that has a fair amount of caruncling and yet has not even begun to get his flight feathers.

The caruncles are usually either a shade of red or pink and yes, they might have a darker color (a fault in standard-bred birds, called gypsy face) but I don't know if I've ever saw one that didn't have at least some red coming through right at the beginning of the caruncle growth.

That said, I still wouldn't bet the farm on it being a female. Just my best guess.