- Aug 1, 2012
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Hi. I'm trying to figure out what my mallards are. I'm 99.99% sure Gabby, the one closest to the camera, is a hen. The other one, Izzy, is the one I'm trying to figure out. I've seen Gabby quack before that sounded like an adult mallard, but she isn't quite fully developed. Izzy still has a high pitch peep but in the video, he makes a quacking noise much like Gabby, and much like a hen mallard. The reason I'm stuck is Izzy is SO much bigger than Gabby, and I mean a lot bigger. They both have basically the exact same feather development and were born on the same day, just 2 different hatcheries. Izzy is incredibly sweet, and is almost like a puppy. He absolutely loves it when I scratch/pet his back, scratch his head, beak, and underside, and also loves being picked up, held, and cuddled. Gabby is polar opposite from basically everything Izzy is, and is very very skittish. I've had mallards before and drakes and so much more calm than hens which is why I'm stuck. So the large size, and very cute/likeable personality point to drake, but the sound development points to hen. My other mallard drake didn't start the low "whistle" until about 9-10 weeks. Anybody got any ideas???? Video below. (Sorry for the long post! You don't need to watch the whole video, just the times listed below, and also watch a little of the beginning to hear Izzy's high peeping, and Gabby's very quiet sort of quacking)
Izzy "quacks" at: 1:35 , 1:57 , 2:10 & 2:39
Gabby at 2:48 (pretty sure)
Izzy "quacks" at: 1:35 , 1:57 , 2:10 & 2:39
Gabby at 2:48 (pretty sure)
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