You should not try to vent sex them after the first few days from hatching. Too easy to rupture the vent and hurt them while trying after that.
I heard my little Pekin lady's quack at about 3.5-4 weeks. Her Pekin boyfriend has never quacked. They are both about 8 weeks now. He will be off to freezer camp this week or next. I hope she will warm up to the new ducklings after her beau is no longer a distraction.
My real question is this:
I have a group of 12 ducklings that are coming up on 4 weeks old. 4 of them are Pekin. One of them has a VERY pale bill. It looks like the colour of his faded down. (I dont know if its a he yet.....but for conversational reasons lets call him a "he") He is slower to get up off his cute little down butt to come for treats and the first to leave if the competition is too fierce (ie: a really good treat like peas or mealworms)
This lil guy will go lay in the dog house away from the group when they are locked in the pen. He lays down a lot, even outside---but in my very limited experience---Pekin lay down a lot as a rule. He just seems to lay down even more than the others.
He is of a good weight, not the largest nor the smallest. eyes look fine. butt looks fine, feet look fine.
The very pale bill and the excessive laying (mostly the bill colour) have me worried. I know as they get older and get to laying age it is not uncommon for their bills to get freckles or change colour. This is not that. He is only 3.5 weeks and it seems to have gotten progressively paler by the day.
They are in a small area of the pen at night and when it snows but are allowed to go out into the yard to forage & play in the various pools set up for them, most of the day when it is over 60. I give them 1/2 unmedicated purina starter sprinkled with nutritional yeast and 1/2 fermented starter with some grains thrown in there. Free choice grit and if they cant get outside to forage, i give them a huge trough full of various greens (dandelion, romaine, beet greens, comfrey, lovage a bit of sorrel and whatever else I can find in the garden this time of year) They get warm peas every morning and mealworms for snack around noon & bedtime. ----
WOW reading this I realize my ducklings are a bit spoiled----
They have food & water 24/7, about 6 inches of straw that gets a new layer every day.
I cant figure out what im doing wrong-----is he sick at all? what else can I do?