Please help with call duckling genders!

[chickens 4 life]

Hey there, I've recently brought home three white baby call ducks. This is my very first time raising ducks. They hatched on May 16th, so they're around 3 weeks old now. They're feathers are starting to grow in. I've read articles about voice changes at 8-10 weeks of age, but I've noticed one of them, Bubbles, quacks a lot more than her siblings. She does long sessions of chirping while preening, eating, and sleeping. Her pitch is noticeably lower than the other 2. The other two chirp softly every now and then. Could I accurately confirm their genders now?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@shawluvsbirds
@WVduckchick

 

[KathiQuacks]

Possibly. The 8 - 10 weeks really refers to drake voices. Hens can get a subtle voice change as early as 10 days, I’ve found, but are more reliable by 4 weeks.

If you could upload a video of their voices to YouTube and link it here, that’d be great!

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Hey there, I've recently brought home three white baby call ducks. This is my very first time raising ducks. They hatched on May 16th, so they're around 3 weeks old now. They're feathers are starting to grow in. I've read articles about voice changes at 8-10 weeks of age, but I've noticed one of them, Bubbles, quacks a lot more than her siblings. She does long sessions of chirping while preening, eating, and sleeping. Her pitch is noticeably lower than the other 2. The other two chirp softly every now and then. Could I accurately confirm their genders now?

I can usually tell with mine at 4 to 5 weeks. Girls sometimes start finding their voices a lot sooner than drakes but I don't throw in the towel until they have no more baby peeps at all and either have a definite quack or rasp.

 

[chickens 4 life]

Possibly. The 8 - 10 weeks really refers to drake voices. Hens can get a subtle voice change as early as 10 days, I’ve found, but are more reliable by 4 weeks.

If you could upload a video of their voices to YouTube and link it here, that’d be great!

Oh, I see. Thank you! I'll try to upload a video as soon as I can.

 

[chickens 4 life]

I can usually tell with mine at 4 to 5 weeks. Girls sometimes start finding their voices a lot sooner than drakes but I don't throw in the towel until they have no more baby peeps at all and either have a definite quack or rasp.

Oh alright, thank you for the information!

 

[chickens 4 life]

Also, one more question! My ducklings don't seem imprinted on me. They don't follow me around 24/7, 1 out of 2 occasions they will walk away from me. But when I'm gone, they will start screaming and showing up outside my door until I come out. Is this imprinting?

 

[SgtPipsmom]

There's a blog I read that I feel explains imprinting for ducks and geese fairly simply and I've found it to be pretty accurate.
http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id6.html
Basically, to them you are part of their flock, though they understand they're ducks and you're not duck. Naturally, when part of the flock goes missing, they come to find and 'rescue' it. Best advice I can offer is to make sure you spend time with them to maintain that social bond.

 

[chickens 4 life]

There's a blog I read that I feel explains imprinting for ducks and geese fairly simply and I've found it to be pretty accurate.
http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id6.html
Basically, to them you are part of their flock, though they understand they're ducks and you're not duck. Naturally, when part of the flock goes missing, they come to find and 'rescue' it. Best advice I can offer is to make sure you spend time with them to maintain that social bond.

This was very helpful information! Thank you

 

[chickens 4 life]

Possibly. The 8 - 10 weeks really refers to drake voices. Hens can get a subtle voice change as early as 10 days, I’ve found, but are more reliable by 4 weeks.

If you could upload a video of their voices to YouTube and link it here, that’d be great!

I couldn't upload a video to Youtube, but I noticed that Daisy, the biggest one, sounds like it's laughing. A high-pitched laugh. Not quite a quack