question about crested ducks.

[mynameiserin]

I have some crested ducks. and right after I ordered them I saw on here that they tend to have a lot of problems. Some neurological issues and that if they breed with one another the babies will die or be horribly deformed.
I was just wondering whether or not any of this is true? because after I ordered them and was all excited and then I heard they had problems and I feel really bad and really stupid now. I mean I'm going to keep them and everything even if they do have develop problems.
But so far they seem fine they're now almost two months old now and they play with all of my older ducks and act like all the older ducks so I don't know.
So if anyone has/had crested ducks if they can let me know whether or not I'm a horrible person for adding to the demand of cute baby duckies with health problems I would really appreciate it......

oh and one more quick question, how often do you feed all your ducks? because I just do it every time the feeder is empty or almost empty. and I don't know whether or not that is a good thing or a bad thing or if it even matters either way.

 

[Big Dreamer]

I feed mine Twice a day one in the morning and one right before it gets dark. As for the crested issue im pretty sure its bad when they have offspring and will have bad problems. As for the ones you have now as long as they werent bred to where 2 crested made those babies your fine.

 

[mynameiserin]

thank you, I've done a little looking around and couldn't find anything about how much to feed them... and also thank about the crested information, but I have no idea whether it was two crested ducks or one crested and a non crested.

 

[Big Dreamer]

Quote:
Usually it takes awhile for the affect to kick in i think. If they arent already deformed now that is. Like when they are old then they will start to have like seizures i read some stories on here like that..scary stuff

 

[mynameiserin]

Yeah I've read some stories too, but some of them came from people who said that they did not have any so I didn't know whether or not maybe they heard about one duck and assumed it was almost all of them that are crested or what not. But now I feel horrible that I got them because I added to the demand of them.

 

[StevenW.]

http://www.domestic-waterfowl.co.uk/crested.htm
I found this site to be very helpful.

I also have Crested ducks but I think it only depends on how big the actual crest is.
Don't beat yourself up

Crested ducks are very fun to keep and even though they are harder to hatch and etc.
I put 12 eggs in the incubator from my own ducks and its was crested over crested and about 2-3 died around day 10-11.
The rest would have hatched if the darn cat didn't knock over the incubator!

It was kinda my fault since I left the door open.

If you would like to see pictures of my crested ducks, I have quite a bit stored on photobucket.

Oh and did you get the White Crested?

 

[mynameiserin]

Quote:
Thank you very much for the website and the support.
And I ordered a few but my one with the largest crest died when he was about 4 days old.
And I'm sorry about your cat knocking your incubator over, but cats will do what they please lol.
and I would love to see your pictures, I love looking at pictures ducks, I don't know why I could do it all day long though.

and no none of mine are white crested. I mostly got hatchery choice but I do know that I have 2 fawn and white runners, and 3 magpies (yeah all crested) and I think some will be mallards but I'm not sure.... all together I ordered 20 but 4 died so I have 16 all together. and that makes me feel even sillier about the whole thing because I was like "yeah let's order 20 crested babies" and then a little bit later I was like "oh no now I ordered 20 crested ducks who are going to have neurological problems"

 

[StevenW.]

These were from when they were all together for winter. They are separated into breeding pens now.

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
Thank you very much for the website and the support.
And I ordered a few but my one with the largest crest died when he was about 4 days old.
And I'm sorry about your cat knocking your incubator over, but cats will do what they please lol.
and I would love to see your pictures, I love looking at pictures ducks, I don't know why I could do it all day long though.

and no none of mine are white crested. I mostly got hatchery choice but I do know that I have 2 fawn and white runners, and 3 magpies (yeah all crested) and I think some will be mallards but I'm not sure.... all together I ordered 20 but 4 died so I have 16 all together. and that makes me feel even sillier about the whole thing because I was like "yeah let's order 20 crested babies" and then a little bit later I was like "oh no now I ordered 20 crested ducks who are going to have neurological problems"

The ones with large crests usually die early.
It sounds like you have an assortment of cresteds.

Mine dont have really big crests but one of the drakes does though.

 

[mynameiserin]

Quote:
They are absolutely gorgeous, thank you for sharing... they made me happy