Question about ducks & mixing them....

beebiz

Songster
12 Years
Jul 2, 2007
167
1
131
W. Tennessee
I have 23 Pekins that are about 4 weeks old, and I keep them in a pen next to (not with) my chickens. I have a friend of mine that has some Muscovies that are only about 3 or 4 days old. My friend may agree to give me some of the new babies that she has.

If my friend does agree to give me some of her new babies, can I put them in with the older Pekins? Or, will they do like chickens and attack/kill the babies?

Also, If I keep the two breeds together as adults in the same pen, will they cross breed?? Or, will the Pekins only persue the Pekins and the Muscovies only persue the Muscovies??

And, one last thing.... The friend that has the Muscovies feeds them nothing but dog food.... And, they THRIVE!!! She started about 2 years ago with about 6 ducks and now has around 100 (despite the countless ones that she has lost to chicken hawks, dogs, snapping turtles, cats, and rats)!! I know that her ducks appear to thrive on the dog food, but is it (the dog food) really healthy for them?? She doesn't feed a particular brand of dog food... just whatever is the cheapest!

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions that you have to offer!

Robert
 
Robert, Dog food ? Thats a new one for me. I did supplement w/ cat chow until the whole contaminated food surfaced and I lost a few birds to that brand, But it was fed as treats. The duckling thing technically would work IF all the babies were the same age. The pekins will eat everything and you'll have a hard time getting the Muscovy started if you mix them now. As Adults they'd be great together:) Good luck and I hope you get some muscovy they are very neat ducks.
 
Thanks a lot for the information.

And yes, you read right..... she feeds them dog food!! As cheap as she can get her hands on!!

Thanks again!!
 
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I wouldn't mix the two until the muscovies are at least half the weight of the pekins. Otherwise they'll never get any food. I haven't ever found my ducks to be agressive to other waterfowl (whereas mixing Geese can be really tough).

Make sure you let your pekins see the muscovies (put them in a pen protected) for 3 or 4 days before actually mixing them.

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They will attempt to cross breed of course. However, any muscovy cross breed will be unable to breed. They'll be sterile.

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I would say "no" this is not healthy. Unless they have ample forage, they're going to be deficient in many vitamins and minerals. It's hard to find a complete commercial duck/goose ration that I end up using all kinds of supplements on mine because I want them to be healthy and breed well. Brewers yeast, all kinds of lettuces from our garden, nutridrench ever few months, etc.
 
Thanks for the information and suggestions, guys!!
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After learning that when the Scovies and Pekins crossbreed it would make the offsprings "mules" and unable to breed, I decided against the Scovies. Though my wife and I enjoy watching the ducks as they play, MY main goal is to get duck eggs to eat and an occasional duck to eat!! My wife doesn't have any objection to either as long as I allow her to pick out some of the females to make "pets" out of and I promise to never serve them for "dinner!"

I mainly wanted the Scovies to help keep down on the fleas, ticks and mosquitoes around here. I had heard and read that the Scovies are the best duck for that particular job, so I was going to try some.

Thanks again for all the information and advice.

Robert
 
The muscovies are better foragers and crave more meat than other duck breeds. So, they are better for controlling slugs & crawly things. They are also sometimes called "quackless" because they aren't noisey like all other ducks. The meat from the Muscovy is considered the best by many people.

Of course, the second best is probably Pekin. So you can hardly go wrong with your options.

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