Rare white swedish?

[superduckrescue]

It's hard to show swedish because they bleach so soon. My show duck already has white patches at three. I assume Cayuga's are the same way

 

[superduckrescue]

cuddle quack and alarm

 

[Miss Lydia]

Beautiful ducks

 

[superduckrescue]

Beautiful ducks

thanks

 

[superduckrescue]

thanks

I think their daughter is diluted. I just found her a home before I knew this.

 

[superduckrescue]

I hope this doesn't come off as rude, apologies if it does, but hatchery ducks are pretty much never show quality. Where did you hear that they were? I go to APA and ABA sanctioned shows, and for fun once I tried entering a welsh harlequin I bought from Holderread, who is an excellent breeder, AND I had paid for ducklings from his Top Show Quality breedings, so this wasn't your run of the mill hatchery duck. He didn't even place in the top five welsh harlequins at the show.

Even when breeding show birds, like Holderread does for their breedings, you're lucky if one in ten is even good enough to enter in a show. With a regular hatchery, like Metzer, even though their quality is better than some other hatcheries because they focus on just waterfowl, I wouldn't consider any ducks from them to be show quality birds that are going to be able to compete at a show.

Have you seen the APA standard and compared them to it?

In a hatchery setting, it's easy for an 'oops' to happen. Probably at some point a cross with a pekin happened, and since the ducklings will still retain the coloration of the swedish in such a case, no one noticed. Plus, crossing to pekins could increase the egg laying capabilities of the swedish, meaning more ducklings, meaning more money, so it's possible it was actually done on purpose.

UPDATE. I talked to someone from Texas a&m at my last show. They said she is leucistic and our next hatch is comeing hopefully I will get more ducks like her! Cuddle quack or alarm has the gene we have got it before in our ducks!

 

[Pyxis]

UPDATE. I talked to someone from Texas a&m at my last show. They said she is leucistic and our next hatch is comeing hopefully I will get more ducks like her! Cuddle quack or alarm has the gene we have got it before in our ducks!

Interesting. What about her makes them think she is leucistic? I have never heard of that before in ducks, so I'm curious I have heard of albinism, and have seen albino ducks, but they have red eyes, since they are true albinos.

I would also be curious how they can tell a leucistic duck from a regular white duck, and what the differences are between those two colors.

 

[superduckrescue]

She is missing pigment in her bill, feathers and partially in her eyes but not totally on her legs and feet. You are right, true albinos have pink eyes and no color whatsoever.
If she were a white duck, her bill and feet/legs would be yellow or orange. It's mainly the clear, pink bill that gives it away. Here's a video that might help. If you search Google, there are pics of leucistic Mallards and other ducks. We had another one last hatch that was beautiful. She was only missing color in her feathers but had the slate blue bill and legs of a swedish.

 

[superduckrescue]

Here a link to a picture of Blondie from our previous hatch

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2dYcv3MgEJggCZZc7

 

[Pyxis]

She is missing pigment in her bill, feathers and partially in her eyes but not totally on her legs and feet. You are right, true albinos have pink eyes and no color whatsoever.
If she were a white duck, her bill and feet/legs would be yellow or orange. It's mainly the clear, pink bill that gives it away. Here's a video that might help. If you search Google, there are pics of leucistic Mallards and other ducks. We had another one last hatch that was beautiful. She was only missing color in her feathers but had the slate blue bill and legs of a swedish.

Thanks! So they think because she has a pink bill, it is leucisism and not regular white? That is very interesting

And they think that Blondie was leucistic too, and not just a very light splash? I ask because @WVduckchick has a similar duck that looks white aside from a blue bill, and we were working under the assumption that she was just a very light splash, since some splashes can be so light that they look white, but have color in their bills. But maybe not.