Semi-wild muscovy duck questions

[SolarDuck]

Honestly she’d be more protected if you had her But of course always up to you. Ducks are pretty disease resistant . She may very well be the only one left, ever think about that? I rescued my first Muscovy from our mountain river after his other 2 friends were killed.

I would love to take her back in she was always the sweetest one out of my original 5. I just wouldn't want her to get depressed or anything do you think it would make her depressed if she's happy living the wild life?

 

[SolarDuck]

Honestly she’d be more protected if you had her But of course always up to you. Ducks are pretty disease resistant . She may very well be the only one left, ever think about that? I rescued my first Muscovy from our mountain river after his other 2 friends were killed.

You seem to be the musocvy expert around here so honestly if you would do it I probably should.

 

[SolarDuck]

I just want to do whats best for her, whatever will make her the happiest for the longest

 

[SolarDuck]

I've been at the park all day just watching her and she seems pretty happy she's got a group of other muscovies she is hanging out with and swimming around I wouldn't want to take her from this unless there is actually 0 chance that it will make her depressed

 

[SolarDuck]

Update: after watching her all day every day for the past more than a week I realized a few things. 1. Most of the time she actually was hanging out alone and not with the big group of muscovies at that park, the only time she was near them was when they were being fed by people. 2. I did not really see her foraging for food at all, but I did see her getting food from dozens of different people, the thing is literally all of that food was just bread and cereal. So many people literally just dropped entire boxes of cereal and people came in with several entire loaves of bread and just throw them at the ducks. I would say even with the mealworms I was giving her, 70% or more of the food she ate was just bread and cereal. I even tried giving her normal duck feed but she wouldn't even take it cause it wasn't as tasty as the bread. So after seeing A LOT of this I decided to bring her back in last night. So far she seems to be doing at least as good as she was doing there, she gets along very well with both of my other ducks, especially pigeon who just sits next to her preening her and has been following her around everywhere. She is pretty cautious when it comes to me and won't really let me pet her or come eat our of my hand, but I am able to herd her into the coop at night with the others just fine and she is eating well. I hope that soon she will be the best of friends with my other ducks. I did clip her wings and I hope by the time they grow back she is happy enough that she won't want to leave again.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s a great update. Sounds like you made the right decision for her. Also that she’s settling in so well already with your one duck is great. I love my Muscovy they truly are a blessing. My girls will eat out of my hand but my drake is like a dog he doesn’t mind me picking him up and cuddling an petting him. Thanks for updating. Pictures when you can please.

 

[SolarDuck]

So this morning I went out to the coop to see a lotttt of feathers. It seems that the one I brought back in a couple nights ago molted nearly all of her flight feathers. Just wondering if this is normal for muscovies? She's still acting normal. If it is normal, how long will it take before she can fly again and ill need to cut them again?

 

[SolarDuck]

Here's a few pics of them

 

[SolarDuck]

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are so pretty My Muscovy seem to do this too drop their flight feathers fast I have a couple just finishing up molt. Once her flight feathers have grown back in time to clip. So keep an eye on her. Usually takes a couple weeks to be full flight again. I only clip after fall molt when they lose their flight feathers. 2 of yours just about twins