Sickly duck at local produce store...

[nayeli]

I have heard of drakes attacking ducklings and killing them, male or female. I wouldn't introduce them until they are a bit older and I agree with you trying to get one thats already an adult!

 

[SampyArctica]

Yeah, for sure! I'd definitely prefer if they were around his age, and even then I've heard how violent some drakes can be when mating (any truth to this?) so I'm still anxious. But we plan on at least three to prevent any over-mating.

As far as flying is concerned - how well can Muscovies fly with a clipped wing? I plan on having all with clipped wings, but my brother had a sulphur-crested cockatoo (different bird entirely, I know!) who had a clipped wing, yet could still clear an 8-foot fence easily, and a friend used to clip her chickens wings but they still managed the 6-foot fence she had around their coop. I've read Muscovy drakes can have a bit of difficulty, but the ducks are really good flyers. What are people's experiences?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yeah, for sure! I'd definitely prefer if they were around his age, and even then I've heard how violent some drakes can be when mating (any truth to this?) so I'm still anxious. But we plan on at least three to prevent any over-mating.

As far as flying is concerned - how well can Muscovies fly with a clipped wing? I plan on having all with clipped wings, but my brother had a sulphur-crested cockatoo (different bird entirely, I know!) who had a clipped wing, yet could still clear an 8-foot fence easily, and a friend used to clip her chickens wings but they still managed the 6-foot fence she had around their coop. I've read Muscovy drakes can have a bit of difficulty, but the ducks are really good flyers. What are people's experiences?

I clip all my Scovy's but 2drakes one is too old to fly and my almost 3 yr old that isn't going to go anywhere his girls are here. But my scovys can just get off the ground ,not far at all and none have ever gone over our fencing. but you have to make sure to clip the right amount of feathers and only one wing it keeps them off balance for flying. Drakes eventually get too heavy to fly but those girls they can still do it.

 

[laughingdog]

I found cutting the first five feathers of only one wing lets my males and femals fly around but not hardly get off ground, where cutting ten of first set of primary flights, down to the secondary set of feathers, can stop them from getting off ground. they'd started learning my game though and then figured out that plucking the cut feathers made them grow back soon, or they were plucking each others cut primarys.. either way mine can but don't fly hardly at all anymore, except when preds attack or coming for food when called when acres away and those wittle wegs just can't truck fast enough. lol

tell your father you will repay him in muscovy egg breakfasts, as i find them delicious. the mean extra drake offspring of pets are great too, tastes like roast beef (yup i didn't believe either till ate first drake other night). yes seems terrible of me to eat test hatch young being first of my original duck duck, BUT i couldn't find good homes, and at least this way i know my food and them were raised and slaughtered quick respectful humane and with spoiling love like all should be, and disgustingly 99.99% of all food are not (even vegetarians are blind to how eating "green" still kills billions of creatures anually at least).

 

[SampyArctica]

I am finding that now that Whistles feathers have finally grown back and he's actually got a proper, full wingspan - he's starting to stretch and flap them out rather powerfully a fair bit. Beginning to make me a little nervous, being so close to the road, so we'll probably clip all 10 to keep him grounded for now. And hope that he doesn't figure out to pull them out before we move, haha. Wow, smart ducks!

Well, we plan on raising some broilers as I don't want to support the meat industry but I don't plan on going vegetarian or vegan either. I figure if you want to eat meat, then you should do the dirty work yourself and see what actually goes in to putting the food on your table. Plus also so I know that my food was both raised and killed in the most humane ways possible. I'd never really considered raising ducks for that though...might consider it. Because we definitely don't want to be overrun with ducks, I'd like to keep them down to maybe 5 or 6 adults at a maximum for the first year. Is that a feasible number if we search the property for any possible fertilised eggs regularly to collect so they don't hatch? We plan on turning it into a homestead and be as self-reliant as possible, but want to wait a year or so first for most of the development to make sure we get to know the land and the area properly before building goat paddocks and planting things, so we don't set ourselves up for failure, haha.

 

[nayeli]

I only clipped one side of my ducks primaries and it keeps him from clearing the 6' fence again!

 

[SampyArctica]

Help, I'm worried about Whistles! He's usually a little poop factory, he really poops up a storm usually - he's been normal all day in that respect...but since he's come inside, he's only defecated twice in about four hours and they don't look as they normally do...they're usually semi-solid to solid (watery if he's been drinking heaps) and a brown colour. I'm sure you all know what I mean! But then...tonight...well -

This was his first in three and a half to four hours, squirted out about 45 minutes ago.

And his second about one minute ago.

What's wrong with him?! Impacted crop? Blocked bowel? He doesn't eat much greens other than some grass that's kept cut short and the lettuce leaves I tear up for him as treats, and even then we still offer him grit with his regular food pellets every other day. Today he was pulling parts of leaves off a staghorn fern, but I didn't see him actually eat any - he was spitting them into his pool and leaving them there. Is it possible he actually did eat part of one? They're not poisonous to animals but they are quite a tough leaf, if he did swallow some - could it have been too tough to pass through his crop? He's drinking heaps of water but that's normal, he always goes through water quickly. He's acting normal as well, he was in the pool three times today, was active and following me around half the time I was outside and he was wormed yesterday, he's just...not pooping. And I'm really worried. :/

 

[Amiga]

I wonder if the worming substance slowed his digestion down. Any puffiness in his tummy? Do you have probiotics?

 

[SampyArctica]

I don't think so? I'm not exactly sure where a ducks crop is, Google isn't being helpful with that - but if it's in the same place that a chickens crop is (left side of chest), then that feels hard to me. I forgot to feed him this afternoon, he has a REALLY big appetite in my opinion since he doesn't forage and I'm used to feeding my foraging chickens just once a morning but Whistles loves food so much he usually gets fed/has his food bowl filled up twice a day so he always has food in his bowl, and I didn't do it this afternoon after he emptied it this morning because we've had two open house inspections in one day and it just slipped my mind. So we fed him just before when I realised and thought maybe he wasn't pooping because he hadn't eaten - and he WOLFED the food down. But no poops still! That's when I started worrying it was something more serious and now I'm regretting if I should have fed him if his crop is blocked (though I don't know why it would be!).

Probiotics? Is that yogurt? I do have yogurt, but it's not the natural pot set/greek yogurt, it's the sugary kind with bits of strawberry mixed in. And it's 10:30pm so nothing is open to get any.

I've used this worming concentrate for all of my poultry with no problems since the start of the year, is it known to sometimes be alright and sometimes play with a ducks digestion? It was super watered down, so I was worried if it'd even have the effect it was supposed to, but Whistles wouldn't go near it unless I added more water than I was supposed to...

 

[Amiga]

Well, perhaps the irregularity in his feeding schedule did something, and in combination with the wormer, he may just be off. If you don't have probiotics, don't panic. Might be something to add to the pantry, though. I use poultry probiotics - you can get them plain or with vitamins here.

So I would just make sure he has plenty of fresh water and watch.