So THAT'S what a muscovy looks like?

[wishful]

On campus we've got a few lakes and a lot of ducks, water hens, things like that. Well last year we also had four geese. This dropped to three about mid-semester (I'm thinking something attacked them because one of them also had a pretty messed up wing after that - the feathers were all torn off/up and they never grew back properly, so one wing was just a bare stub). Today I went looking for them because I quite like the geese (in fact, combined with the geese section of this forum, they've made me now want geese once I get a house and can have some) and hadn't seen them in a while, so I was sort of worried about them.

Well, I found two (the one with the messed up wing was gone so I think maybe it couldn't fly away from something that attacked over the summer or something like that) of the geese, and also a third thing which was just sort of strange looking. It was black and white and about the size of a goose, but there was something distinctly not-goose-ish about it. I don't even know what exactly was different, but it just didn't seem like a goose, even though it had a rather long neck. I was wondering if it was some sort of goose-duck hybrid, but it didn't seem likely and anyway it's only been four months since I last saw the geese - I don't really know about waterfowl growth rates but it seemed like maybe a baby couldn't hatch and get that big in just four months. Plus it had a weird red thing on its head which kind of reminded me of a turkey snood, and I wasn't sure where that would have come from on a goose-duck hybrid.

Googling "weird black and white goose" didn't help much (shocking, I know

) and on a whim I changed it to "weird black and white duck". That brought me to muscovies and I'm thinking that's what he (she? I don't know) was. I'd been thinking they looked pretty much like mallard-descended ducks but assuming that was a muscovy and I didn't just misidentify it, it was definitely very different. It was kind of cute, in a way though

Though now I'm curious where the random muscovy came from...

Do muscovies have the curled drake tail feathers like other ducks do? I didn't see any on this bird but wasn't sure if that meant it was a girl or if it just meant they don't have them. Considering my first thoughts were that it was some sort of goose/duck/turkey hybrid, I can easily figure out that I'm not exactly sure what to expect from them.

If you have muscovies, why do you keep them? Are they a meat breed or eggs or pets or what?

 

[duckyfromoz]

Quote:
Unfortunately the muscovy was possibly someones pet who grew too large for the backyard and was no longer a cute little baby and was dumped at the lake. Sad but I know that happens a lot.

Muscovies drakes dont have the curl on the tail like other mallard derived ducks do, and the females dont have a loud quack either.

 

[vkp23]

I have two that I think are boy's. They are still a little young to tell yet. If I go by the looks of the fleshy growth on the face I would say girls. But they hiss more then coo like boys, and wag their tails a lot. I hear that's a show that they are boys. But mine are a little stand-offish so that could be why too. They are very interesting creatures though. IDK about egg production as mine are still too young to lay even IF they are girls, but I have heard of people raising them for meat since they are on of the larger breeds of duck. duckyfromoz, is probly right that it was some ones pet. Although that may not mean they dumped him/her. It's very possible that it was dumped, but like in my situation, I had one Muscovy disappear on me. It was brown and just flew off one day. My DH thinks it might have left to a pond that is a few acres away from our house. We haven't gone to look cause that pond is on some one else property. Any way here are my muscovy's. Did it look like this only a dif color?

Duck A:

Duck B:

 

[lovesduckies]

i have 2 bedroom muscovies. one drake and one duck. they are the loves of my life!! they have cute little personalities and i love when they fly around my room. they each pull little pranks that would make a normal person get mad, but i just laugh. they are little sweethearts. my drake has been kinda been since it's the start of mating season, but he's not always bad. i am trying what i can to "fix" his behavior. i know he's a duck but it's worth a try. anyway.. they are fun and i love them