Transgender Call ducks?

[Speceider]

Can't trerat without knowing actual cause. If it is a cancerous tumor, hysterectomy would be treatment, but to get the female plumage back, you'd have to add hormone therapy because the estrogen:testosterone ratios would still be off.

Clint

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
probably just be better to live their lives and be happy as long as they aren't in pain or suffering. trying to treat and spending no telling how much money to treat.

 

[AliciaM]

A friend has a couple of birds that are like this.. One is about 6 yrs old and has laid eggs in the past. She stopped laying last year and this year her head turned grey and grew a drake feather..

The other one developed as a girl for 3 months before she grew a drake feather. She is a year and a half now. She has never laid an egg as far as the owner can tell..

Could this condition be environmental??

Has anyone ever heard of it reversing?? Im thinking of getting the older one to pair with an older "special needs" drake.. Kind of an experiment.. See if it reverses in a different environment, different food, etc..

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

I have heard that when hens get older they get drake feathers....

 

[70%cocoa]

Sex is determined pretty differently in birds to the way it works in mammals. A bird can even be male on one half of its body and female on the other half (e.g. check out these photos of chickens that have sex-linked feather colouring http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100310/full/news.2010.114.html) Birds seem to do gender swapping (females developing male characteristics, that is) pretty often. I've got a chicken hen that crows and tells the other hens when she finds a tasty treat (makes the noise roosters make), but she still lays eggs.

I wouldn't worry just yet that your duck has a health problem.

 

[Rosecomb-Ryan]

Quote:

my grandmother has misfits too....

LOL!

.... Maybe because no one else will take them... LOL....

 

[easttxchick]

70%cocoa :

Sex is determined pretty differently in birds to the way it works in mammals. A bird can even be male on one half of its body and female on the other half (e.g. check out these photos of chickens that have sex-linked feather colouring http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100310/full/news.2010.114.html) Birds seem to do gender swapping (females developing male characteristics, that is) pretty often. I've got a chicken hen that crows and tells the other hens when she finds a tasty treat (makes the noise roosters make), but she still lays eggs.

I wouldn't worry just yet that your duck has a health problem.

Agree. My little duck is just fine. Healthy, happy and loud. It's 3 years(I believe) old and happy as a clam.

 

[Speceider]

70%cocoa :

Sex is determined pretty differently in birds to the way it works in mammals.

It certainly is, females determine the sex of young since because they are WZ while males are WW.[b][/b]



A bird can even be male on one half of its body and female on the other half (e.g. check out these photos of chickens that have sex-linked feather colouring http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100310/full/news.2010.114.html)

Birds seem to do gender swapping (females developing male characteristics, that is) pretty often.

Probably the main reason is they only have 1 ovary, so if there are any problems with it, the estrogen production drops. With mammals, they have 2 ovaries, so if one stops functioning for some reason, the other continues estrogen production

I've got a chicken hen that crows and tells the other hens when she finds a tasty treat (makes the noise roosters make), but she still lays eggs.

I wouldn't worry just yet that your duck has a health problem.​

 

[nop169]

I also have 2 "transgender" calls who are now 3 years old. They both lay eggs but the eggs were always infertile (as expected). This past fall the more "male" female laid 11 eggs and bean setting for the first time. I noticed but left her alone for 2 weeks & then went to bust her up figuring the eggs were not fertile - thank goodness I candlelit the eggs before tossing them - 9 were fertile. Placed them in the incubator & all 9 hatched. 5 are males 4 females and so far they seem normal... I will say that these 9 have an array of color that was unexpected - mother & father are butterscotch but ducklings came out butterscotch, chocholate, grey and one that is what I assume is gray fawn. In the past with ducklings from this bloodline I have only gotten butterscotch. 3 of the ducklings are tiny as young adults, 4 are standard show size & 2 are larger than I normally like (pet qty size) but all but the largest one are uniform in conformation.
These 2 female calls are obviously "transgender" as you call it and have never allowed breeding by another male. Typically the group of 16 are split into breeding trios in late winter and then the group is put back together in fall in a large flight type pen. The 2 trans females generally are left in the flight pen with any other ducks that I am not trying to raise from. The other female trans's eggs were infertile as usual. Funny thing is that the one who laid fertile eggs in the fall is typically the more aggressive female who tries to breed any other female around and fights the males! Her color is typically female butterscootch (3rd generation that I have owned) but darkens to an almost male pattern in late fall & winter - not exact with the pattern but noticeably darker than my normal girls even when in molt. I never expected to have offspring from these two & honestly wasn't planning to breed them... but once I saw the eggs were fertile - i couldn't resist hatching them!
I hve had transgender ducks & chickens before in my 25 years of owning poultry but have never had successful breeding before and although it wasn't intentional - I am going to keep several of the small offspring & see what happens next generation. I am only a backyard breeder - I don't show - but strive for show quality in my breedings.... kept the two trangenders just because they had funky personalities and would never sell them to someone who wanted breeders. Can't wait to see what happens next year from eggs of these offspring. And I have no idea why this change occured.

 

[DB_Tex]

In Storey's Guide to Ducks, Dave Holderread talks about "Tiny Tina" his favorite childhood duck who dutifully laid and hatched a clutch of eggs for 5 years, then one year her eggs were smaller than before, and the next year she grew drake plumage and started mating females. I'm baffled as to what would cause something like that.