Wet Muscovy

[SkyeT]

So, we noticed that Cupcake, our male Muscovy, has had some highlighter yellow spots on his feathers. The area where I think his oil gland is located on his tail seems to be yellow as well. We noticed when he took his bath today that he got soaked, but like really soaked. When my husband went to pet him tonight, several hours later, he said Cupcake still seemed slightly damp.

What is going on with our big guy? If there is a problem, what can we do?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Did he have a big molt in fall? Usually wet feather can be fixed by a good molt. What is his feed?

 

[SkyeT]

They all lost feathers constantly since September, but nothing huge or groundbreaking. So, I guess I wouldn't consider it a molt, just a shedding of a couple of feathers here and there.

He has a layer feed that is supplemented with peanuts, a variety of seeds, cracked corn, along with lots of lettuce and tomatoes. 1 cup of feed to 1 cup of supplement items. Same feed he's been on for two months.

This is the first time we've noticed anything different.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Might need a little more protein or check out his preen glad it maybe stopped up do you notice him preening at all? My Muscovy drake rarely preens. Not like his females anyway. Maybe cut back on cracked corn and add some cat kibble to his diet or dog kibble[both okay for short term but cat kibble has way more protein than dog so you have to be careful with it] Over 30% can in the long run cause kidney problems.

 

[SkyeT]

He doesn't preen unless he takes a bath, which is once a day maybe. He preens the girls...

What do I do if his preen gland is stopped up? And I will supplement with cat kibble, as we have cats.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Check it out it should have yellowish looking wax around it, if it looks plugged you can try warm compresses

 

[Miss Lydia]

My drake is very lazy and does the same and now they only get the pool a couple times a week when the weather permits and spring isn’t froze so he isn’t preening much at all. Although we’ve had so much rain they do get a shower quite often.

 

[SkyeT]

Well, we caught Cupcake and gave him a warm soak in our tub. He seemed to appreciate the clean water. His bath lasted a long time, with a lot of head rubbing and wing flapping. Then we gave him a rub down to dry him a little. When he went outside, he had a good time telling everyone, then promptly began to preen. I caught him playing in a puddle, which I haven't seen in a while, and preening some more.

We will catch him again and do this for him in a couple of days.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I can see his oil gland is working his feathers are yellow around it! That’s awesome getting him to preen will get him to spread those oils. Looks like he is enjoying himself. Handsome boy

 

[SkyeT]

He is a handsome boy. That spot around his gland was actually almost orange before the warm bath. We may be allowing him these baths for a while. Not a bad thing, though. It may create a nice bond between us.