What???? Adult feathers??????

[crj]

Hello, I would like to know how many times does a duck change colors????

I mean really. When I got mine they were about 2 days old and yellow.

Later they turned to a white downy fuzz.

Next they are a beautiful white and fawn color.

Now my husband tells me that my indian runners are molting. At 8 weeks???? Does this mean they will change colors AGAIN????

I love the colors they are now. I noticed a couple of ducks are getting a dark spot on there forehead. One ducks bill seems to be changing color also, a greenish spotty look.

I love the yellow beaks. Maybe they will be fawn colored.

What can I expect next?????

 

[Sweetfolly]

8 weeks sounds about right for the first molt - the girls should look about the same in their new feathers as they did in the juvenile ones, and the males will look a bit different - if they are, in fact, Fawn & White Runners (which sounds right if they were yellow as ducklings), then the males are the ones getting the darker heads, and the females are the ones who tend to get the green-spotted bills.

Yeah, ducks molt and change colors a lot. Males molt into eclipse plumage in the summer and look like girls until fall, and with some colors like black and chocolate, they'll get random white feathers all over as they age until they're nearly pure white...so it never really ends. At least, if they are Fawn & White Runners, their color should stay pretty consistent from here on out.

 

[crj]

Hi Annarie,

I bought them at a hardware store that advertised them as fawn in color. I thought they ended up as fawn and white not knowing they would change color again. I do not know which are molting since they all look the same featherwise........ lol. Beautiful colors and the prettiest tiny dark blue eyes.

So far I'm only getting 2 raspy quacks as of today. The others are still chirping and whistling. If I vent sexed them right (doubt it now) I should have 5 girls and 1 boy. I'm really hoping that's what I have because I haven't had much luck with straight run. In chickens anyway. Ducks are a first for me. I just love my runners!