What kind of duck is this?

[Bec]

She passed away when she was about 5 years old, she had gotten sick and died. I am not sure what the problem was, she just stopped eating and the next day she was gone...

She was hatched out with her beak that way. She was at the feed store and we noticed her and asked what was wrong. The guy said he hadn't noticed and if we wanted her, we could just have her because he couldn't sell her like that. He said if we didn't take her he would "take care" of her. She was a very happy girl and she had lots of babies over the years, one I still have. None of them had the beak problem she had. She ate very well and never had any problems. She especially loved grapes..she would stab them with the bottom part of her beak and then eat them!! I loved her!! The kids named her Snuffaluppagus...LOL...Poor girl.
I wanted to add that she was a VERY protective momma and would use that beak to poke you if you went near her babies!!!


Here is her daughter Gretchen and her little buddy Willis .. (That is Gretchy's Dad in the pic next to Snuffy)

 

[karanleaf]

Oh that is such a great story of Sniffy and it is so great that you have her daughter. I love stories of those that have had a good and loving home.
Here is a photo of our ducks I took this evening. Not all of them in the photo but all of the drakes are the bigger one in the front is the older Drake Peanut. the one to the left is Walnut (Walley) the middle drake is Pistachio (Stachio) and the 3rd we haven't named. 2 boys will be finding new homes for soon I hope.

I love ducks

I have wanted them for a long time, was looking for Mandrians (sp?) and ended up getting 3 Rouen ducklings just over a year ago. Unforutanly Peanut is only 1 left. Butter the female died this June.

Cracker was gotten by a

Raccoon last summer . Butter had layed several eggs but sadly no hatchlings. We maybe getting a pair of Mandrians this month.

 

[Bec]

Awww!! They are so cute!!! I would love to have more ducks, but DH gets all in a tiff when he has to clean the koi pond filter, it gets clogged up with goose and duck poop and stops running...lol..not funny to him, but Willis and Gretchy just look so cute in there!

 

[karanleaf]

How would that happen ??

How well do they get along with your Koi ? do they bother them at all? We have thought about building a Koi pond after we get the house built. Just another thing on the ever growing list.

 

[Bec]

The Koi are a little bit bigger now but were about 4 inches when we got them. Now they are about 9 inches and apparently more appealing to the Blue Heron. Gretchen and Willis don't really even notice them. There is a ledge around the edge of the pond so the fish have some where to hide when they get in. It isn't a very big one (the pond)..it's about 3x4 and 28 inches deep, Gretch has just enough room in there to get in and splash around a little, but Willis can swim little circles!! It is soooo cute...DH doesn't think so...LOL

 

[petitesphinx]

Awwwe...that is the sweetest story!

I wonder why she was born like that?

Maybe my little Salvador Dali was born this way as well? I thought he was injured.

Thank you for the grapes tip, I will go out later in the day and see if he would like one.

It's funny because I was never a "duck person" or even thought of getting them and when they were delivered to our farm needing a home, I just pulled them from their cage and plopped them in the pond-not thinking much of them. Then day by day, they came closer and closer to me and I got a wild hair and tried feeding them from my hands. Once I felt their tiny bills vibrating and gathering the feed, I fell in love and I fell quite hard...hahaha.....

They became my "babies" and when I found one in pieces...it tore me into pieces...They truly are wonderful to see, know and love.

When they hear me talking in the front yard, I'll hear their little squeaks and I see the grass moving and here they come..all in a line to greet me. It's the sweetest moment....

They're coming to see me (I'm in the one in the "fancy boots" hehe)

 

[Bec]

Oh that REALLY makes me want more!!! They are sooo cute!! You are lucky to have all of them!! I get seasonal visitors (Canada Geese) Gretchen brings them home when they come here for the winter...by spring I will have 30 some geese in my front yard and about 10 on my front walk and porch..she teaches them how to beg at at the door! But I can't have anymore permanent Residents...lol....although we did say that before we found Willis on the train tracks.

Edit: With the grapes you may want to cut them up little at first until he knows what they are.....LOVE your boots!

 

[vfem]

Hahaha... they are all the cutest. We own PART of a pond that covers 2 acres. We share it will 8 other houses, but we actually do have rights to the cove. There are ducks out there, none that are ours now... but we feed them anyways when we're out.

They are fish theives though. When we feed the fish the ducks come over and will actually stick their bills down the catfishes' mouths and just take the food right out! (We want the catfish hungry as we fish regularly).

So I'm not sure how they would do in a small pond with koi? I bet there would be mad fighting over expensive food. :|

 

[petitesphinx]

Yeah, I know!! Our will dive down deep (I think they're drowning at first) and flop around and come back up with a fish!! These things are amazing!

We have goldfish in our pond (NOT by choice) and the ducks are eating them, so koi, I don't know--they might not be safe. We had small catfish in the pond, but the goldfish ate them so we added bass to eat the goldfish.....we'll see..

 

[Smartie_Pants]

I had a duckling born just like that this past spring. Only mine looked very qrotesque. I had no idea what it was but after some research on some other boards and some groups I found out its called cross beak. Its most common in parrots but happens in chickens too. Its pretty uncommon in ducks and when it occurs in ducks it look a little different due to the difference in their bill. It is caused during incubation when there is either a large temp spike or drop for a prolonged time. In my case it dropped off freakishy cold one day and momma duck stayed off her eggs for six hours.

Here are some pics of the little guy, some that don't make people shudder. These are basically the only "cute" ones I have.:

Sadly he died at about a week old. We had lined the adult pen with two foot of chicken wire so the babies could go in there when it got hot during the day. The momma hatched them in one of our buildings that was sided and roofed with tin. We let them roam the yard during the day. One morning I was asleep and mom was on day shift so she let them out. Before she left she counted them and one was missing. We both searched all over and I looked periodically all day. The next day I found him. He had gotten wedged between the chicken wire and the outer wire. He had gotten out of the buiding before and made noise so I would find him. I looked all in that pen and called all day, he never made a sound. I felt so bad.