Who else has australian spotted ducks? Bump - comments on molt?

[eggchel]

Quote:
I have two trios of Blue heads plus one of their offspring, a Silverhead male.
Mine ducks are a bit on the dark side but if your female is a lot lighter, then she might be a Silverhead or even a Greenhead. However it is possible that your genetic line just has lighter colored Bluehead females. But Bluehead females are darker than Greens or Silvers. and Bluehead ducks can produce all three color varieties as offspring which can lead to identity mistakes.

Here is a link to the site belonging to the person that I bought my ducks from. She explains the color breeding of Aussie Spots and has good examples. It is quite possible that some of the photos are of the ducks that I now own.

(IF you have trouble telling which duck label goes with which female duck, widen or narrow your screen until there is a label to the right of each picture, other wise it is confusing):
http://www.featheracres.com/Australian Spotteds.htm


Chel

 

[Giddyup]

Thanks for that sight! Our Dolly is definately a bluehead as we thought. It is the greenhead females that I especially like.

 

[Giddyup]

Here are the new kids, 2 green drakes, a green hen and blue hen. The third that looks like a male is in juvenile molt, I'm guessing she'll be a green. What I can't figure out is why she's hanging around with the boys...?

It's our first spotted flock and I've only had adults, haven't gone through a molt so it seems a little strange...she even has a drake curl. Tried to get a closer pic (oops, the one above)

It seems very difficult to find information about other breeders of these guys. Maybe starting a program isn't such a bad idea. But I'd sure like to find a blue drake.

 

[asher]

Hmmm...any new updates on "her"? Appears to actually be a slow developing drake to me. (I had one of those, the "pretties girl" of the bunch, too. Grrr!)

 

[Giddyup]

Hi Asher...still a mystery. If Anything I would say the spots on the back are getting more defined rather than "graying out". The "quack" is more female so far. Can't find a penis. I'll grab another photo and see if there's much difference.

Internet has so much to offer, but I've found only one farm in Oregon who breeds them. I've read it could be an "eclypse" molt but if I search that all I get is astronomy,

 

[asher]

I've had mine for a year, but just don't know enough about them still to offer much help. Unfortunately, there are so few of us raising them, there's not a ton of info out there.

I hatched my drake out from poorridgeranch.com. She's very helpful, if you want to try to ask her. Also, there is a bantam group on yahoo groups that may be able to help. (It's title bantam call ducks, I think, but is for any bantam duck breeders.)

 

[KatGold]

I am considering raising Australian Spotted in a rabbit hutch. They'd get limited outdoor time. For those of you who already raise them, please give me your honest thoughts. Would this be a cruel way to raise these little beauties? Would they be happy in such a set up?

Thanks!

 

[asher]

I know some people do that with call ducks. A lot is going to depend on the size of the enclosure, will they have plenty of access to water to bath and breed in (if you have both genders), wire size will be a factor as well so that they feet do not get sore/hurt. I am sure there more things to consider, but that's off the top of my head. I have never personally seen a rabbit cage that I think would provide plenty of room for them, but I'm not one for small cages for birds so I might just be biased. ;-)