Who is she/he?

[catobsessed]

Hello! So this is a first. Someone abandoned this poor duck and I took it in. Her/his wings are clipped, so I knew this wasn’t some wild duck. After asking around, some neighbors said they have been feeding it chicken feed for the past couple of days. I know it’s a better alternative than bread, but can ducks even eat that? Can I feed a combo of chicken feed with other things such as mealworms, oats, and frozen peas and carrots? Or should I try to make a trip soon to get duck feed? I read different things about chicken food so I don’t know what the answer is.

My friend thinks this might be a crested duck? I’m guessing this is a female after some of the things my friend told me, but I’m not 100% sure. Any advice on how to raise a duck would be appreciated! Do ducks like to swim during the winter? I’m open to getting it a small kiddie pool if they do.

Edit: I guess he’s a male then? I’ll call him Uncle Waldo!

 

[Silkiesaz]

Hello! So this is a first. Someone abandoned this poor duck and I took it in. Her/his wings are clipped, so I knew this wasn’t some wild duck. After asking around, some neighbors said they have been feeding it chicken feed for the past couple of days. I know it’s a better alternative than bread, but can ducks even eat that? Can I feed a combo of chicken feed with other things such as mealworms, oats, and frozen peas and carrots? Or should I try to make a trip soon to get duck feed? I read different things about chicken food so I don’t know what the answer is.

My friend thinks this might be a crested duck? I’m guessing this is a female after some of the things my friend told me, but I’m not 100% sure. Any advice on how to raise a duck would be appreciated! Do ducks like to swim during the winter? I’m open to getting it a small kiddie pool if they do.

View attachment 3334658View attachment 3334659

The curled tail feather means he is a boy.

 

[sourland]

It is a crested duck, and it is a drake. Chicken maintenance diet should be fine for a mature bird.

 

[catobsessed]

It is a crested duck, and it is a drake. Chicken maintenance diet should be fine for a mature bird.

Whoa really?? Shows what I know haha! How were you able to tell? Is it the tail feather? This is a really dumb question, but he won’t try to mate with my chickens will he? I still want to try getting him duck feed, but for the time being I’m going to do what I can.

 

[sourland]

Tail curl is the gender identifier. He may try to breed your chicken hens if you have no duck hens - that would be problematic.

 

[catobsessed]

Tail curl is the gender identifier. He may try to breed your chicken hens if you have no duck hens - that would be problematic.

Oh geez okay, but I have been keeping them separated, but this is still good to know. I’m not sure it he could fertilize an egg, but I certainly don’t want my girls to go through that. The whole point of not having a rooster was to avoid fertilized eggs, I like being able to eat then guilt free!

 

[Colley12]

He would also cause trauma/possibly kill your chickens if he were to mate them. Haven't experienced that, I only have ducks. But I've seen that mentioned plenty on here.

Very sweet of you to take him in. It sounds like you have him separated from your chickens already, so your girls are safe.

 

[ruthhope]

It is a crested duck, and it is a drake. Chicken maintenance diet should be fine for a mature bird.

Chicken maintenance diet should be fine for a short while for a mature drake. But the drake will need the feed supplementing with brewers yeast to provide extra niacin long term. Chicken feed does not contain enough niacin for ducks.

 

[ruthhope]

Whoa really?? Shows what I know haha! How were you able to tell? Is it the tail feather? This is a really dumb question, but he won’t try to mate with my chickens will he? I still want to try getting him duck feed, but for the time being I’m going to do what I can.

Thank you for rescuing this boy. It really upsets me how many drakes get dumped -- mine are all rescued drakes as it is really hard to rehome drakes.

Your boy needs duck food. Chicken maintenance diet will be fine temporarily but does not contain enough niacin for ducks. If you maintained him on chicken feed, you would have to supplement with brewers' yeast -- 1 tablespoon per cup of chicken feed. Or supplement with food-grade nutritional yeast, but that is much more expensive [although it contains more niacin, too]

Your new boy may try and mate with your hens in the spring and so he needs to be separated from your chickens. But he will also need ducky friends as ducks are flock animals and need a social life. You might keep an all drake flock of 2 or more drakes; or you must get at least 3 females to keep him company as he might over mate just one or two females.

 

[catobsessed]

He would also cause trauma/possibly kill your chickens if he were to mate them. Haven't experienced that, I only have ducks. But I've seen that mentioned plenty on here.

Very sweet of you to take him in. It sounds like you have him separated from your chickens already, so your girls are safe.

Oh lord, this is still good to know though. I have them separated in the coop since the door in their roost can slide and keep them in kennels during the day. But it would probably be better to get him somewhere else at night. For the time being this is all I can do :/