Here is the little duck that was orphaned. He is enjoying his ducky swimming pool. It was hilarious when we put him in, he swam across and around so fast and ducked his head under. He was having an absolute blast.
He is starting to get brownish colored feathers on his back, and still LOVES tomatoes. We have his pen next to our little chickens pen. He seems to enjoy their company and wants to get into their pen. He will lay right next to the fence to be close to them.
my mothers chickens have raised orphaned ducks and turkeys. Are you going to let him in their coupe?
Here is another picture.
Though the chickens are young ones, I'm afraid the roos in there may pic on the duck so I'm afraid to let him in with them. We will probably keep him near but in his own pen.
lovely hat on his head.
OK, he is just TOO spoiled. will you adopt me?
tf
Sure TF, do you want a kiddie pool too, LOL
i bought one! but loaning it to my bantam chicks LOL
Well just get in there with the bantams TF, LOL
The duck is feathering out fast. We realized this morning that his underside is now mostly feathered. Not sure what he will look like when done, but so far he is mostly white with brown on the shoulders and around on his chest and then some brown above the tail. The tail itself is feathering out white but just above that it is brown. His crest is getting bigger and feahtering white as well.
Hey, maybe it's a Crested Fawn and White Indian Runner duck! The beak looks similiar to my Runner's beak (recently noticed different breeds have different sized and shaped beaks). Colors also sound right. Regardless of breed, absolutely adorable : )
Thanks Patch I'm going to look that up.
I love the pics smedgekles......he is sooo cute! I just love the fluffy poof on top of his head!
He looks and sounds like he is VERY happy!
Christy
Yep, he's a happy little swimmer (or she, not sure what it is). Getting bigger everyday and more and more feathers. It will be interesting to see what he looks like full grown.
Patch I think you got it. I looked up the White and Fawn Indian Runner and the look and colors match what this little guy is feathering out to be. He/she is also starting to get the darker feathers on the face. Very pretty ducks. Thanks for the info :)
You are absolutely welcome ; 0 ) Runners look like wine bottles with legs when they get older. Since yours has a crest, maybe it will look like a wine bottle WITH a cork, lol!
Too funny Patch :) I guess it would be a popped cork, LOL
It amazes me how fast his feathers are coming in.
By the way do you know if the males and females of the white fawn runners have any visible differences?
Would be nice to know if this is male or female.
This is the latest picture of him/her
Here is one in the water, you can see the brownish color on his face already.
As far as I know it's the sounds they make and the tail curl that your looking for. Apparently females quack more and drakes make a different noise. Drakes also get a tail curl but that doesn't happen till the 3-4 month marker. I'm new at ducks myself.
:) He has been a blessing to us on the web too. What a cutie.
Not sure how old he is. Had no feathers only fuzz when we got him and I'm not sure how quickly ducks feather out as opposed to chicks. We have a week old chick with full wing feathers and tail feathers already. I assumed he was a couple weeks old, he already had his oil. Course I'm not sure when they get that either so I don't know how to gauge his age.
Oh it's probably older than a few weeks. My ducks I have now are 4 weeks and still have down.
thiking hte tail curl is just for pekins...
judging by the size of his HUGE feet, i think you got yourself a male there!
tf
I read that most ducks are fully feathered between about 30 to 45 days. Since he is not I'm guessing he is younger than that but probably close since he is feathering quite fast.
TF my daughter was hoping for a girl duck. Maybe its a girl with big feet :)
phhhtt! spitting on my screen...
Well wipe it off, can't have spit on the screen.
No, not all ducks are fully feathered at 30 days. The tail curl is actually for nearly all male ducks according to the sites I've visited. I have been to breeder's sites on Pekins, Runners, Campbells, and Cayugas. The Swedish probably fall into the tail curl as well. My ducks are just now starting to get some feathers on their bellys, but are mostly down. I think my older duck, the Pekin, started getting his feathers in rapidly at like 6 weeks.
cool!
So it is possible that since this one is rapidly getting feathers now that it could be around 6 weeks? Interesting.
The look of him changes daily. Everyday he has more feathers, more brown on his face, a longer tail. It is so wild how fast he is getting feathered.
I'd say 6 weeks or so if he's feathering that fast. You'll look at your duck one day and go, "Oh my gosh, he changed so fast"! It's interesting how the ducks feathers come in versus the chickens. Not only do the chickens feathers come in faster, but they seem to come in after the down disappears whereas, the ducklings new feathers seem to come up under the down almost magically. Maybe I'm spending too much time with my ducks, lol!
smedgekles my Cayugas hatched 5/5 and they've been fully feathered now for about 2 or 3 weeks. They seem to be fine tuning it though. Getting lovely iridescent shades of blue and green on their heads and wings.
MollyD
Okay, thanks! That gives us a gauge to figure his age. 6 weeks sounds good. And he is feathering fast. Its amazing.
We have been feeding him chick/duck starter that is 20% as well as tomatoe, cataloupe, watermelon and varies veggies. I read somewhere that they should not stay on the 20% too long. When should we be dropping down the protien in his starter?
My ducks are on the same feed as my chickens. I just have them on 14.5 % protein now. In another 4 weeks I'll be moving them to a layer formula.
MollyD
