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Muscovy ducklings

Cairina moschata

Photo by lori.tas
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

Muscovy Ducks have long claws on their feet and a wide flat tail. The drake (male) is about 86 cm long and weighs 4.6-6.8 kg (10-15 lb), while the hen (female) is much smaller, at 64 cm in length and 2.7-3.6 kg (6-8 lb) in weight; domesticated males often weigh up to 8 kg (17 lb), and domesticated females up to 5 kg (10 lb).

Habitat:

My house, for the next few weeks.

Notes:

These ducklings were abandoned by their mother when we attempted to move her nest to a safe location. So they are being hand raised.

Reference Links:

Muscovy Duck

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (9)
The MnMs
Beautiful effect of the video showing their bellies and feet under water!
The MnMs
Hi Lori! I adore ducklings, beautiful pic! I was thinking that they look like babies of swedish blue duck rather than muscovy. I have raised many ducks while I was a child and had both kinds of duckies. Of course i could be wrong but the baby muscovys already show some special features on their faces of what will turn red patches and I don´t see it in these babies. Anyway, just a suggestion...Lovely, in any case ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Blue_duck
HemaShah
Keep us posted with pictures.Would love to see them grow!
lori.tas
Hi Emma, the color has nothing to do with gender, at least not in muscovies. In this batch we had all pieds (partially white ), the base colors are black, blue, and chocolate. I'm keeping two blue girls. Gender becomes apparent in muscovies when they are about 5 weeks old. The males are bigger overall, have more of a breast, and much bigger feet. The females, on the other hand, have more dished bills, and much more fight feather development (this last bit is really the dead give away).
HemaShah
Simply adorable!! i noticed that some ducklings have brown webbed feet and some have yellow! Does that indicate the gender?
lori.tas
Yes, cute little mess makers. They've probably doubled in size in the last few days. When they follow me around on the wood floors it sounds like dozens of little clog dancers running behind me.
Photographed
PublishedOctober 2, 2011

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