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I'm about to buy some muscovy (mosquito) ducks. Anyone had any experience with ducks in general. Are they messy, noisy, nuisance etc. What are the pros and cons?

I'll prolly just give 'em a go for a while and learn what I can. Any hints and tips on raising ducks would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

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Pros: They are gorgeous, they don't make much noise and the noise they do make is normally amusing, they don't destroy your garden like chickens, and they are so cool to have around

Cons: They shit on things a bit but not too horribly. They can get a bit brave once they are really used to you and they might walk around inside your house if they can let themselves in lol, and the males are sexually deviant. (They rape each other, they group rape, they commit necrophilia, although its not a daily occurrence and you might not ever see it, its weird when you do)

Ours were natives so we didn't feed them, but that didn't stop them going for the cats food. I reckon they are awesome pets

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Ducks are great.

Once had many Muscovy and khaki Cambells, along with heaps of other types of foul.

One Muscovy duckling we raised with a puppy and a kitten.

These 3 animals got on very well and all grew up to love and respect each other, they all use to sleep in the dogs bed together.

Guinea foul are the ultimate imo, closely followed by turkeys, geese are a hoot too. :)

the experience of growing birds, bringing them up to maturity and then breeding them with others and watching their progeny grow is wonderful.

Very good to also have a vege garden going as Muscovy and foul in general do require a steady supply of fresh greens.

They are grazers so letting them out to chomp the lawn is just like a lawn mower.

Say good bye to any snails or grasshoppers. :)

A bag of seconds wheat or barley they will appreciate too.

An old bath or a pond in their cage is essential as Muscovy do certainly love to have regular baths, a lge rock or log in the bath or pond is a necessity as sometime they will get carried away and may become waterlogged and have difficulty getting out.

Good idea is to fill or flush this water body out on a weekly basis as they will shit in there and also take food in their bath as well.

The water does become skanky quite quickly.

Had some friends that use to harvest their Muscovy as they are really good meat birds and when mature carry a lot of flesh on their bones. We could never bring ourselves to kill ours and ended up with a huge managery.

Their eggs are very nourishing.

Foxes, wild dogs and snakes may become an issue depending on where you are.

Burying the enclosures wire a few feet into the ground, pegging it down and folding it over so it continues inside the cage a meter is advisable as this will prevent animals from digging their way into you duck pen.

Nice fresh nesting material, nesting boxes and fresh straw or hay is a must.

They can be susceptible to face mites and at time ticks, to remove these liberally apply marj or butter the infested area and this will cut the oxygen off for these parasites and they will fall off as these bugs breathe from their abdomens.

Usually any disease in a foul inclosure is the result of overcrowding or birds that may be a bit crook or lacking in vitamins.

Hope you do real well with them Halcyon.

Edited by olive
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Ducks are fantastic! I used to love our Khaki Campbells and Indian Runners. We never ate them for meat, but the amount of eggs that these breeds can lay can be prodigious - duck eggs are the best for baking cakes too.

The set up required is much as olive describes. We used to lock them up at night, but let them roam around the farm in the day - our dog at the time was well-rained enough to not eat them (or too lazy), even when unsupervised. Sadly, they are not very road smart, and we had a few neighbours who would drive down our dirt road at 80-100kph, even in wet & foggy conditions - so you can guess how that story ended :(

So, keep them off the road, and be prepared for duck poo - but if you are using the ducks as part of your gardening regime, that's all good. Note that some councils won't let you keep them in suburbia (smell etc.).

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oooh *here to see cute duckies* awww no piccies?

sorry i'm not much help re keeping them but fascinated at the idea and if there's anything i come across I will post it here..

duck eggs are awesome , there's a market stall with them round here but anyway... i read a snippet just now that says eating those particular ducks you mention can save your life , which sounds v interesting , gna read it but will post the link anyway

http://www.rense.com/general38/dducks.htm

cuz i feel bad that i just came here to see cute fwuffy ducks with no help to bring so I'll grab a pic too

and hope i got the right ones...

ducklings-2012.jpg

and these if theyre any good to ya mate

 

 

http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/muscovy1001.htm

http://hedgecombers.com/2010/11/24/muscovy-duck/

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Ducks are fun, but very messy, and I have to agree very deviant sexually, we had one that would continuously rape our chooks, the ducklings are gorgeous, but they grow up and create a huge mess, duck eggs are apparently good for you, or so I'm led to believe, our problem now is wild ducks have taken a liking to our pool, and continuously shit all over the paving around the pool, and in the water as well, apparently there is a product called Duck-Off which keeps them out of the water. Might have to get some Duck-Off to see if the ducks F_ck-Off.

Cheers Godiam

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my advice is do nothing and when all is said and done n dusted just scoop up the poo for ya garden. My sister in law reckons that they are the ducks pants when eating snails and slugs around ya garden. At the end just build a little ladder over your fence and get on with your life and let nature get on with hers

for reference i let muma grow some eggs in my poolside once - nothing got harmed.,\

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?app=galleryℑ=6263

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