An eye opening day...

Ben n Deb · **Posted:** Thu Aug 04, 2011 5:32 pm

Hi all!

On Tuesday, I went with my husband to the Charters Towers Show Day, and I had my eyes 'opened' for me. :shock:

I always knew that our Muscovy's were not particularly big, but I saw a couple true sized Muscovy's and , WOW! the girl was bigger by far than our drakes!!! :shock:

They stood about the same height as a goose.

I have Never encountered them this big before. The only ones you can get in shops are tiny in comparison! I took some photo's of the birds, but they're not mine, so I'm dubious about putting them online. We spoke with the owner of the two drakes, and he said that his boys still had a couple of kg's to go. He also said that because people just let them breed without controlling who the drake mates with, they have been getting smaller - hardier perhaps, but smaller. I had thought that the ones we can get in the shops are 'normal' size, and the bigger ones were the 'mammoth' breeds. I guess I was wrong!

We want to get the bigger breeds if we can. The owner is going to contact us when he has some ducklings available. Hoping to get our pens organised by then. (Had a dog get in, so now we're putting up Chain Mesh Fences around). If anyone else has some of the bigger breeds, and they are selling, feel free to let me know! We live in Townsville.

Cheers

Pontoon · **Joined:** Mon Jul 25, 2011 3:03 pm **Posts:** 11

Were they the mammoth muscovy?

Ben n Deb · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:14 am

From what I understand, Mammoths, are just bigger than the 'standard' Muzzie. So, I would say that yes they were mammoths, because they are twice the size of anything I can buy at the stock feed centers up here.

Pontoon · **Joined:** Mon Jul 25, 2011 3:03 pm **Posts:** 11

It is amazing to see how much bigger they are and I wonder if they are the original muscovy and most around now are just smaller than the original?

Ben n Deb · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:57 am

I would venture that they were bred bigger. Most wild birds are usually not very big. Tho someone may be able to correct me.

Muscovy J · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2011 7:12 pm

Ben n Deb wrote:

I would venture that they were bred bigger. Most wild birds are usually not very big. Tho someone may be able to correct me.

yes in the wild the muscovy is a smaller bird,

there are a few breeders of large muscovys , some of the best come form qld,

i know a guy whos drakes when around 6 to 8 months are 9kgs, they are big birds,

what a lot of people dont relise is that to breed larger ducklings, you need large ducks, as the girls pass on the size to there ducklings , also true large muscovys need a lot of tucker to get to the big weights, if you look at the real large birds check out there legs and feet you will notice they are twce the size of the standard bird , they need the big legs and feet to carry the weight,

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An eye opening day...

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