More about Muscovies


Aren't these two white female Muscovies BEAUTIFUL!!???
Their name's are Fluffy and Tiny.
They belong to Steve DiCarlo, and his daughter Marie. I want to thank you both for letting me put this wonderful picture on my site, where we can share it with the world.
Just look at the beauty in the formation of the wings. It shows you how big the Muscovy wings are, they have great power in their wings. They have the biggest wings of any other duck. The males are even bigger.
Thank you Steve and Marie!!!

Here is a example of something that I would like every one to read, and see if you can understand this.
A very precious 12 year old girl wrote to me, with her heart broken. I felt so sorry for her, poor baby.
Here is what happened...
She lived in apartments, and she enjoyed feeding the ducks.
The ducks became her friends, and she looked so forward to seeing them and playing with them and feeding them every day after school.
Well, of course, some of the adult neighbors started yelling at her for it. They got real nasty with her, and treated her as if she was a bad child, just for feeding the ducks.
She felt real hurt, but, she loved the ducks, they were her friends, and she could not understand what she was doing that they felt was so bad. To her, they were mean old people (and that is exactly what they were!) Then, someone reported her to the manager and the manager made her stop feeding the ducks.
This broke her heart. She was so sad about it, and she would try to watch the ducks out of her window just to see them. She would sit there and cry. She found my website, and would email me, and tell me how sad and unhappy she was. She felt like she was being punished, for something that isn't even bad. It made her see grown ups as mean!
"What did I do wrong" she asked me. She couldn't even go out and feed Gods creatures!
She also told me, that one of the particular ladies that complained to her, had a bunch of cats, that ran around the place all the time. The lady asked the girl one day, "When are you going to stop feeding those ol ducks"? And the girl answered, "When you stop feeding your ol cats"!
The woman's cats were into things all the time, and killing the birds and pooping everywhere, and was always digging up the girls mothers plants in her planters, to use them for litter boxes, but, yet she had the nerve to get after this child, for doing something so innocent, as feeding ducks. It made me so mad, because, they act like that is a sin, and they treated the child as if she did something bad.
Well, the girl wrote me for a pretty long time. She was always sad, and unhappy, and felt like she was being punished. Her freedom was taken away from her to do something so natural as feeding Gods creatures. They devastated her. She was always sad and depressed every time she wrote to me.
It made me very mad, at people for many reasons.
For one thing, they did not have to get mean with her about it, and treat her as if she was doing something bad! Also, why did they have to make her STOP altogether? Why couldn't they have told her, it is ok to feed the ducks, as long as you just feed them by the lake? That way, the ducks will stay around the lake, and be there for her to play with when she goes there. Look at all the kids on drugs and other kinds of junk, they should be HAPPY that she was feeding ducks instead of robbing them, or standing around their apartment smoking cigarettes and laughing and making noise, and cussing and causing trouble.
They are UNGRATEFUL CREEPS!!! Always gotta gripe gripe gripe!!! You never can satisfy people like them!! How could they hurt a little girl like that?
When something happens to them that a kid does that is real bad, then maybe they will think again, before they complain about kids doing something that is so innocent and has nothing wrong with it!
They ruined that little girl. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! THINK of what you are doing, before you GRIPE!!! Live and let live! And stop picking on Gods children, and innocent good creatures!
Apartments who have ducks, if you don't want people feeding them, then tell them to feed them only at the lake. The ducks will pick up on it, it will take a little time, but, they will get the hang of it, and then they will stay around the lake more. But, don't make them stop - that is awful!
Also, to cut down the population, have your maintenance men also gather the eggs when they do the grounds. That will keep down the population.
There are many, many people who love the ducks, and it is not right for you to ruin it for them.

I want to say something to people who give trouble because of the Ducks. There are people who like to live on lakes and canals, and there are people who don't. The people who do like to live on them, usually have some main reason they do. Some like to fish... some do not like to fish, but just like to watch the fish cause they are fish lovers. Some like nature and wild life, and like to just watch it, no matter what kind it is. Some are bird watchers, and some are duck lovers, usually the main duck they love is the Muscovy, because they are wonderful and the best. Usually all bird or nature lovers also love the ducks. These people all, have their reason for living on the lake.
They should all let each other enjoy their reason for living on a lake, and not try to take that American privilege away from... "some"...of them. For instance... the people who like to fish... the other people have to put up with it, and many do not like it. In my own back yard, I have gotten hooked in my foot with fish hooks, and I have had to help injured ducks and other water fowl, from fish hooks and fish string and fish messes a lot. I have to deal with fish heads and fish garbage ending up at my place all the time. I put up with this CRAP ! Now, if I and others have to put up with fishers disasters all the time, then fishers and the other people who live there, should realize that other people want to live on the lake for their reason too.
I myself, love ALL nature! I love to watch ALL fowl, birds, and fish. I really am not crazy about fishers, because I don't particularly like what they do to the fish... as I said, I love ALL Gods creation. But, also, to me and many people like me, our favorite of all the fowl out there, are the Muscovies, and they are our main happiness on the lake, just like fishing is a fishermans main happiness. To take our Muscovies away from us, is like taking the fish away from the fisherman
The Ducks are good for the lake, and are good in many ways. There is nothing bad about them. They are Gods creation, and us lovers of them, are not breaking any law in enjoying them. We all usually are good people with good hearts, who just want to enjoy Gods good clean creations, to get a break from all the mean and violent and sexual things on TV, and going on all around us, so we can have SOME peace of mind, and enjoy a little pleasure, out of some creation of Gods who gives us that peace. To take them away from us, is as bad to us as, to take the fish or the rod away from the fishers, or to take the baseball away from the ball player, etc etc etc. If you want to fish on your lake... or what EVER it is that you want to do on your lake... that is fine... do it. But don't ruin it for others who want to love nature on the lake. The Muscovy "IS" many peoples "THING"! It is bad enough as it is, because, we have to put up with some creep, always hurting them, or carelessly causing them to get hurt. The people who do these things, are ignorant of knowing how valuable Muscovies are, they are just hurting theirself too.

The red flesh on the Muscovies face is just skin. It is basically what distinguishes them from other ducks. It is very soft. The ball on their nose is their wattle. Some of the ducks have black skin instead of the red. The red bumps are not warts, they are just little soft caruncles, not hard and crusty like warts. People get warts, not ducks. Most of the ducks have a normal amount of the caruncles, but there are some of the ducks that get too many of them, and then some people think they are ugly. Don't be silly, they can't help that, just as you can't help it if you are ugly. The ones that have too much of it, usually are the older ducks, and usually the males that have been in many fights. They get a build up of the caruncles anywhere they would scar at, and when the males fight, they grab each other by the head and neck, injuring these areas, and then the red caruncles form more as scar tissue and for protection, something like we get calluses to protect us. Occasionally you may see some of it on other parts of the body, this is a place where they have been injured, and it formed as a scar. The older females get more of it on the back of their neck, this is because when the male jumps her to mate, he holds her head by the back of the neck, and it forms scar tissue there also for protection. The females that get more of it than the other ones, have been jumped more than the other ones. Poor things, they don't have much say about that... the life of the female ducks, is not very pleasant. I personally think the Muscovy is a very handsome duck. The more you get to know them, the less you even notice the caruncles, they only look bad on the ducks who have a over amount of them anyway, and for the special duck that they are, it is easy to not even notice them.

People should not take Muscovy ducks up north. Muscovies do not have as much down feathers on them to keep them warm as regular ducks, because they are tropical ducks. That is also why they can easily get waterlogged if in water too long. Also the red flesh on their face, and their legs and feet are very sensitive to cold and can freeze and get frost bite. It's best to keep them in areas that do not freeze.
Muscovies do not migrate. They are all over the world because people have moved them all over. They do not go back where they origionally lived, on their own, they are stuck where ever people take them, then they have to put up with the cold, they have no choice, but the Muscovies are happy go lucky, and always make the best out of any situation they are in. It is hard to tell when a muscovy is miserable because of that, so I am speaking up for them now... any of you who have Muscovies in cold climates, please provide places for them to get out of the weather when it is cold. Also, keep a eye on their red flesh on their face, and their legs and feet. In the winter, if you see any of it schriveling or changing color, or bubbling or blistering, or getting sores, etc... please get them in and warm them up, and keep them out of the cold. Watch their wattle (the ball on their nose) cause it easily gets frost bite. Please also do not let the Muscovies in water in the winter. It will not hurt them to go the winter with out a bath. They suffer even more when they get wet in the winter. They do not understand, they love water, and go in it, it is their nature, they do not understand that they are up north and should not get in the water. So please, it is up to you people to watch for these things, and help your little friends, because they do not understand it, they are just stuck with it. It is up to you to know and understand this, and take care of the problem. Don't just let them suffer, help them. They are stuck up there for the winter, because you have them, so make it comfortible for them... how would you like it if you were stuck outside in the winter all winter long?
If you live in areas that have cold winter and the water freezes, please do put out a one gallon bucket of water for them and make sure the water does not get frozen. The poor ducks (and birds and other fowl) can't get water when the lakes and ponds and puddles freeze. Please read more about this and many other health info and tips on page 3.
This past winter was really bad on the Muscovies. I got soooo many emails with people who had Muscovies suffering from frost bite. One lady had one who died from it, and another lady had one that lost both of her feet and legs from it, and she will have to spend the rest of her life on her stomach. Several had Muscovies with bubbles and blisters all over their feet. It is so sad and ashame, that they have to go through things like that. Also, the older the ducks get, the harder the winter is on them.
I get very upset at the people who write me and tell me they do not believe that the Muscovies suffer at all in the winter. I have gotten about 3 letters like that, yet I have gotten hundreds from people who tell me the tortures their ducks are going through because of the winter.
I am glad to say, that the majority of the people who do write me about that, do try to provide warmth for their ducks, and they do have a heart and they do care very much.
I have gotten many letters from people who have Muscovies, and they tell me how wonderful their ducks are, and how much they love them.

More pages in this drop menu below...



1