Molting feathers: no, your duck isn’t dying
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Ducks molt, aka lose their feathers. If you’re a backyard or pet duck parent, here are some things you should know about your molting ducks to make sure they’re staying healthy.
If you’re a new duck parent and you notice: a) piles of duck feathers on the ground, or b) your beautiful, sweet-natured duck suddenly becoming ornery and looking partially plucked, don’t despair!
That pile of feathers doesn’t mean your duck was eaten by a predator (hopefully). And the missing plumage and grumpy attitude doesn’t mean anything is wrong with your duck. Rather, he or she is simply molting, aka losing their feathers, which is a perfectly normal and natural phenomenon.
Duck molting: the big picture
Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) are perhaps the most well-known duck species. They also happen to be the species that most domesticated ducks come from. Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata) are another type of wild duck which have also been domesticated and bred. They’re in the same family, Anatidae, as Mallards but are a completely different genus and species than Mallards.
What does this have to do with molting? Wild Mallards have a different molting cycle than wild Muscovies. As we’ll discuss in more detail below, wild Mallards go through an eclipse molt and a nuptial molt each year. However, wild Muscovies, as best we can tell from reliable sources, only molt once per year. Also, notice we said “wild.” That’s because your domesticated ducks can have a completely different molting schedule than wild ducks.
Mallard ducks’ ECLIPSE molt
In wild Mallards, the eclipse molt occurs shortly after nesting during spring, and takes about 3-5 weeks to complete.
Drakes
During the eclipse molt, drakes (male ducks) lose their brightly colored “nuptial” feathers in exchange for basic/eclipse plumage. They also lose their curly drake feather on the top of their tail, which the females find oh-so attractive.
Drakes are unable to fly during this time since they lose all of their flight feathers via a “simultaneous wing molt,” a process unique to waterfowl since they’re able to survive without flying for extended periods, unlike most other birds.
This process ultimately renders drakes rather drab-colored since they’re no longer trying to attract a mate. No more bright green head! Instead, their eclipse plumage serves as camouflage to make them harder for predators to spot. During the flightless multi-week transition to eclipse plumage, wild Mallards will spend their time hiding from potential predators and hunting for food close to shore in reedy areas.
Your duck may molt different types of feathers depending on where they are in the molting cycle.
Female ducks
During spring-summer nesting, females pull out many of their down feathers to line their nests, providing extra insulation.
The hormonal surges triggered by motherhood also soon cause female ducks to lose their primary feathers as well. In our experience, this happens several weeks AFTER ducklings have hatched, not immediately upon going broody.
Mallard ducks’ NUPTIAL molt
In late summer-early fall, wild Mallards undergo their nuptial molt. During the nuptial molt, only the body feathers are shed.
This is when the drakes get their attractive bright feather color back so the females can better decide whether they’ll make a worthwhile mate. From there, they’ll pair up and eventually migrate back north to their spring/summer nesting areas. While the coloration changes during molting are most pronounced in drakes due to their bright green head feathers, females also take on slightly different feather colorations and patterns.
WILD mallard molting cycle vs DOMESTIC duck molting cycle
It’s not easy being a wild Mallard — or any wild bird for that matter. Taking in enough calories and macronutrients during each seasonal phase while avoiding predation and injury is a challenge.
As the Audubon Society says: “Molting is energetically expensive—as is migration and breeding. So, birds make sure these three activities don’t overlap.” And even more energetically expensive than molting is egg laying…
Now, our spoiled-rotten domestic ducks are pretty far removed from the rigors of being a wild Mallard. They can’t fly. They have humans constantly supplying them with nutrient-dense feed and treats. And they have a dry, predator-proof coop to sleep in each night. However, our girls do lay far more eggs than a wild Mallard. We’ve had ducks lay hundreds of eggs per year versus the 24-30 eggs that might be expected over two broods in a wild female Mallard.
The point being: despite nearly identical genetics to their wild ancestors, domesticated waterfowl live in a completely different environmental matrix. Therefore, their molting cycles can be quite different too, as we’ve experienced in our flock. In our experience:
- males and females often molt at different times;
- females of the same breed living in the exact same conditions can have different molting cycles;
- older ducks and younger ducks often molt at different times;
- the same duck may molt at a different time than they did the year prior.
In other words, predicting your domestic ducks’ molting time is like trying to read tea leaves.
Pictures to help illustrate molting in backyard ducks:
Do ducks need any special treatment while molting?
As you might imagine, emerging feathers seem to be painfully sensitive to ducks. As the larger feathers come in, even your sweetest tamest ducks will likely not want to be handled, so give them their space!
It takes a lot of energy and nutrition for a duck to replace their feathers. In the wild, this process is synchronized with the availability of certain high-nutrient, protein-rich foods, such as aquatic invertebrates.
Hopefully, your domesticated backyard or pet ducks are already getting excellent nutrition from a waterfowl-specific feed, supplemental treats, and whatever they’re able to forage during the day. In this case, no special care is required from you when your ducks are molting.
Some people do temporarily bump up the protein levels in their molting ducks’ diet to ~16%. This may indeed be a good idea for ducks that are older, have had a long laying cycle, or have been in generally poor health prior to molting (such as a rescue duck).
Temporarily providing extra mealworms, earthworms, crickets, soldier fly larvae, minnows, or other high-protein treats is fine, but don’t overdo it or prolong it! Providing too much protein in a duck’s diet can be detrimental to their long-term health and even lead to organ damage.
Plus, your ducks will likely molt at different times making it difficult to elevate the protein levels in one duck’s diet without doing the same for all the others.
We hope the information in this article has helped allay any concerns you might have about why your duck is suddenly losing feathers. We also hope you have much more appreciation for the complexity and uniqueness of your wonderful waterfowl!
Get quacking with more duck articles from Tyrant Farms:
- What to feed pet or backyard ducks to maximize their health and longevity
- How to build a DIY backyard duck pond with self-cleaning biofilter
- Why and how to make your duck go broody
- Why and how to raise mealworms (especially if you’re a duck parent)
- 17 tips to keep your ducks safe from predators
- Can birds change sex? The curious tale of Mary/Marty the duck…
…and dozens of other helpful backyard (and front yard) duck articles.
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Have you ever noticed your ducks quack change during a molt? My 1.5 year old female welsh harlequin recently dropped all her flight feathers and has sounded quite different (and is definitely a little moodier). She is sounding a little “honkier” these days
Hi Marion! I can’t say we’ve ever observed a notable *qualitative* difference in our ducks’ vocalizations when they’re molting. Instinctively, they do tend to get a bit more quiet (a quantitative difference) during molts where they lose their flight feathers, since being flightless would make wild ducks especially prone to predation. They can definitely get grumpier and moodier during molts, as you also noted. We have had ducks’ voices temporarily change for unknown reasons, but that’s never precipitated any sort of serious medical event. (Knock on wood.)
When a duck is molting, do they scratch themselves constantly? How do I know if molt or mite? The pair I have are about 9-10 weeks old
Hi Teresa! You might be interested to read the earlier comment on this article from Melissa Nannen where she said: “we are experiencing the molt right now and I initially was very perturbed when all of the front feathers of two of my ducks started dropping. They are 10 and 9 weeks old, and I didn’t realize they would molt so quickly after getting their adult feathers.”
Yes, when your ducks molt they’ll do a lot of extra preening and scratching. It’s actually quite unusual for ducks to get mites if they have access to clean swimming water. Just to be sure, you may want to take a close look at the feathers and see if you see any tiny mites. They’re typically red, black, or brown in color and are visible (albeit very tiny) to the naked eye.
Thank you – we are experiencing the molt right now and I initially was very perturbed when all of the front feathers of two of my ducks started dropping. They are 10 and 9 weeks old, and I didn’t realize they would molt so quickly after getting their adult feathers. I was also concerned I wasn’t feeding them the proper protein ratios – I normally would have cut their 16% protein down to the 13% or so you recommended in your feeding article, but when I saw them dropping feathers I kept it at 16%. A well timed article – thank you! By the way, did you ever notice a pecking order shift during the molting period? Our one duck who has always been in charge all of sudden seemed to drop in rank among the other ducks, and the smallest and youngest seemed to rise a few notches above her. She is otherwise acting as she was, but she isn’t nearly as bossy. I didn’t know if it was temporary because of the molt or the youngest one was coming into her own, so to speak. It’s kinda of interesting to see the dynamic shift because I don’t think they’ve figured out who is in charge – it’s just obvious that my poor dopey Pekin is definitely on the bottom of the order. Ducks are such fascinating creatures – truly I am indebted to you and your articles for introducing such wonderful animals into our lives. 🙂
Ha! Funny to hear this. Yes, when our ducks molt it seems to throw flock dynamics a bit out of whack temporarily. Not sure the exact reason, but our guess is it’s due to hormonal shifts that correspond with the molt. Even at baseline, our girls get along well and don’t seem to have too strict of a pecking order. However, we (and our drake) have noticed that there is a more dominant younger one, Pippa, who our drake favors. There’s also another maternal elder flock co-leader (Jackson, our oldest). The others all generally fall in line behind those two, and Jackson even has a guard duck, Marigold, that follows her everywhere and loudly warns of any potential danger. When they’re molting, social dynamics go into disarray, but they do seem to return to normal once they’ve feathered back in. Years ago, we had a duck named Svetlana who was the flock diva/queen, and she’d even beat up on Marigold from time to time. But during a molt, we saw Marigold bully Svetlana. Ducks are indeed fascinating creatures and an endless supply of entertainment. Glad to hear you’re enjoying your feathered family members. 🙂
Great article!
Thank you!