If you’ve ever watched a duck frolic across a pond, waddle through a puddle, or shimmy in a downpour, then you know the joy that comes from being in a duck’s vicinity. When you imagine adding that joy to your everyday life in the form of keeping ducks as pets, it seems like a no-brainer!
When you dive into the world of owning ducks as pets, trying to choose which breed will best compliment your schedule, whether it be for your home or farm, can be overwhelming. There are plenty of breeds of ducks to choose from, each with unique virtues and drawbacks that you should consider thoroughly before your final choice.
For those considering bringing home a little bit of that waddly joy in the form of pet ducks, this is your guide to choosing the best duck breed for your pet. We’ll be looking at breed temperaments, needs, and other factors that will heavily impact your day-to-day life as a pet duck owner.
Let’s dive right in!
5 Best Pet Duck Breeds
Let’s start on a high note and talk about the five best pet duck breeds. These breeds are the perfect choice for first-time duck owners and those who prefer more low-maintenance pets.
These are also the breeds with the most even-keel temperament that can make your duck-owning experience easy and enjoyable. They can even contribute by pulling their weight in egg production.
1. Pekin
This lovely breed is popular all-around and is probably one of the most instantly recognizable kinds. They’re large, white, and have the classic orange feet, legs, and bill. Pekin ducklings are also the stereotypical cute, sweet yellow fluff balls that commonly come to mind whenever ducklings are mentioned.
The most commonly kept pet duck breed in the United States, Pekin drakes can weigh up to ten pounds, and hens can weigh up to nine. They have a lifespan of around eight to twelve years, are flightless, and are great egg producers.
Pekins make great pets primarily because of their sweet and easy temperament and low-maintenance needs. They are calm and friendly, sociable with both each other and with humans, making them ideal for interacting with small children.
Like any other breed, they will need shelter and access to water deep enough to bathe in. But Pekin ducks are known to wander less than other breeds and are even reported to sometimes follow their owners around as dogs would!
The only con of owning Pekin ducks is that they can sometimes get loud, so if you live in an area with noise ordinances, think twice!
2. Cayuga
If you’re looking for a beautiful duck breed to keep as a pet, the Cayuga is an excellent option. They’re medium-sized, ranging from seven to eight pounds on average, and are flightless. The real show-stopper is their iridescent green plumage that shifts from green-black to purple in the sunlight.
These ducks need very little space to live happily, making them a great option for keeping as pets. They are also a very quiet duck breed, and they make genuinely great pets that can be hand-tamed when raised from ducklings.
However, if you’re looking for laying ducks, the Cayuga might not be the best choice, as it doesn’t have high-yield laying productivity, at around 150 eggs a year at most. They, too, have a lifespan of eight to twelve years.
While the drakes are some of the least aggressive of all males among the duck breeds, these ducks can be a little skittish if startled but can be easily tamed and integrated into many different lifestyles.
3. Rouen
Standard Rouen ducks are large, around nine to ten pounds, making them too heavy to fly but also making them a good candidate for keeping as pets. This breed is a larger cousin of the Mallard, which is easily recognizable when the two are compared.
Drakes have the tell-tale green head, white band on the neck, and gray body plumage, while hens are a mix of mottled browns. Unlike some ducks, they carry themselves more horizontally than vertically, resulting in a stockier appearance that, if we’re honest, makes them even cuter!
This breed makes a great pet because of its calm and friendly temperament. It’s also a great breed for first-time duck owners because it excels at foraging if given enough space and can help contribute to insect control around your property.
Many breeds that enjoy foraging are also very active and prone to wander. Still, Rouen ducks, which have been domesticated in separation from its other breed family members, are perfectly content to forage and enjoy the space they’re given.
And unlike some breeds, like the Cayuga, Rouen ducks are relatively common and therefore easy to find and purchase at reasonable prices.
4. Swedish ducks
These ducks come in two varieties: black and blue. The Blue Swedish duck is generally considered the best candidate for keeping as a pet. For potential owners wanting a backyard duck with a generally calm disposition, the Blue Swedish duck is a great option.
These attractive ducks are known for their blue plumage and distinctive white bib. They’re medium-sized and are considered endangered as a breed, making keeping them as pets a great idea for conservation.
Don’t feel like you’re doing this breed a unique favor, though; they genuinely deserve consideration as a great breed for keeping as pets. They are extremely hardy and can resist cold better than most other breeds, making them very low-maintenance and great for first-time owners.
While they’re not particularly profuse layers, Swedish ducks make great insect control and generally need an enclosure and an area to forage in. They can share space in horse paddocks or in orchards, making them great pets that can double as hard-working homesteading or farming animals.
5. Welsh Harlequin
This breed is one of the newest developed, bred off from the Khaki Campbell breed in 1949. As Welsh Harlequins have distinguished themselves more and more, they’ve become greatly loved as domesticated ducks for many reasons.
They are a very distinctive-looking breed in which the hens are just as beautiful as, if not more than, the drakes, with dark bills and mainly white plumage speckled with black, khaki, and even iridescent green. Welsh Harlequins are smaller ducks, getting up to five pounds.
Not only are they beautiful, but they’re also bountiful egg-layers that can produce around 300 eggs a year. With a calm and inquisitive temperament, they’re known to enjoy human company and approach humans to interact with them. Many owners also claim that they are an entertaining and funny breed with a unique personality.
Although they do not fly, they do enjoy foraging and would do well if given an area to explore and work on pest control. Because they love human company, they’re great for first-time owners as well as families with small children.
5 Worst Pet Duck Breeds
We don’t like to judge, but some breeds just don’t do as well when kept as pets. Many factors play a role in determining whether a breed is a good candidate for keeping as a pet. And these breeds have one or two factors that contribute to making them much better for keeping as farm animals than as pets.
1. Khaki Campbell
Although the Khaki Campbell’s offspring, the Welsh Harlequin, makes a great pet, the Khaki Campbell might not fit in with all family types. These light-weight ducks are around four and a half pounds on average and, like most domesticated ducks, are flightless.
Khaki Campbells are very well-suited to farm life, as they’re one of the most prolific egg layers among the duck breeds. These birds can produce as many as 340 eggs per year.
While they’re productive and could be great farm birds, families with small children will want to bypass this breed. Their temperament can be flighty, resulting in slightly aggressive behavior when startled. They’re not great with kids, so if you want a duck solely as a pet, then there are many better breeds to consider.
2. Indian Runner
Like the Khaki Campbell, the Indian Runner duck is disqualified on temperament issues. They’re very interesting and funny ducks, with a very upright stature that makes them look almost more like waddling penguins than ducks. And at up to five pounds, they’re also very slight and lean.
While these ducks are kept for eggs, meat, feathers, and pest control from their foraging ability, they do not have as calm a temperament as other duck breeds. They are probably better suited to being kept as farm animals or being turned loose in a garden or orchard.
Although, like the Khaki Campbell, many individuals might be generally good-tempered or might make great pets if hand-raised, the breed as a whole is known to be less patient with children and more excitable, making them a less attractive candidate for keeping as pets.
3. Mallard
While many domesticated duck breeds that make great pets descend from the mallard, the still-wild mallard variety is just that: still wild! These are the kinds of ducks you are likely to see inhabiting open pond areas and also migrating at key times of the year.
Because they are wild animals, they have not been bred to interact with humans as other duck breeds have. Skittish behavior, shyness, and even aggression can result if you try to force interaction with wild mallards.
In certain cases, when hand-raised from hatching, mallards can be trained to co-exist with humans. However, like with other wild animals, they are sociable with members of their own species and need that connection to thrive. Likewise, they have migration instincts and need to be part of a flock.
For that reason, it’s best to avoid mallard ducks and choose a domesticated breed for keeping as pets.
4. Magpie duck
This light-weight breed, which can get up to five pounds, has a decent temperament for keeping as pets. They are a generally calm and easy-going breed with good egg-laying production.
So why wouldn’t they make good pets? For some people, they might. But for those with limited space who want to keep ducks as true pets, they wouldn’t make a good fit.
Magpie ducks are active and like to explore. As great foragers, they need lots of room to roam. Sadly, this breed is considered critically endangered. So although it would be of excellent conservationist value to raise this breed as a pet, they can be, accordingly, difficult to come by and expensive to buy and keep.
5. Muscovy
Muscovy ducks and Mallard ducks together form the broad scope from which all domesticated ducks descend. Mallard-descended ducks are typically the best for keeping as pets and are likely what you think of first as satisfying all the stereotypical duck looks and behaviors.
Muscovy ducks, on the other hand, have a largely different set of habits, needs, and temperaments. Most experts agree that they have more in common with geese than ducks when it comes to their behavior and tendencies.
This breed is heavy-bodied and larger than standard ducks. It developed for living in warmer, tropical regions, and therefore doesn’t follow the same molting or migratory patterns as Mallard-descended ducks.
They don’t do well as laying ducks and aren’t particularly good for meat use, either. Because of their large size, the amount of feed necessary to help them produce normal laying quantities would be extreme.
Because they’re mostly wild birds, they can fly, and although their flight isn’t linked to migration instincts, it’s mostly used as predator evasion and means that they aren’t good for keeping as pets.
Final Thoughts
Adding a new pet, or a whole flock of pets, into your life, requires careful consideration of what characteristics will fit best within your schedule and lifestyle. When making your final choice, carefully consider these factors: temperament, area, size, and production.
If you don’t have a large area in which to keep your pet ducks, you’ll want to choose a breed that is happy in a smaller space. Likewise, if you have small children, you’ll need a breed that interacts well with humans and enjoys your company. If you live close to neighbors, you’ll also want a smaller and quieter duck breed.
Hopefully, our list helps you narrow down your choice for the duck breed that will fit best into your family as your new pet.