Then and Now... a chocolate runner

[TLWR]

This is Cadbury. She will be 5 this weekend. The last one left of the original trio. Blue died around 10 months from nothing we could identify. Ally was taken by the fox a month ago.


Cadbury the day she arrived in the mail (with Ally)





week old


getting real feathers... nice dark chocolate...



6 months old



pretty chocolate duck



year old - still chocolate




starting to speckle



2 years old or so



4 years old



Cadbury this morning

 

[Debs Flock]

Whoa...is that normal? The difference is astounding! She's a runner, right? Still gorgeous, of course!!

 

[jducour]

Have you heard about leucism? It's a gene mutation an animal is born with, but I don't know if there is a progression over the years. Look into it though, it's pretty interesting. Such a beautiful duck! I have a chocolate runner, and she is almost a year old and is starting to look A little speckled. I would be so happy if she ended up looking like your duck!

 

[Amiga]

TLWR, we got our Runners just about exactly the same time. Thank you for posting these. Sad for your losses. I still remember Blue, and how awful it was when she died...


Zwei, about six months old


Zwei, 3 years old



Zwei, last week - 5 years old and almost solid white.

And for the record, here is most of the flock a little while back





The Buff is Carmella Coffee Buff. The rest are black and chocolate Runners.

 

[Debs Flock]

Whoa...is that normal? The difference is astounding! She's a runner, right? Still gorgeous, of course!!

LOL...oops! Just read the entire thread title. Yep, she's a runner.

 

[jducour]

So @Amiga is this a normal progression for a chocolate runner then? Here is my chocolate runner Rosa. She is almost a year old, and is getting patchy lighter colored feathers. She hasn't quite gone through a full molt yet, so I thought they were just looking a bit rough? What do you both think?

 

[TLWR]

Black, Chocolate and I think the Blues too... My Blue was white to start

But my current blue is starting to get some white feathers, just much slower than the black runner that is the same age.

 

[Amiga]

My chocolates do get bleached feathers - after a molt the brown feathers come in darker.