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Reviewer: Ran Hao, a well-known popular science writer
Once upon a time, our understanding of duck was still stuck in the dish in the saucepan and the oven, until the appearance of call duck...
In the past two years, Cole Duck has frequently appeared on social networks and become a new "net red", its round and rolling shape, snow-white feathers, small yellow mouth, cute little short legs, coupled with round and slippery eyes, which has won the love of netizens and contributed a lot of memes to netizens.
So, what kind of duck is the Cole duck? How is it different from other ducks? How do you raise a Cole duck?
1
The difference between Cole duck and ordinary duck
The Cole Duck, or "Little Duck", is petite, docile and clingy, and is very cute.
Cole duck and domestic duck in animal taxonomy belong to the goose-shaped duck family, their origin and evolution is generally believed to be long-term domestication of wild ducks, through different geographical distribution, reproductive characteristics and other long-term domestication, the formation of different duck species.
The biggest difference in appearance between the Cole duck and the domestic duck and the wild duck is that the purebred Cole duck has a rounder head and body, a flatter and shorter beak, and a smaller body and a relatively small and light egg.
The neck of the Cole duck is relatively short, compared to the same size of the domestic duck, the legs are thicker and shorter, the body is fusiform, the tail is short and not upturned; but its wings are larger than ordinary domestic ducks, so the Cole duck can fly.
Cole Duck Fly
Many people think that the colt duck is only white, in fact, there are many kinds of colors, but it has always been more popular is white, and other colors include chocolate, khaki, cinnamon and so on.
Image quoted from Cole Duck Sticker
2
The origin of Cole Duck
So how did the Cole Duck breed come about?
In the 17th century, hunters in Europe consciously selected large-called individuals from domestic ducks to breed in order to attract distant prey, and slowly evolved the Cole Duck (the Cole Duck in australia may be a separate strain).
In the mid-19th century, the colt duck was introduced to Britain and the late 19th century to the United States, but by the middle of the last century, various countries began to have many restrictions on hunting, and the role of the colt duck decreased and the number continued to decrease.
After slow breeding, the Cole Duck had other uses - because of its delicate appearance, coupled with its docile and clingy personality, it was suitable for being kept as a pet.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the Cole duck, which already possessed mature and stable genetic traits, began to enter the ordinary family, transforming from applied poultry to family pets.
They also began to catch fire in China thanks to the success of Internet celebrities, since the Cole Duck online fire, it began to be known to the public, but also became the choice of more people to keep pets.
3
Hatching and growth of Cole ducks
Cole duck is generally spring, autumn egg laying, fertilized egg incubation period in about 25 days, incubation requirements are also very high, to do a good job of disinfection, control humidity, temperature.
The growing environment can not be dry, otherwise it is very easy to get sick, but also to repair the feathers regularly, it can be seen that raising a Cole duck really takes a lot of energy!
At the same time, raising Cole ducks is also a bit of a cost, the price of buying a Cole duck duck makes us stunned, some even more than 5,000 yuan, adult ducks can even sell for 15,000 yuan, part of the reason why the price of Cole duck is so high is that its breeding is indeed more cumbersome.
At the same time, part of the reason is because people think that it is less common than ordinary ducks, higher appearance, and are keen to "post" its various cute photos on the Internet, thus forming a network effect. In other words, more attention has made its value rise.
In order to have a better parenting experience, some duck owners will choose to hatch their own Cole ducks, which requires the purchase of supporting incubators and nursery boxes, and also requires enough patience and love.
In the duck egg out of the 10 days can begin to hatch, before hatching to pay attention to disinfection, hatching process to control the temperature and humidity, has begun to develop the egg is still very sensitive, violent shaking is easy to make the egg death, so the egg test must be gentle and fast.
After more than 20 days, the basically alive ducklings will break the eggs and come out. Sometimes a few ducklings have a cry, but they can't break the eggshell themselves, so we need to help knock a small hole to help it completely peel off the eggshell.
In the next time, it is also necessary to often observe whether it can heal on its own, if infected with bacteria, the trouble will be big, which also requires that its living environment must be clean and hygienic.
In addition, the living environment of the Cole duck is still more harsh than ordinary pets, after all, it is a waterfowl, it needs water, in the residence can be replaced by a bathtub, you can also find a small pond near the residence, so that it has the conditions to clean the body and swim, otherwise the animal will also get diseases.
It should also be noted that birds are rectal and cannot control their excretion, so to raise Cole ducks, they must have the patience to solve the problem of their open excretion.
Raising ducks is not easy, when you choose Cole duck as a pet, you must be mentally prepared and do what you can
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Source: Xinhua Fruit Shell