Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Are you still looking for a male swan in California. I have someone who has a young male cygnet that she may want to rehome. Please let me know. The Regal Swan
Hi Shari
This situation may be a try and see. If the cygnet is returned within 24 hrs., then there is a chance that the parents will take it back. You will need to have a boat nearby if a rescue is needed. You should observe the family’s interaction for at least 3 hours to make sure there is no aggression to the cygnet. Although something can still happen, if within the first three hours the parents accept the cygnet, it should be fine.
Since it is an older cygnet, the other cygnets should accept it. If it has been more than 24 hrs., you can still try a reunion, but you will definitely need a boat to intervene quickly.
In either case, if you see any aggression or the parents do not let the cygnet enter or exit the water to feed or swim or preen, you need to find it a safe good home free from predators. If the cygnet is less than 5 months of age, it may need to be placed at a sanctuary or rehab facility until it gets older and can be released. Is the cygnet pinioned (rendered unable to fly)? If so, then it cannot be released on its own in the wild. Also, some states are killing the Mute Swans if they are found in the wild. Wildlife officials kill the Mute Swans so they can introduce larger Trumpeter Swans for Trophy Waterfowl hunting. So, it is imperative that a safe captive setting be sought for the cygnet if you are in one of these states. The Regal Swan
Hi Ruth
If there was something wrong with the cygnet, the adult male will kill it to put it out of its misery, prevent illness to the family or attract predators to the family. Not all swans will do this, some may just abandon the cygnet, chasing it from the family, not allowing it to eat etc. Then nature will take its course.
Many wildlife officials promote the Trumpeter Swans over the Mute Swans. They misrepresent the Mute Swans so they can be killed and the larger Trumpeter Swans introduced for Trophy Waterfowl hunting. What officials fail to tell the public is how much more aggressive Trumpeter Swans are than a Mute Swan which only protects its family and territory. Trumpeter Swans intentionally or accidently kill many wildlife species just because of tbeir large size. A Trumpeter Swan cygnet also eats twice the amount of sub-aquatic vegetation SAV than an adult Mute Swan. All of these facts have been misrepresented to the U.S. taxpayer at the cost of billions of dollars to introduce Trumpeter Swans into areas that they never inhabited (East of the Mississippi, yet they knowingly prefer the larger swan stating that the.Mute Swan is non- native and invasive. More misinformation to get the taxpayer on board to kill the Mute Swans. This is all to say that the Trumpeter behavior you have witnessed is just one of many attributes that have been ignored so that Trumpeter Swans will be accepted. The Regal Swan
Hi Fiona
I just spoke to Wendy at Swan Support. She is waiting for your call if you want to speak directly tobher. Otherwise, can you please provide us with a phone number and email? Thanks
Hi Fiona
They could be new parents and do not know how to take care of a cygnet or they know something is wrong and don’t want to take care of it. Then, they will try to lay more eggs.
Please call Wendy Hermon, Swan Support in Datchet. She may be able to send someine out to check on the family and the nest. The Regal Swan
Hi Ginny
First, we would raise the nesting area so the tidal wave cannot affect the nest. You need to ensure that the soil under the nesting site is fully packed for each layer you fill. Even then, a strong tide may still flood the nest.
Second, when you see the swans looking to nest and searching for nesting material, show and provide them with cut grass or straw and place it higher on your property. There is a chance that they may make a nest where you place the nesting material. However, there is no guarantee that they will not return to the old nest because swans continually return to the same nest. They possibly do this because of familiarity with the area, presence of good food resources, protection from predators, shelter from inclement weather etc. But, if you can provide nesting material near the old nest on higher ground you may still have a chance of luring them to the new nesting material. The Regal Swan
Hi Caroline
There are two possibilities:
The swan could be a former cygnet of the parents and hasn’t gotten the message to leave. Whether the new swan is an offspring or not, it may be a female. Even though the male parent may act defensively against the new swan, he will usually not hurt a female. So, our guess is that this new swan has known the parents and is a female. Depending on whether the bird flies, it may or may not leave if there are no other swans or suitable habitats in the area. The Regal Swan
Hi Jenny
Parent swans will keep the nest cleared and will take dead cygnets or rotten eggs to the pond. This keeps predators from being attracted to the nest. Sometimes, small pieces of egg shells that are not carried away can be found below the nest bowl.
Now, having said this, predators can also carry cygnets and eggs from the nest. The Regal Swan
Hi Jenny
Once the female swan has most of her eggs hatch, she will take the cygnets to the water 24 hrs after hatching. She will return to the nest for a couple of days. During this time, there may be some eggs not hatched and late hatchlings. However, if there are late hatchlings, the mother swan will not wait for the them to catch up to the rest of the family. Usually, these are the weaker runts and nature will not allow the rest of the family/ flock to be subjected to illness or slower cygnets which also invite predators.
Better to lose one or two than the majority.
Now, if a predator or other disturbance was in the area, the mother would quickly move the viable cygnets to a safer area. The Regal Swan
Hi Lynn
Did you recheck the nest for any new eggs? If something happens to the first eggs, females can count and will replace the eggs through what is known as double-clutching. The problem with double-clutching is that a female birds lose approximately 30% of her energy levels during egg laying. Now, your bird may be exhausted or further stressed. This is why we tell people not to remove any eggs. If eggs are not viable, the female will leave the nest on her own.
Now, if she has more eggs, you will need to leave the eggs until she knows they are not viable. If she feels the slightest heart beat, she will continue sitting.
If there are no eggs in the nest and she is still sitting, then once she leaves for eating, we would suggest you remove the nest so she does not return. The Regal Swan
Hi Connor:
This is an interesting issue. Either your 2 swans laid new eggs and the third swan is so young that it is sitting on the nest just to be sitting, or your birds are completely finished with nesting this season and the new bird was looking for a quick place to lay eggs. Maybe, something happened to her mate and she saw the nest and took the opportunity to lay eggs.
The first scenario does not make sense because your birds would be protecting the nest and fighting with the new swan.
The second scenario is weird, but could explain what you are seeing. If the new swan is very young and lost her mate, she could be laying eggs, but may or may not incubate the eggs to fruition depending on her age and experience. In this case, if new cygnets are hatched, there may be a fight between the adults for territory of the pond unless it is a large pond that supplies everyone with ample space.
A third possibility would be that your swans know this bird. Could it have been one of their previous cygnets? Some swans do allow swans they know to come back to the habitat.
Please keep us updated on this interesting situation. The Regal Swan
It may have to do with our protection from spam because we don’t think we ever asked for a registration. May have been part of another spam mitigating software. In any case, spoke with our website administrator and are working to resolve issue. Thank you. The Regal Swan
Hi Kimberly
Not sure about registration info. Website seems to be working well.
Sometimes, parent swans will leave the younger hatched swans in nest until they are 24hrs old while they take the older swans out on the lake and return to the nest.
If the cygnets are completely abandoned, the family does not return to the nest or neglects the cygnets, nature will take its course and the cygnets will not survive.
The best thing to do is to fence in the nest before the next breeding season, ensuring tha the fence cannot be dug under or climbed into by a predator. Keep the front entrance opened and out of sight of the swans. Make the area large enough so parents can move and stretch and build the nest. Use bird netting around the outside perimeter of the fencing so cygnets cannot climb out of the nesting area.
Keep the nest site opened until the female lays the last eggs and begins sitting on the nest for long lengths of time. Then, when both parents are inside, close the front side of the nest leaving a large flat “3-4” inch pan of water with cracked corn and poultry layer pellet ( cleaned and changed daily.
This will allow the feeding of the parent swans along with the cygnets without drowning the cygnets which is why you don’t use a deep or large pan.
This fencing will keep the family together until all cygnets are hatched. 24 hrs after the last cygnets hatch, open the fence and once again keep the front of the fence open and out of site of parents (remove front or safely tie back away from front). The parents should return to the nest for a couple of days and then will find another night nesting site. This should help with the abandonment issue.
Now, if abandonment issues occur, it is because the family will not wait on runts to get bigger or stronger- this increases chance of predators following the entire family. The parents know somethimg is wrong with the cygnets and they are not going to survive. Taking the abandoned cygnets will cause a whole different issue. If you cannot designate 24 hrs a day for at least 4 months to feed and care for the cygnets, they will not survive. The best resolution will be to find a farm or waterfowl sanctuary with swans, ducks or geese and see if they will take the cygnets. Sometimes they can be raised along ducklings and goslings so they do not become imprinted by humans. Otherwise, nature must take its course without human intervention. We hope this information is of benefit. The Regal Swan
If these swans have never mated in 4 years, it would seem that you have two males instead of a mating pair. Some breeders sell swans based upon cloacal checking instead of the more reliable DNA Sequencing. Cloacal checking is not reliable, especially at a young age because the genitalia are not as developed until later, so what you think you have may not be a reality which will show up during mating season. First, you need to have the gender verified for both swans through DNA Sequencing which can be conducted by a veterinarian.
Once verified, you have several options. If both males and aggressive behavior does not settle after a couple of weeks due to hormones, then you need to keep them separated on the pond ( must allow water and food access to both at same time only separated so that one does not become king of the pond– you can also remove both from the pond at the same time and move indoors- separated but within sight range) Indoor separation will require safe enclosure from any predators climbing in or digging under, clean food daily and using straw so no abrasive substrate (flooring). After couple of days, reintroduce both swans to pond, monitor closely and see if aggression continues.
1. If aggression continues, you need to find a good safe home for one of the swans and allow the remaining swan to live its life alone- males will do fine on their own.
2. Trade out both swans for a pair of mating swans- would recomnend not going back to sane breeder if they gave you wrong gender at the time of sale of these swans because you can possibly have a recurrence of wrong i.d. If there is a possibility of trading one or both swans, would recommend you contact Bob Knox- 847-875-3947.
3. If you are looking for breeding pair of Mute Swans, you may need to check on your state laws. Many states are killing Mute Swans and will not allow you to have any Mute Swans, much less a breeding pair. Should you have a breeding pair, you may need a license for possession and a breeding license since you will need to find a good safe home for all cygnets once the next mating season occurs as the parents will chase them from the pond. All cygnets must be pinioned (rendered unable to fly at 1-2 weeks of age by a reputable avian veterinarian).
Mute Swans can produce 1-12 cygnets annually, which means you will have the pinioning and rehoming issue every year. It is for this reason, that we strongly urge you find out the gender of your swans, rehome one if the aggression does not work out or trade out both swans for 2 females( non-breeding). Female swans will get along with other females, especially if they are raised together at young age, unlike males which usually not accept another male unless they are siblings, and even then may not get along.
Swans will mate with each other regardless of gender if the same genders are raised together. Males (if they do get along, will mate, construct a nest but obviously produce no eggs). Females will mate with each other, build a nest and produce eggs- but obviously will not produce young.
We think you have two males and each are trying to establish dominance during a heightened hormonal mating season. This may resolve itself once hormone levels go back to normal- several days to a week.
Unscrupulous breeders sell swans without notifying potential buyers of state laws and requirements of raising and breeding swans, or will sell same gender swans without doing diligent sequencing or knowingly passing off same gendered swans or sick swans so they can make a sale. Always do your homework and do background checks on breeders, ask for veterinarian or other certified health/gender documentation and inquire about warranty on bill of sales if something goes wrong. We hope this information is of benefit. The Regal Swan
