Abstract: In order to study the rules of early growth and development of Gaoyou duck, the nonlinear curves of Gompertz model, Logistic model, Von Bertalanffy model were used to analyze the growth of 1 to 10-week-old Gaoyou duck and fit the growth model. The results showed that Gaoyou ducks grow rapidly early. The gain weight reached the pinnacle at 3 weeks old. The growth curves were appropriately fitted with all three models, but the Gompertz model had the best effect on fitting the growth curve, and the value of R² was 0.99902, and the estimated values were more similar to the observed values. It was indicated that the Gompertz model was more fit to early growth of Gaoyou duck.

Key words: Gaoyou duck; growth curve; body weight; model; fitting