Muscovy owners please help!!

[Fergusbeakley]

Ok so some background information -

6 months ago we saved a beautiful little Muscovy duckling from being squished on the road near our place, he was only a few days old when we found him. I took the little cutey home and raised him as an inside duck. He has no other company apart from me and my partner however he is never lonely as one of us is always home. Naturally he imprinted on us and we consider him one of the family. He has grown into a playful and cheeky fellow with a very social personality.

So here is where I need some advice. Spring has rolled around and he has completely changed. He has become agro and will not stop biting!! He is constantly puffing his wings out and walking towards people with his head down looking for a confrontation. He still sits and talks to us from a distance but he seems to get really excited and wants to play but his playful intentions quickly turn to aggressive bites and sometimes he will even fly up and latch onto my shirt or arm.
Now I'm not silly, I understand that he is an animal and this behaviour is normal during mating season but he just seems over the top. He is a completely different duck. I've tried everything I can think of. 'biting' him back just seems to get him more worked up. I've tried holding him down in the position that the loosing male in a confrontation finds himself, I've tried ignoring him, I've even hurt him a little bit by accident a few times when trying to get him away. Nothing at all seems to deter him. It's like he is oblivious to pain and is hell bent on fighting with me all day. It seems to be enjoying himself regardless of the negative feedback he gets.

I just want my little ducka back but it is looking more and more like I'll have to get rid of him. Please help!!! Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[duckies1230]

Get him neutered. It will fix the aggression.

 

[Fergusbeakley]

I had no idea that was even an option for ducks. I'll consult my local vets and see what they say.

 

[duckies1230]

When my drake lost his mate and was only around 6 months old. He started chasing my toddler, seriously growling at my husband. I didnt believe my husband till I witnessed it for myself. He was my house duck and ppl told me to consider getting him neutered before it got out if control and these were people I take advice from daily...

 

[Julie Birb]

Ok so some background information -

6 months ago we saved a beautiful little Muscovy duckling from being squished on the road near our place, he was only a few days old when we found him. I took the little cutey home and raised him as an inside duck. He has no other company apart from me and my partner however he is never lonely as one of us is always home. Naturally he imprinted on us and we consider him one of the family. He has grown into a playful and cheeky fellow with a very social personality.

So here is where I need some advice. Spring has rolled around and he has completely changed. He has become agro and will not stop biting!! He is constantly puffing his wings out and walking towards people with his head down looking for a confrontation. He still sits and talks to us from a distance but he seems to get really excited and wants to play but his playful intentions quickly turn to aggressive bites and sometimes he will even fly up and latch onto my shirt or arm.
Now I'm not silly, I understand that he is an animal and this behaviour is normal during mating season but he just seems over the top. He is a completely different duck. I've tried everything I can think of. 'biting' him back just seems to get him more worked up. I've tried holding him down in the position that the loosing male in a confrontation finds himself, I've tried ignoring him, I've even hurt him a little bit by accident a few times when trying to get him away. Nothing at all seems to deter him. It's like he is oblivious to pain and is hell bent on fighting with me all day. It seems to be enjoying himself regardless of the negative feedback he gets.

I just want my little ducka back but it is looking more and more like I'll have to get rid of him. Please help!!! Any advice is much appreciated.

Get ahold of Miss Lydia too via PM. She is a very experienced muscovy owner. I do not own ducks but have read on the various threads time and again about drakes getting very aggressive once they are hormonal. And, bless you for rescuing him. It saddens me he could have been a casualty. But that is all in the past. He is very very cute.

 

[quackingdom]

I had the exact same problem. My drake, Captain, was extremely tame, but then he started trying to attack us. I tried everything people here on BYC had suggested to stop aggressiveness, including just about everything you tried. It didn't work. So I got creative and tried new ideas. Finally, I found something that worked: throwing a bucket of water on him and chasing him – or squirting him with a high-pressure hose. (He does not like getting dashed forcefully with water AT ALL!) Now, he is rather wild, but he is no longer aggressive. He realizes – HE'S NOT BOSS.

The water trick may not work for you. Individual ducks require individual treatments. Try inventing your own cures.

One other thing that worked pretty well was putting a bucket over his head and holding it there when he tried to bite.

 

[Amykins]

Welcome to drake ownership. Wobbles is the same way; when he first came into season it was bite, bite, bite! Keep in mind, neutering may or may not fix his aggression. It will probably reduce it, but it may have not much of an effect at all. Also, a lot of vets either don't know or won't perform the procedure due to lack of experience. Barnyard specialists are pretty rare, certainly in my area, at least. I'm lucky to have a vet who specializes in ducks and chickens, but you may have to do some searching to find someone you feel comfortable enough with to entrust them with your scovy's well-being.

As for what to do in the here and now, well, he wants to mate. Period. There isn't much to deter him from that, other than separate him in a separate pen until his hormones die down, which obviously is not only tough to do inside the home but it can be traumatic for a lone imprinted duck. Have you thought about getting a female for him? That's the only thing I could do, in the end. I couldn't leave Wobbles alone because he'd get so upset when I left that he'd work himself into a frenzy and overheat. That can be deadly to a duck. So I got him a girlfriend.

As for stopping him from attacking you, lots of stuff seems to work for different people, kind of like hiccup cures: Everyone has a surefire method that only seems to work for them and no one else! With my Wobbles I was told to mount him...didn't work. Bill-tapping? Nope! Grabbing him by the neck? He takes that as a challenge. Throwing water on him? The jerk likes it! The only thing that's worked for me is when he goes to bite my foot, I gently flip him onto his back. He's like a turtle, he can't right himself. He hates it so much, and usually he'll go right back to bite mode when he gets onto his feet but after a few flips he'll stop an inch away from my skin and hover, weighing the pros and cons of it all, LOL!

 

[Buck Oakes]

Okay first things first, u know he's not meaning to hurt u, he probably doesn't even see y'all as males since u did raise him, hes not being aggressive XD he just wants to love u all night long if u get my drift, something U can do is actually get another house duck around his size, but mallard derived that way they won't really have babies and u can have 2 lovely duckies I mean the chance of a fertilized egg between them is 60% and not even 60% make it because they're bodies are developing in different ways inside the egg that don't really correspond with one another, so having babies wouldn't be a problem and yeah, all my males start that when its get around the time to get frisky, but I just pick them up and stroke them and they calm down, u just got to be way with them

 

[Buck Oakes]

I had no idea that was even an option for ducks. I'll consult my local vets and see what they say.

Don't get him neutered!!!! that's not okay, male ducks run on testosterone their male hormones, well do everything, if u get him castrated he will get super fat and lazy and u won't ever have the same duck ever again, his emotion will go away and all he will want to do is sleep and eat. That's what people do before they cull them they neuter their drakes to get them super fat, and it makes the meat more tender, it's disgusting

 

[Buck Oakes]

When my drake lost his mate and was only around 6 months old. He started chasing my toddler, seriously growling at my husband. I didnt believe my husband till I witnessed it for myself. He was my house duck and ppl told me to consider getting him neutered before it got out if control and these were people I take advice from daily...

If your drake is the same then bravo, many don't find a reason to do anything anymore and yeah, it's sad to watch that transformation