Hi everyone,
At our house we have had many ducks and hens over the years but for the past 12 months have only had one Muscovy and one hen. Both female. Sadly our hen passed away so we have just homed another Muscovy. Our original one (Fern) is around 3 years old but is still going strong. The new one is 4 months old so there's a big age difference.
When we introduced them Fern was good at first but after a few hours she decided to chase the new duck around everywhere. I know she's not being aggressive because we've had her a long time and have seen her be aggressive. She is just wiping her bill on the other duck's feathers, like she would her own. She's not grabbing on to her feathers or anything, she's just becoming really obsessive with the wiping and I don't want the new duck to get stressed. She's already flown the coop to get away from her. Sometimes she doesn't run away and just let's her wipe her bill on her but I guess she gets tired of it and wants to be left alone. Do you think she is just trying to be the mother duck and thinks she needs to groom her? I can't find any info on this online.
At our house we have had many ducks and hens over the years but for the past 12 months have only had one Muscovy and one hen. Both female. Sadly our hen passed away so we have just homed another Muscovy. Our original one (Fern) is around 3 years old but is still going strong. The new one is 4 months old so there's a big age difference.
When we introduced them Fern was good at first but after a few hours she decided to chase the new duck around everywhere. I know she's not being aggressive because we've had her a long time and have seen her be aggressive. She is just wiping her bill on the other duck's feathers, like she would her own. She's not grabbing on to her feathers or anything, she's just becoming really obsessive with the wiping and I don't want the new duck to get stressed. She's already flown the coop to get away from her. Sometimes she doesn't run away and just let's her wipe her bill on her but I guess she gets tired of it and wants to be left alone. Do you think she is just trying to be the mother duck and thinks she needs to groom her? I can't find any info on this online.