Ducks afraid of people?

[Puddingtheamericana]

i’ve got two about 5 week old ducklings and their completely scared of people. if anyone in my household tries to approach them, anywhere near them within 3 feet, all hell breaks loose. they’ll scramble around and run to the back of their brooder and scream super loudly. if their hungry and you have a hand full of food they’ll go all for it but any other time and they are not alright with it.

my family has never been rough with them, ever since we got them. our interactions are usally positive such as giving them food or water, we’d give them little swims in the sink and they’d dive and catch bits of fruit and dandelion.

does anyone know why they might be so anxious around us and if theres anything i can do to familiarize myself with them? i really love them.

 

[nuthatched]

Ducks are prey animals, it's their instinct to flee when there's something large and looming. it will take lots of calm movements and sitting around them, bring food, that will help them trust you.

 

[fatty and friends]

you probably don’t spend enough time with them, if you want friendly ducks you will need to spend a LOT of time with them lol

starting from the day i got my ducks i would spend hours a day with them, brought them places with me so they were used to being around lots of people, and got them used to new experiences/places. now they are the friendliest ducks ever and they are our little adventure babies lol

 

[addctd2plnts]

We didn't spend hours with ours but I did talk a lot to them in a low soothing voice. They imprint on your voice and how you look. We also picked them up every day, whether they liked it or not. We didn't hold them for long, but we had to pick them up to clean the brooder and to put them in the bathtub to swim. When you pick them up, don't pick them up like they might break. Use calm, gentle but firm hold on them. They still go through about 2 weeks of panic every time something changes. Ours were most afraid when they went from the brooder tub on the counter to the floor in the shower. It was too cold to put them outside, so it was easier to just put puppy pads on floor of the shower. But seeing us for weeks only from the head up did not prepare them for a 6 ft tall person over them. Next time I would put the brooder on the floor to better prepare them LOL They again panicked when they went into the predator proofed stall. Interestingly, they didn't seem to panick outside in the walk in, moveable run. Maybe that was because we had taken them outside on warm days to play in the pool and be in a doggy pen? We have continued to pick up all our ducks twice a day to move them from stall to their day pens. We still use two lengths of a dog pen to corner them, but they don't panic. I believe it greatly helps them to be used to being picked up and held. None panic when being held, although if it's before they've been outside, they are impatient to go out LOL

 

[MangoDuck]

i’ve got two about 5 week old ducklings and their completely scared of people. if anyone in my household tries to approach them, anywhere near them within 3 feet, all hell breaks loose. they’ll scramble around and run to the back of their brooder and scream super loudly. if their hungry and you have a hand full of food they’ll go all for it but any other time and they are not alright with it.

my family has never been rough with them, ever since we got them. our interactions are usally positive such as giving them food or water, we’d give them little swims in the sink and they’d dive and catch bits of fruit and dandelion.

does anyone know why they might be so anxious around us and if theres anything i can do to familiarize myself with them? i really love them.

Hey, we have three ducklings (Two pekins, one 6 days old and one 11 days, and a call duck who’s 13 days old), we will sit with them on our laps, and have been doing this since we got them (we got each of them when they were two days old. They were all in pretty bad environments, too, with lots of unfriendly people).
They’re really friendly with us, and will cuddle with us and follow us. I think the key is to hang out with them a lot, sit with them on your lap. It’ll take a while for them to warm to you, and it may never happen, but this’ll be the best thing you can do it!
I’ve raised 10 ducks in the past, and every single one has liked us because we do this.

Best of luck!

 

[MangoDuck]

you probably don’t spend enough time with them, if you want friendly ducks you will need to spend a LOT of time with them lol

starting from the day i got my ducks i would spend hours a day with them, brought them places with me so they were used to being around lots of people, and got them used to new experiences/places. now they are the friendliest ducks ever and they are our little adventure babies lol

Those are very cute photos! This is definitely true, we do very similar things like this and our ducks love us.

 

[Knighstar679]

Don't forget that they usually got through the axe murder stage. Even the duckling Nibbler who slept with me for three weeks went through it. Being prey animals, it is just instincts just keep calm keep interacting with them as much and as often as you can.

Most of the ducklings I had imprinted on me were solo ducklings and so that my household could sleep at night I would wrap them up in a towel and they would sleep on my chest until they would start escaping from the towel at night.