Is it cruel to keep a house duck indoors all the time?

[mynameisjustjen]

I am struggling with what to do with my beloved pet Mallard I have raised from a small flock a year ago. Her flock mates migrated the first fall, but she chose to say with us/humans. She must have loved the handouts of bell pepper and lettuce too much.

Our solution was to bring her indoors and she wears her diaper like a champ. She sleeps in the bed with me till daybreak, then she swims in our bathroom tub and lays her eggs in the bath closet on her nest of sheets. Then hops back in the tub till I diaper her and she hangs close by me all day. She likes to graze in the yard only if a human is out there with her, otherwise squawks at the door to come inside to be with us.

This has worked well since I have been able to be at home with her most of the time. When I do have to leave her for 6-8 hours here and there she was happy to swim away the day in our bathroom tub. The problem is now I have taken a full time job and wonder if it would be cruel for me to do this to her 5 days a week.

My instinct with animals tells me this is not an ideal situation, although she loves being inside so much, I am not sure if it is more cruel to move her to an outside coup with other birds when she is so used to being a house duck. I want the best for Missy but really am afraid she will not like being outside, as she has adjusted to being indoors. Or am I just being selfish and just let her need to adjust to a more natural environment outside. Please help me make this difficult and heart wrenching decision

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am struggling with what to do with my beloved pet Mallard I have raised from a small flock a year ago. Her flock mates migrated the first fall, but she chose to say with us/humans. She must have loved the handouts of bell pepper and lettuce too much.

Our solution was to bring her indoors and she wears her diaper like a champ. She sleeps in the bed with me till daybreak, then she swims in our bathroom tub and lays her eggs in the bath closet on her nest of sheets. Then hops back in the tub till I diaper her and she hangs close by me all day. She likes to graze in the yard only if a human is out there with her, otherwise squawks at the door to come inside to be with us.

This has worked well since I have been able to be at home with her most of the time. When I do have to leave her for 6-8 hours here and there she was happy to swim away the day in our bathroom tub. The problem is now I have taken a full time job and wonder if it would be cruel for me to do this to her 5 days a week.

My instinct with animals tells me this is not an ideal situation, although she loves being inside so much, I am not sure if it is more cruel to move her to an outside coup with other birds when she is so used to being a house duck. I want the best for Missy but really am afraid she will not like being outside, as she has adjusted to being indoors. Or am I just being selfish and just let her need to adjust to a more natural environment outside. Please help me make this difficult and heart wrenching decision

So you don't have any other ducks? she really does need to start getting use gradually to being outside and the transition would be easier if she had a buddy to swim with and hang out with. all of this needs to be done slowly, being introduced to a new friend and also going outside to stay. I don't think she'll be happy spending all day 5 days a week alone in the house they like to be with their flock.

 

[islandgirl82]

You may be surprised. I used to keep my starter coop in a 12'x24' stall in my barn. The stall was shared by my ducks and my hens. The hens would roost along the top of the stall but would use the coop to lay their eggs. My two Khaki Campbell girls started laying their eggs in with the hens...having to use a fairly steep ramp to do so. If they ever end up exploring the "upstairs" of their new home they may decide that the more secluded place is more ideal and if you want to encourage them to use the nesting box up there, you could try just leaving some decoy eggs in it.

I'm so glad you decided to keep Missy and that she seems happy with her new friend!!

 

[TwoDogFarm]

Not sure if they will go up top or use nesting boxes as ducks prefer the ground I have heard, but maybe use it in winter. It was out first day using it. We found it on eBAY and it is made by Top Paw. We had to put it together ourselves and it isn't the best construction, but it looks great and was $550+$15 shipped

It looks nice. I will recommend predator proofing your coop though if you feel it isn't very sturdy. I don't know what kind of predators you deal with where you live, but we have coyotes, foxes, possums, and raccoons that live near us. The coyotes are what we worry about the most, especially in the winter when their food is scarce. Last winter, something tried to dig under our coop, (we think it was a coyote) so we put up an electric fence around the entire coop to protect our babies. It seems that Missy and Maggie are very dear to you and I would hate for something to get in to them. Just my suggestion though; you do what you feel is best.

 

[EyeCandyQuilts]

So glad you kept her and got a friend! They look pretty happy!

 

[TwoDogFarm]

Thanks for the tip! My friend is wanting to reinforce the base and add wheels to make it like a tractor. That should help. The area is in the area of Blue Ridge where the mountains begin. We have seen wild turkey, raccoons, rabbits, and a bear once. Not sure about coyotes? I think where we are the hawks are their greatest predator and we cannot leave them unattended when grazing outside the coup for a second.

Making it a tractor is a great idea. One of the problems we've had in our stationary coop is that once the grass was gone (and that happened very quickly), the floor is only dirt and they poop on it a lot. And when it rains.....we have a stinky, mucky mess that attracts tons of flies.

We've tried a lot of different things to try to clean ours up, but with a flock of 16 ducks and four chickens, this gets very tricky.

In addition to you not having to worry about a muddy, grassless coop area, the tractor idea you have will especially be helpful to you with your little pool you have for them. I know you only have two ducks, but you'll be surprised at how messy pools can get. We used to have two kiddie pools in our coop and we had to remove them because we just couldn't keep them clean and it made the floors even more muddy. If you haven't already done it, you might consider putting a drain on your pool for easier cleaning.

I just want to pass along the knowledge.

Good luck with getting Missy and Maggie settled in their new space.

 

[Amykins]

I disagree that it's cruel to keep her alone, although being gone 40 hours a week is a problem. Keeping them inside the house isn't the issue, the fact that she was raised in a flock is. I've seen perfectly happy solo pet ducks that were raised alone, never saw another duck in their life. But that's not the case with you, sadly.

You could try a few things out and see how it goes, at this point she seems MUCH more comfortable being in the house than in a coop! You could get her a realistic decoy, that's what I've done and it's worked well in the past. Then again, those were adult wild ducks I was rehabilitating, so take my advice with a grain of salt. You could also set up a webcam to monitor her and see her behavior. If she starts to sulk or refuses food, it's time to get her a buddy.

 

[DUCKOBSESSED]

Or you could get one more hen as an inside duck. I feel like she would be even less happy outside than inside alone. She seems like she has become a house duck.

 

[islandgirl82]

I had a chicken who figured out how to use a pet door and though she slept out in the barn with the rest of the flock, in the mornings when she wanted breakfast she would come into the kitchen to let me know she was ready...would you be able to install one that leads out to a small run attached to the house so she could have the best of both worlds and still be safe while your gone?

 

[DUCKOBSESSED]

That's a really good idea.