*~*Runner Duck Club*~*

[Tevyes Dad]

My babies are getting so big, they are only a couple of months old and almost fully feathered! Since adding them into the pen with my Cayuga and Rouen baby, they have lost their personable nature and move in a flock mentality, is this normal? They went from being sweet and loving to being total stand offs overnight.
This is me and "Nugget" my F&W runner just 3-4 weeks ago.

This is a very normal thing. In the wild ducks focus on their mom until they are fully feathered. After that, they are on their own. They will make new friendships that have nothing to do with when they were a duckling. They may love their mom or their brooder mates, they may not. So what you have now are brand new ducks. (The ducklings have flown the coop so to speak.) If you spend the time with them and gain their trust and they associate you with good things (treats - swims - protection), they will become loving ducks. But right now they are probably scared of you. As ducklings, you were mom and that overrides everything. The day they woke up as ducks, they realize that you are a human and not a duck (you are still mom, but that no longer matters). They don't know if they can trust a human yet.

The love of a duckling is automatic but fleeting. The love of a duck is much more difficult to win, but is forever and is very rewarding. We have three ducklings right now who will probably give us the cold shoulder in a couple weeks. It will be very sad, but I am looking forward to making friends with them over the summer. I have 12 adult ducks and about 2/3 of them are very friendly with me and none of them are scared of me. All our relationships are individual and have nothing to do with what the other ducks do. When they were first feathered, all of them were scared to death of me and before that all of them were snuggle bugs. So offer treats. Get them eating out of your hand. Get them to accept your touch. One step at a time.

 

[NDgoatgirlNV]

Thank you! I have 4 adult ducks and two (muscovys) are very loving and trusting of me, the other 2 don't pay much attention to my presence, but aren't afraid of me. Hopefully these 4 babies will learn to trust me too.

 

[AngelHamblin]

Wonderful! I got pretty lucky.3 runners out of the tsc mixed ducklings. Thank you

your welcome. Tractor supply was selling black runners funny thing is they were not supposed to be selling runners at all! It was not advertised as one of the ducks they were selling. Heheh!

 

[Ducks4us]

your welcome. Tractor supply was selling black runners funny thing is they were not supposed to be selling runners at all! It was not advertised as one of the ducks they were selling. Heheh!

I know, same with my store. They told me they only had pekin, rouen,mallard and khakis
I ended up with a black swedish, 3 runners, and a saxony! They told me my black ones were mallards and the saxony and light colored runner they said were khakis. But im quite happy with my outcome!

 

[TwoDogFarm]

My babies are getting so big, they are only a couple of months old and almost fully feathered! Since adding them into the pen with my Cayuga and Rouen baby, they have lost their personable nature and move in a flock mentality, is this normal? They went from being sweet and loving to being total stand offs overnight.

This is me and "Nugget" my F&W runner just 3-4 weeks ago.

Unfortunately, we have experienced this as well and it was with one of my favorite runner babies who was a rescue a couple of years ago and followed me everywhere until she met the flock.

Try this: If yours have eaten out of your hand in the past, see if you can squat down low near them with food in your hand and call them to you. While they're preoccupied with eating treats, you may be able to touch them too and they may show the others that it is okay. That has worked well for us for my last four runner babies we got last year once they were added to the flock. Of course, they were added to an adult flock once they were about 16 weeks old so I'm not sure if that made the difference or not. It's worth a try.

 

[TwoDogFarm]

We plan on separating them and giving them each a female. But now its starting to look like two males a female. Makes a face idk what to think!

Make sure you also remember that numbers are important with ducks and drakes. That had gotten us in trouble. It isn't advised to only have one drake to one duck because he will overmate her and potentially hurt her. I think the ideal number is one drake to 6-8 ducks.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Thank you! I have 4 adult ducks and two (muscovys) are very loving and trusting of me, the other 2 don't pay much attention to my presence, but aren't afraid of me. Hopefully these 4 babies will learn to trust me too.

You are welcome. The majority of my ducks are 2 years old now. The ones who are super friendly with us continue to be so. The ones who have been more distant are still making progress. Just recently Noir (our Black Runner) who has traditionally been shy is coming up and seeing us when we don't have treats. Up until a year ago Greta (our Black Swedish) would have nothing to do with us unless we had treats. She still runs like a crazy duck if we try to pick her up, but otherwise she walks up to us and gives us friendly pecks and if we put our hands down to her she will give us finger nibbles. She will stand / lie down close to us and just watch us, or go to sleep. She has become completely sweet!

 

[AimToMisbehave]

My babies are getting so big, they are only a couple of months old and almost fully feathered! Since adding them into the pen with my Cayuga and Rouen baby, they have lost their personable nature and move in a flock mentality, is this normal? They went from being sweet and loving to being total stand offs overnight.

This is me and "Nugget" my F&W runner just 3-4 weeks ago.

It happened with mine too, when I first put the babies out with the bigguns. Not only that, but the whole flock got all flighty for a while after the meeting! Like the babies lowered the IQ of the whole group and they wouldn't come when I called them anymore! They settled back down after a couple weeks, and they all follow me around and come when I call and eat out of my hands again now, but it did take a minute after the babies joined the group.

 

[jessnd12414]

I cannot say for certain - it could be a parasite. Or it could be an infected nictitating membrane.

In either case, this is serious and needs to be treated.

Do you have a vet? Because I suspect this will not need a duck expert to diagnose and treat. It would be helpful if you can find a vet somewhat familiar with poultry of some sort, but this is clearly an urgent situation.

So, does the duck regularly wash his or her head in water? As in, several times a day?

Things you can do (this does not replace a vet visit) include rinsing the eye several times a day with a mild saline solution, or getting eye gel and using that two or three times a day. If it is a parasite, you'll need more than an antimicrobial to get rid of it, I would think (I am not a vet). But the eye or membrane are definitely inflamed (I am stating the obvious, I know).

You can also be sure the duck is in as low-stress an environment as possible. Separated from rowdy flock members, poultry vitamins twice a week in the water, some high-quality treats, like a tablespoon of cat kibble, or some meal worms, some sprouted wheat seeds, a tablespoon of peas.

I did take her to the vet, but with no success i do not have a vet anywhere near me with experience with poultry. i treated it on my own with vet rx and Vetericyn gel, it is now cleared up but i do think she lost eyesite in that eye, her eye is now cloudy, i kept her isolated inside my house for 2 weeks and she loved it lol she got spoiled. she is now back out with the flock acting normal.i still have no idea what it was.

 

[room onthebroom]

Hmmm, Runner and Buff (duck?) you say..... I hope you get at least two Runners and a Buff. Welcome to the world of stompy, stompy, stomp.

Do Runners generally need more than one Runner?