I have a Buff from Metzer. She's beautiful and pretty well-tempered. She is always the first to come right up to me and eat out of my hand or sit on my lap. She is a lot smaller than my cayuga, if that's gives you a good scale to compare.
This is her (that's not an actual crown on her...
Hi all. I have a pair of 8 week old ducks that will soon be living outside with three older sisters. The younger ducks are still on 18% protein feed, but my older ones are on layer feed. What should I do to make sure the younger ducks get enough protein, while making sure the older ones don't...
Make sure the area is clean. A similar thing happened to my black Swedish last winter; I came out one day and her bill was all scraped up. Nothing too deep, but I wanted to be careful. I brought her inside for a warm bath, cleaned the area, and then I put neosporin on it (I've read that it's...
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I put a video of her panting on YouTube so that other people can see what I'm talking about. This was taken a week or two ago.
She has regular access to a water dish deep enough to clear her nares, and her eyes seem fine to me. She just seems like she's always struggling to breathe. I...
Hi @Miss Lydia . Sorry for the late response, I've been renovating my duck area! I'm pretty sure it isn't a stress thing. She is still panting as of now (6 week old pekin female. Still housed indoors with one other female). She does it in her brooder when she's laying down; even though the heat...
Update: Her bill is fine now, no more peeling. Phew. As for her quick breathing, it's still happening. I never see her do it when she's in her brooder, but when they're snuggling on my lap she starts to breathe really quickly. I even have a fan blowing on us right now, and she's still breathing...
There's a great thread for this. I don't know how to add the link, but if you search "Duck Houses" it should be the first one that pops up. I got a TON of ideas from this thread.
The only really loud duck I've gotten from Metzer is my cayuga (I also got a welsh, black swedish and a buff). She is SO loud whenever she gets excited. My other ducks are pretty quiet aside from her.
Usually Metzer has breed descriptions, have you checked those out? It might give you a better idea.
Shredded newspaper might not be a good idea to use as bedding because it will get sopping wet, and will probably cause a bigger mess than something like pine shavings. For my waterer, I just put less pine shavings around that area so there are less wet ones. Hope this helps.
I'm almost positive they aren't nervous when I hold them. They've cuddled with me everyday, multiple times for about a week now . I'm pretty sure they've imprinted on me too, so I don't think they would be nervous when they're sitting on my lap.
They have a heating pad that they usually sleep...
My ducks lay during the winter too; although their egg production does decrease a little bit. At first I thought it was weird, but I don't think it's harming them at all, so I just go with it. Laying is usually induced by amount of daylight and temperature. Mine live in a garage, so they have...