3 adult ducks , can they adjust?

[healingbetter]

Hi everyone,
I have a question for my duck people. We recently re homed 2 white peking ducks. They were supposed to be 5 mos. old but look like 3-4 years old and they do not swim as well because they were on a farm like environment. They appear to be a boy and girl but we were told they were 2 boys. They are deficient in nutrition and lack
nice orange beaks like Mindy. I could be wrong is the male with a curley tail and the female is straighter???
Mindy has been around them for 2 weeks and still avoids them and hides. Is this normal behavior? I have raised her since 2 days old and the other 2 ducks have been also raised since that age by someone else and they do not bite and can be picked up as well like Mindy... Do you think they can adjust to each other???
I think I have 2 males and 1 female, if the curls are males from what I remember. Can anyone fill me in. The new ducks get along with dogs and other animals as well.
I do not want to rehome them but want friends for Mindy , she is 6 years old.
Anyone have any advice, Please ? healingbetter

 

[PirateGirl]

Ducks can take awhile to warm up to each other and become "friends." As long as they aren't fighting, I would give them more time to adjust.

You are correct in that the ducks with curled tails are males and straight tails are females.

 

[healingbetter]

Ducks can take awhile to warm up to each other and become "friends." As long as they aren't fighting, I would give them more time to adjust.

You are correct in that the ducks with curled tails are males and straight tails are females.

Well, when I put them together they chase her and she fights with the smaller one and the bigger one if he can catch her, he grabs her feathers and pulls her

 

[PirateGirl]

Set them up in a way that they can see each other but not touch each other for the next week or two. If they are ignoring each other through the fence you can try putting them together again. Duck integration can take awhile.

 

[Duckfarmer1]

Sometimes the paler bill might indicate they are actually white layers...they typically come in the same batches at TS...you do want to take this slow, for all three of there sakes. At night I would separate them...during the day, they can be together, but, keep an eye. It does take a looong time. This situation might take longer than normal since she is the only one. But, I have had up to 51 ducks at one time...they all integrated well together....good luck

 

[CoriM]

One thing I've learned from reading posts here (and I don't have a drake so I'm not an expert) is that two drakes need many more females. Your little girl could be overmated and it could harm her. You need to protect her, and think about getting a bunch more female ducks, or possibly getting rid of one or both males if it turns out to be a bad situation for Mindy.

 

[DuckyDonna]

One thing I've learned from reading posts here (and I don't have a drake so I'm not an expert) is that two drakes need many more females. Your little girl could be overmated and it could harm her. You need to protect her, and think about getting a bunch more female ducks, or possibly getting rid of one or both males if it turns out to be a bad situation for Mindy.

 

[Duckfarmer1]

One thing I've learned from reading posts here (and I don't have a drake so I'm not an expert) is that two drakes need many more females. Your little girl could be overmated and it could harm her. You need to protect her, and think about getting a bunch more female ducks, or possibly getting rid of one or both males if it turns out to be a bad situation for Mindy.

This is true, but I didn’t want to mention it yet. See how they integrate first...then, if there is a dominant drake, he may have to go, or you’ll need to get more females to meet the demand, so no one gets hurt...but, just work on them being able to like each other at this point.

 

[PirateGirl]

How are they doing? Any improvement?

 

[johntfs]

This is true, but I didn’t want to mention it yet. See how they integrate first...then, if there is a dominant drake, he may have to go, or you’ll need to get more females to meet the demand, so no one gets hurt...but, just work on them being able to like each other at this point.

Figure part of it is to make sure that the "dominant drake" is the human cartaker/owner of the ducks. Still not a real owner, but one point that gets made a lot is that ducks are very social animals and need a fairly stable social structure.