9 weeks old Mallard following its own tail

[arnaromarsson]

Hey there,

My mallard, that now lives outside in a hut I build for it, has started to run in circles. It's clearly trying to reach something on its undertail. My thought was a tick or something like that. It's been doing this on and off now for a couple of days and seems to really bother the little fella. I've attached a little video. It does this circular movement everywhere, not just while in the hut. We also checked out its butt and it seems fine, but red-ish.

Anyone has any advise to offer?

 

[arnaromarsson]

I should add that

• It has been alone since hatching, but we have been very social with it.
• It goes outside every day for some flying sessions
• It has access to water to swim in 24/7.
• The sleeping quarters are insulated
• We're feeding it a vitamin rich food + some dried meal worms and slugs and insects that it grabs from the ground.
• It has been sleeping out there now for 5 nights.
• We have noticed small ants in its hut that might also be the problem