Alarming Behavior

[JessMart]

Hello, I'm Jessica. I have 5 ducks; 4 white pekins and 1 rouen. They were all the same age when I bought them and have lives happily until the other day. I awoke to find that my little flock turned on the smallest pekin by plucking all of his feather from his tail to his wings. He is now not walking, he just kinda flops around but he is eating and drinking well. Any thoughts as to why the others would attack him and I may do help him? Thank you

 

[Amiga]

I trust you have separated him!

Ducks are hard to figure sometimes. We get used to them being all sweet and cuddly, then they get aggressive.

Jessica, is that little one the only female? If so, you may need to find her a loving home and just keep the drakes. Hormones will do that. That's what it sounds like to me.

So keep him or her away from the others, give hydrotherapy (half an hour in lukewarm water two or three times a day), safe shelter, fresh water, good food, take a close look for other injuries. If she's not walking, she could have internal injuries, broken bones, or just be beaten up. Ducks can recover but they do not, always.

Thank you for bringing this to the forum. I hope we all can help everybody at your place, duckwise.

 

[JessMart]

Thank you for the response. Yes, I have separated him He is for sure a male, not old enough to have a drake feather but he is the only one we undoubtedly could tell when venting at a couple days old. I know my rouen is a female by her feathers and positive that at least one of the other pekins is a female because she has a very loud honking that she loves to show off, the other two I am just not sure yet. We have him in the house so we can keep an eye on him, feed him and give him bath tub time. He seems to take comfort in being wrapped in a towel on my lap, I have been spoiling him with dark leafy greens, worms and egg shells. I just hope he is not in too much pain.

 

[Zombified]

Do you think maybe your drake-hen ratio is off? The general rule of thumb is two to three hens for every one drake. I have two drakes and two hens for sure, my last one I won't know until her feathers come in. I'm getting three more females once these guys leave to go outside.

How old are your other two?

 

[Going Quackers]

That's terrible. I honestly, have no suggestions, not experienced this. Fighting be tween drakes? yes, the odd time even ducks will go at it while establishing pecking orders.


Yet, it's not ever gone to what you have described.

Some random questions, feed? pen, housing etc... what are the ages of the ducks? i gather younger since a drake feather has yet to appear.

 

[JessMart]

They are all 6 weeks give or take a couple days. It is possible that I may have 3 drakes to 2 hens, just waiting on those drake feathers for sure. We will only be keeping the females for eggs and will be re-homing the drakes.

 

[JessMart]

That's terrible. I honestly, have no suggestions, not experienced this. Fighting be tween drakes? yes, the odd time even ducks will go at it while establishing pecking orders.


Yet, it's not ever gone to what you have described.

Some random questions, feed? pen, housing etc... what are the ages of the ducks? i gather younger since a drake feather has yet to appear.

Feed is Purina flock grower, worms, kitchen scraps (veggies and fruit), eggs shells and grass. We have a homemade pen 8 foot wide by 30 foot long, 4 foot wood paneling enclosed by chicken wire. 80 gallon pond with pump and filter. We weather and duck proofed an old play house that the kids out grew as housing and that is also where their fresh water, food supply, dry bedding and heat lamp are located. They are 6 weeks give or take a couple days.

 

[Going Quackers]

You sound like you have it down perfectly. Could be ratio issues but at only 6wks i find that odd, why? well.. for example, i have 4 right now that are the youngest 'scovies, they will be 11wks tomorrow and Thursday, they still roam together, house together( a small stall) but they are 3 drakes and 1 ducks, they have the odd tussles but no worse than children toddlers do.

Even last year my one hatch of 9 was 1 duck, 8 drakes again they all managed to get along no injuries or anything like you have spoken of. Separation will have to be done, which i am not a huge fan of as ducks are flock animals, i have only separated once and that bird had been attacked by a coon, this was in the early days of our duck owing. See if you can section off an area where the attacked duck can see/speak to the others while it recovers.

I wish i could provide you with some better insight but this is not something i have encountered.

 

[my sunwolf]

Something that jumped into my head is maybe your small drake victim became ill or unwell and then the others jumped on him and attacked him. Or is that just chicken behavior? Of course, it could also just be the bigger drakes picking on him, as others have mentioned.

 

[Going Quackers]

Something that jumped into my head is maybe your small drake victim became ill or unwell and then the others jumped on him and attacked him. Or is that just chicken behavior? Of course, it could also just be the bigger drakes picking on him, as others have mentioned.

I believe that is a chicken thing, i have a bit of an accident prone young one in the newest batch, ripped his nail off recently and that was blood everywhere no one attacked him nor even paid any mind to it.

That said some ducks are just bullies, sadly personality can just be overly aggressive even from a young age, i don't think it's heavily common but at the same time not unusual.