Biting Duckling - hurting the others

[donnavee]

I have 8 ducklings that are now 1 mo old. 2 Magpies, 3 BEIs, 2 Cayugas, 1 Blue Swedish. They have gotten along great until a few days ago when I noticed some of the ducklings missing feathers on their wing tips - to the point of raw skin showing and in some cases bleeding. Then we noticed one of the Magpies constantly nips at the others and has no missing feathers. They have plenty of room, but at that point I decided to let them free range during the day hoping it would help. It has not - this morning I noticed the other Magpie had a bloody wing again. I have now put the culprit in with some of the adult ducks who aren't bothering it but it isn't happy. I know it is probably a dominance thing and this Magpie may be a male - it is larger than the other one - but it is actually causing injury to the others.

Is this normal behavior? If so, what is the best way to deal with it? I'm almost ready to put the little nipper on Craig's List.

 

[duckyfromoz]

Free ranging during the day will not help boredom at night. Was he biting during the day as well when out free ranging? Once grown he may not bite - can you keep him separated at night as well for a few days to see if he might settle down?

 

[DurhamDuck]

Quote:
A time out. Separate him for a week and let the others heal. Then reintroduce him. Time alone can often straighten out bad behavior in a duck because they are social animals.

 

[chicmom]

I would spank him, or bite him back.....OH sorry! It's a duckling......

 

[donnavee]

Quote:
Yes, he does bite while free ranging as well, most of it is directed toward the other Magpie, which if the biter is the male, should be the female. I have separated "Nipper" and will keep him away from the others day and night for about a week. He is in with 2 BEI adults, a drake and female, who are largely ignoring him. Though the drake couldn't resist giving him a few runs around the pen. If that doesn't work out, we will have to section off an area so he is completely alone.

 

[DuckiesAndBees]

I'm in a similar situation with my ducklings, though it doesn't seem as bad. I found a pin feather that had been pulled out (I'm assuming not just lost because it had blood on the tip) and one of my pekins kept grabbing at the other two ducklings, especially the other pekin. I would be interested to know if your time out method worked, donnavee. I hate to separate him because he's already the most skiddish, but I don't want him hurting the other guys.

 

[donnavee]

Quote:
We are still in time out - I think I will try to reintroduce on Wed. For the 1st couple of days, I tried letting it have morning snacks with the others, but after about 10 minutes, it started nipping a little. So we immediately removed him/her from the rest. These are the 1st ducks we have raised from babies so their behavior totally caught us off guard. We have some adult bantam ducks and we put the biter in with them. It is still a bit lonely though since he wants to be with it's original flock.
I'll update you on how things are going on Wed. The other ducks wings have healed and feathers are coming back in.

 

[donnavee]

Well, I tried to reintroduce a day early on Tue and there was a big reunion - I watched for a while and all seemed fine. We had to run a few errands and were gone for about an hour. When we returned, the other Magpie had a bloody wing again. He didnt' seem to bother the other 6 ducks. So, we put him back with the adult ducks during the day and in a screened off part of our greenhouse at night. We also have 8 call ducklings that we hatched out that are 2wks younger than the Magpies and Cayugas and they sleep in the front part of the greenhouse at night and roam around outside of it during the day. When we put him in the greenhouse Tue night, he started "crying" and somehow got through the fence we had made and joined the little ducklings. The little ones all ran up and started nibbling on him and he seemed very startled but didn't try to bite back. We monitored them for a couple of hours and they seemed to like him and he was happy to have company. So today, he got along great with the little ones and it really looks funny watching them together since he weighs maybe 5lbs and they are lucky to weigh 5 ozs. In this situation, he can't see the other ducks so maybe he will forget his nasty habit by the time we start integrating all the ducks together. Of course, I also have a brood BEI duck who is due to hatch next week. A year ago, we had no ducks - I'm not sure what happened. Obviously, we have to take out an ad on Craigs list - soon