Bonding With Ducks

[Lifeiseasy]

Hello! I'm rather new to both BYC and owning birds. I have six chickens, a goose, and three Cayuga ducklings. I love all my birds and most of them like me back. I have one problem though. My wonderful Cayugas seemed to have really bonded with my goose and act like I'm going to kill them except when I bring them peas. I still can't get close to them though, treats or not. I know people say just let ducks be ducks but I can't easily catch them if I might need to. Does anyone have any tips? They are around 6-7 weeks old by now and I've interacted with them daily but it isn't doing much. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[gal5150]

I'm from the school of thought that handling, whether they like it or not, is a must. Does it stress them out in the beginning? Yep. But I'd rather stress a healthy bird then stress a sick or injured bird by handling them for the first time when they're already not doing great. My advice, find a way to calmly herd them into a space where you can begin handling them daily. The point is to show them that handling doesn't result in anything negative other than possibly annoyance. They will learn this over time and it'll be a huge help if/when you need to do healthcheck up's, foot checks, etc. The only thing to do is to just do it! And treats after light handling can't hurt, either . If you can handle your goose, even better. Monkey see, monkey do. If they see that the goose isn't bothered by you that could help a lot. Good luck and go for it!

 

[Lifeiseasy]

Thank you so much . I will try to do as you suggest.The goose doesn't let me handle her much but sometimes she will come up to me and let me pet her for a second. She is the friendliest out of the group. I will definitely keep feeding them treats especially after handling them. Hopefully they will get better soon .

 

[gal5150]

Awesome! Update on how it's going!

 

[Lifeiseasy]

I will!

 

[Lifeiseasy]

It went okay today considering I was able to pick up all of them. Only one of them trusted me enough for treats again though. It's definitely going to take a really long time for them to be friendly to me, probably a couple of months.

 

[gal5150]

Yay! I think you'll be surprised, though. They're all individuals, so you'll get a chance to really see their individual personalities. Sounds like you've already found your hedonist . Can't wait to hear how it comes along!

 

[Lifeiseasy]

I can't wait until I can easily tell them apart by their personalities. Right now it's mainly just by size. I do know the bigger one is my foodie while the middle one really likes water and the small one is really sweet when she is picked up. She is also insanely agile and hard to catch. That's about it though and they're still really young so it will probably change.

 

[Lifeiseasy]

"Things must always get worse before they can get better," definitely seems to be true right now. I gave them some peas and two of them ate out of my hand. Then I tried to handle them and it went okay but it was a struggle to catch them. One of them even jumped straight out of my arms. After I handled all of them I went to give them some peas again and none of them even came close to me .

 

[Kiki to Nana]

Ya know, when I first got mine I was told that too much interaction could be dangerous for behavioral or dependency reasons. But I didn't care I held my ducks hours a day and when I wasn't holding them they would be laying next to me. They were in the house for 4-5 months. Even still they don't like me coming by them and will charge me or quack, run as fast as they can but once I get them and sit down they are well behaved and don't mind being handled.

I think you just take it as it is, I think it's a sign that they can do it on their own and you should assume you've raised them right .

We discovered that ours have a love for blueberries and come running to us once they hear the plastic sound. It's funny but it still allows us to connect with them without forcing them to love us lol.