Calling all seasoned duck owners out there! ***Help** Please read!

[candigrl2k3]

Hi everyone,

looking for some help! We are newer duck owners, since April of this year. We have 2 Muscovy's, 4 Peking , and 4 Runners.

One of the Pekings has been limping for a couple weeks, but she still ate plenty and seemed happy. Well this morning we found her dead and it looked like her bum had fallen out. I apologize, i do not have pictures, but it looked like her insides came out of her bum. We thought maybe one of our turkeys could have squished her, but then we saw our drake runner attacking the drake Muscovy and to make it worse, the female Muscovy was joining in with the drake runner attacking the drake Muscovy. We separated the male Muscovy from the rest of the flock, for fear we would find him dead when we got home. We out him in our small bird area.

So here are my questions,

Why is the drake runner being so aggressive right now?
Could the drake runner have killed the hurt Peking?
Should we separate the drake runner from the flock and not the drake Muscovy?
Does this aggressiveness become a permanent thing or is it just because the drake runner is reaching his sexual maturity?

What would have made the Peking bum fall out? Could she have been sick and this had nothing to do with the drake runner?


Let me give you the run down our avian family,

• 15 free range hens
• 2 free range Turkeys
• 4 Runner Ducks/ 7 months old (1 drake in the bunch)
• 4 Peking Ducks/ 7 months old ( we think they are all girls) and now we only have 3
• 2 Muscovy ducks, (1 drake, 1 girl)

We built a small bird habitat with a netting ceiling for our smaller birds:

• 5 Silkie hens
• 2 D'uccle hens
• 2 turkeys (younger)
• 4 Quails (2 boys, 2 girls)
• 1 pigeon

Thanks you for reading my questions, I hope to hear some advice soon!

Candi

 

[CMV]

Your pekin died of a prolapse. This happens sometimes. The other birds probably picked her to death after it happened. This also happens sometimes unless you get the prolapsed bird out of harm's way immediately. The flock pecking order has been disrupted by the loss of a flock member, so your other birds are reacting to this loss. If your drake is reaching sexual maturity at this point, he is probably not helping matters by acting like a randy teenage boy with no upbringing. He is going to try to establish himself in the wake of this upheaval. His personality change may be permanent, or he may mellow out in time. You can never tell until it happens. I, personally, would not separate any birds unless there is a real problem. I would let them work things out for themselves if at all possible.