I'm new to ducks, this spring we decided to purchase a small flock of muscovy mail order to raise as meat birds (hubby's idea)
AND a smaller flock of cayuga to raise as egg birds (my idea, I'm allergic to chicken eggs). So we have a larger group of muscovy and one cayuga male, three females. We already had a flock of chickens.
We got the cayuga at age one to three weeks old, whereas the muscovy were just a couple of days old. The muscovy are quite friendly and our chickens are friendly, so I think we know how to raise friendly poultry.
The cayugas however would NEVER eat from our hands and would only come near enough to eat food from the ground around us. They are submissive to the other birds, even the chickens and never let themselves be caught. They stick to their own kind. If we do need to catch them for some reason, they make a huge fuss and don't calm down until we leave them be, so it is hard to try to handle them more, it seems to upset them so much. I've even tried hand feeding them when I knew they were very hungry, and they just will go hungry rather than eat from my hand. Previously people told me to try peas or other treats. I have tried every food the other birds enjoy and these cayugas just won't be bribed whereas we have won over the other birds. The closest I've gotten to them with food is perhaps a couple of feet away, even sitting with them for over an hour when they were embarassingly hungry.
The funny thing is they really enjoy seeing us coming, either to turn on their water system or to bring food, they quack every time and do come to greet us with the other birds, but don't come very close. They don't quack when they see predators approach so I think it is a happy sound. So far the only way I've made them thrilled is to throw sunflower seeds in their pond, but that still doesn't get them very close to me and I AIN'T standing in the duck pond to win them over.
I think they are my prettiest and least troublesome birds however and would love to know how to make friends with them! Ideas?
AND a smaller flock of cayuga to raise as egg birds (my idea, I'm allergic to chicken eggs). So we have a larger group of muscovy and one cayuga male, three females. We already had a flock of chickens.
We got the cayuga at age one to three weeks old, whereas the muscovy were just a couple of days old. The muscovy are quite friendly and our chickens are friendly, so I think we know how to raise friendly poultry.
The cayugas however would NEVER eat from our hands and would only come near enough to eat food from the ground around us. They are submissive to the other birds, even the chickens and never let themselves be caught. They stick to their own kind. If we do need to catch them for some reason, they make a huge fuss and don't calm down until we leave them be, so it is hard to try to handle them more, it seems to upset them so much. I've even tried hand feeding them when I knew they were very hungry, and they just will go hungry rather than eat from my hand. Previously people told me to try peas or other treats. I have tried every food the other birds enjoy and these cayugas just won't be bribed whereas we have won over the other birds. The closest I've gotten to them with food is perhaps a couple of feet away, even sitting with them for over an hour when they were embarassingly hungry.
The funny thing is they really enjoy seeing us coming, either to turn on their water system or to bring food, they quack every time and do come to greet us with the other birds, but don't come very close. They don't quack when they see predators approach so I think it is a happy sound. So far the only way I've made them thrilled is to throw sunflower seeds in their pond, but that still doesn't get them very close to me and I AIN'T standing in the duck pond to win them over.
I think they are my prettiest and least troublesome birds however and would love to know how to make friends with them! Ideas?
