Can you neuter a drake?

[Sfraker]

I took Ferd to a Avian certified vet that is about an hour away from my house. My regular duck vet referred me to her for a second opinion before we went forward with the implant. She was worried that since the shot wore off so fast the implant would do the same.

The new vet recomended a product called Releaves. She does not have first hand experience with it and was not convinced it would help but some of her clients swear by it. She also recomended I try 1mg of melatonin at 2pm each day. I can up the dose until it works. If Ferd gets sleepy it is too much, I need to find the line between sleepy and settled down. The other options are an implant that can last up to 6 months but runs $250 each time or neutering. For the surgery I would have to take him to the Vet School in Georgia and it would be done with a scope and is cost prohibitive. I didn't even ask how much.

I have melatonin at home already for my daughter so I tried that first. We started it on Saturday 6/27 and so far I have only seen Ferd breeding one time and it was much gentler. In the past everytime I looked out at the ducks he was chasing someone unless I had him seperated. He is much mellower and even snuggled with me for a long time last night. Usually he would snuggle for a minute or two then head off to chase someone for breeding. My male guinea is even nicer to Ferd now that he isn't causing so much chaos. They do not appear to be mortal enemies anymore.

Keep your fingers crossed that this continues to work. Ferd did some serious damage to my up and coming WH drake. The poor thing has been having a tough time walking for the last 5 days now. He is slowly getting better day by day. If the melatonin doesn't work I may have to rehome Ferd. He is not happy alone so seperating him is hard on him and he is just too big for my little WH's when it comes to breeding.

 

[Debs Flock]

@Sfraker

I'd be doing exactly the same thing in your situation. Melatonin is probably least likely to cause Ferd issues, too. Poor randy duck!

Please continue to update. I'll be thinking about all of you.

 

[mirandaleecon]

Hello! I have a drake that has been pretty aggressive but more with the people in my household. I was looking for some options and I came across this thread. Can you give an update on how your drake is doing? I think I'm going to try the melatonin tonight and I'm going to call my vet about the lutalyse...

 

[Sfraker]

We were giving him 3mg of Melatonin per day. He is breeding much, much less but he is still to hard on the girls when he does breed. I think it's more of a size difference issue now, he is double their weight and quite a bit bigger. The new drakes are starting to come of age and wanting to breed which is causing Ferd to come running and pull them of the girls in a rather rough fashion. For right now I have him in his own seperate area of the pen. He's not happy about it but I will keep him there until I decide which one of my three new drakes I am keeping for breeding. I will give the others away and that should settle things down with Ferd quite a bit, leaving me with a much better drake to duck ratio.

I think that if I didn't have 13 new ducks coming into breeding age the Melatonin would be enough. It was working until the new drakes started getting "randy" then it all went you know where in a handbasket.

 

[mirandaleecon]

We were giving him 3mg of Melatonin per day. He is breeding much, much less but he is still to hard on the girls when he does breed. I think it's more of a size difference issue now, he is double their weight and quite a bit bigger. The new drakes are starting to come of age and wanting to breed which is causing Ferd to come running and pull them of the girls in a rather rough fashion. For right now I have him in his own seperate area of the pen. He's not happy about it but I will keep him there until I decide which one of my three new drakes I am keeping for breeding. I will give the others away and that should settle things down with Ferd quite a bit, leaving me with a much better drake to duck ratio.

I think that if I didn't have 13 new ducks coming into breeding age the Melatonin would be enough. It was working until the new drakes started getting "randy" then it all went you know where in a handbasket.

I think I'm going to try the melatonin then. He isn't terrible but he has given me quite a few bruises on the backs of my legs and other people I live with. I have figured out how to deal with him but nobody else has the patience to teach him that he can't bully them. I'm worried they will eventually want me to get rid of him..
How are you giving him the melatonin? All I have right now are the dissolvable tablets. Not sure the dose but I have a small scale, I could do the math to figure out how much. Just not sure how to administer it...

 

[Sfraker]

I crush it up and sprinkle it on meal worms and he eats it right up.

 

[DisneyDuckies]

We were giving him 3mg of Melatonin per day. He is breeding much, much less but he is still to hard on the girls when he does breed. I think it's more of a size difference issue now, he is double their weight and quite a bit bigger. The new drakes are starting to come of age and wanting to breed which is causing Ferd to come running and pull them of the girls in a rather rough fashion. For right now I have him in his own seperate area of the pen. He's not happy about it but I will keep him there until I decide which one of my three new drakes I am keeping for breeding. I will give the others away and that should settle things down with Ferd quite a bit, leaving me with a much better drake to duck ratio.

I think that if I didn't have 13 new ducks coming into breeding age the Melatonin would be enough. It was working until the new drakes started getting "randy" then it all went you know where in a handbasket.

I am very sad reading this. I am having a similar issue with my Pekin drake injuring my Welshie. He's not at it all of the time but shes SO much smaller than him, she mostly lays around and refuses to get into the pool because thats when he goes after her. She's been limping lately and I feel absolutely awful for her. I think we may have to send him to our friends farm to have his own pekin girlfriend My daughter is going to freak out if this ends up being our only option. We love him dearly and he is so friendly but I don't have enough property to keep them apart.

 

[Amiga]

I am very sad reading this. I am having a similar issue with my Pekin drake injuring my Welshie. He's not at it all of the time but shes SO much smaller than him, she mostly lays around and refuses to get into the pool because thats when he goes after her. She's been limping lately and I feel absolutely awful for her. I think we may have to send him to our friends farm to have his own pekin girlfriend My daughter is going to freak out if this ends up being our only option. We love him dearly and he is so friendly but I don't have enough property to keep them apart.

You do have them separated, yes? Her life depends on you protecting her. Even if it's less than ideal space-wise, she has to be protected. This can kill her.

 

[DisneyDuckies]

You do have them separated, yes? Her life depends on you protecting her. Even if it's less than ideal space-wise, she has to be protected. This can kill her.

No, I do not. Like I said, its not all of the time, its just when she gets in the pool that he tries to mate with her, so she has been staying out of them. I think I am going to separate them tomorrow. I have no idea how I am going to do this though. I built a small coop for them that they get locked in at night and they free range in our privately fenced backyard during the day.

 

[Amiga]

I know you'll be able to get something set up. Bean goes through phases when he won't leave Romy alone, so I put Romy in with the Runners and let Bean and two Buff girls be. That works. Not ideal, but it works, and usually during the winter Bean mellows out.