Hi everyone!
I’m Amanda, and while I’m new to the forum I’ve used this site for some time when researching various poultry / waterfowl medical info for work. And it’s been incredibly useful!
We’ve recently adopted two ducklings of our own for our backyard - they were about 4 weeks old in mid May when we got them, so they’d be about 12-14 weeks now. Since we got them, they first slept in a crate with the door closed, but now sleep in a sectioned off area of our patio, with the crate still there and the door open. Seems like they sleep in the crate, but sometimes not. Anyway, we have a lovey little coop for them in our garden area, but they just will NOT settle down in there! We’ve tried letting them have access to it during the day, herding them in when they’re sleepy to try to have them nap in there, after dinner at dusk always herding them in there and sitting with them...and they just hate it.
The one who’s particularly worked up is a female mallard. The Pekin could really care less, but the mallard just nervous peeps and peeps constantly until we take them back to the patio (because let’s face it, we need to sleep too...)
Any advice?? We’re going to try putting their blankets and crate in there to see if that helps. The mallard has in general pretty bad separation anxiety, but that’s gotten a bit better lately. Any help would be appreciated! Please note these are our pets and not for food, although we will use the eggs.
Thanks for reading!
I’m Amanda, and while I’m new to the forum I’ve used this site for some time when researching various poultry / waterfowl medical info for work. And it’s been incredibly useful!
We’ve recently adopted two ducklings of our own for our backyard - they were about 4 weeks old in mid May when we got them, so they’d be about 12-14 weeks now. Since we got them, they first slept in a crate with the door closed, but now sleep in a sectioned off area of our patio, with the crate still there and the door open. Seems like they sleep in the crate, but sometimes not. Anyway, we have a lovey little coop for them in our garden area, but they just will NOT settle down in there! We’ve tried letting them have access to it during the day, herding them in when they’re sleepy to try to have them nap in there, after dinner at dusk always herding them in there and sitting with them...and they just hate it.
The one who’s particularly worked up is a female mallard. The Pekin could really care less, but the mallard just nervous peeps and peeps constantly until we take them back to the patio (because let’s face it, we need to sleep too...)
Any advice?? We’re going to try putting their blankets and crate in there to see if that helps. The mallard has in general pretty bad separation anxiety, but that’s gotten a bit better lately. Any help would be appreciated! Please note these are our pets and not for food, although we will use the eggs.
Thanks for reading!
