Damaging mating?

[RebinNH]

My drake grabs my hens' eye corner and holds tight while mating. When he is done he kind of falls off to one side and does not immediately let go of the hen's eye lid and she squawks as I'm sure it hurts a lot. I also wonder if this might eventually effect the hen's vision. Do others see the same thing and has it been ok?

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

My drake grabs my hens' eye corner and holds tight while mating. When he is done he kind of falls off to one side and does not immediately let go of the hen's eye lid and she squawks as I'm sure it hurts a lot. I also wonder if this might eventually effect the hen's vision. Do others see the same thing and has it been ok?

I have 5 boys but none of them have ever touched the eye area
It’s always the back of the neck
They do fall off the side and hold the neck for the extra few seconds though
Hopefully somebody with experience will be able to chime in
Is he a young drake ? Possibly hasn’t figured out fully how he should do this
What breeds are your hen and drake ?
Do you just have the two of them

 

[RebinNH]

I have muscovy - 2 hens and one drake. They are young - 7 months. I'm concerned that if I try to interfere (as suggested by someone else) that he will start to attack me, like my other drake (who has been re-homed) did. I don't know why he goes after the eye. Perhaps he gets a better grasp on the eye corner.

 

[Isadora]

I have muscovy - 2 hens and one drake. They are young - 7 months. I'm concerned that if I try to interfere (as suggested by someone else) that he will start to attack me, like my other drake (who has been re-homed) did. I don't know why he goes after the eye. Perhaps he gets a better grasp on the eye corner.

If he's only seven months i would say it's improper technique.
He could damage her eye, unfortunately. Hopefully as some time passes and he gets more competent, he'll switch to the neck feathers.

 

[RebinNH]

She is small - maybe half his weight but I have seen him do the same thing to the other female after he had success with this little hen. The larger hen tries her best to run away and often succeeds. I don't know why I seem to raise such brutes! The vet (upon seeing my 2 drakes a few months ago) made the comment that they were almost too robust!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Really there isn’t much you can do other than separate but hopefully as he matures like @Isadora said he’ll have a much better technique.

 

[RebinNH]

Separating is really not an option here. At least not permanently. So do you think as he ages he will let go of a sure thing for a better option for her? I wonder.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s something we don’t know,my Muscovy drake was pretty clumsy when he was young. As he matured he did get better at mating. I wasn’t suggesting you separate he needs to hone his skills and he can’t do that separated.

 

[RebinNH]

Ok. Perhaps the other hen will object more and maybe get him to try something different. At least that is my hope. I think the small hen (with the wet feather) is just too overwhelmed and stressed. She is always allowing and so gets more attention. He also is very possessive of her and now she squawks whenever I come near her. I'm trying that to be more for what she wants (food) than anything I need to do to treat her issues.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I have some very big drakes as well
My Swedish boys are huge compared to my girls
I have some girls that beg for attention and one girl who all the boys gravitate to
And when I do see them go for her I stop them. She knows I have her back as she runs and hides behind me and I firmly say No and they turn around and walk away with their heads down. I haven’t had a drake turn on me for it yet. At the start I would pick them up and hold them for a few mins and they don’t really enjoy being held so now they just give up bugging her lol
But each duck has its own personality and some will respond well and others may not
Hopefully in time he will get it right