Duck acting weird! Help please!

[whynotpoultry]

One of my ducks is acting differently than the rest of the flock. When she walks around she has her has close to her body, her back feathers are ruffled and she quacks nonstop, she wiggles her tail back and forth. The other duck and 2 drakes are fine, no changes at all. Dolly, that's her name, is really starting to concern me. She is fearful and I don't know why. My only guess is our rooster may be giving her a hard time, but I'm not positive. Does anyone by chance know what this means? It's constant for about a week now. Thanks!!

 

[Amiga]

I think a spell checker did something to your sentence. Could you write again what she is doing?

I would get her into her own safe space tonight, give her a lukewarm bath deep enough to float in to observe her. Any signs of injury, missing feathers, how does her vent look, eyes, nares, odors, poop, anything.

Keeping her separate temporarily might help her if it's another animal harassing her.

Then let's go from there.

I will likely be signing off in a little while, but I will check back in a few.

 

[whynotpoultry]

Hi, her head is close to her body so her neck isn't up. I'll try and separate her now. Thank you so much!

 

[jdywntr]

One of my ducks is acting differently than the rest of the flock. When she walks around she has her has close to her body, her back feathers are ruffled and she quacks nonstop, she wiggles her tail back and forth. The other duck and 2 drakes are fine, no changes at all. Dolly, that's her name, is really starting to concern me. She is fearful and I don't know why. My only guess is our rooster may be giving her a hard time, but I'm not positive. Does anyone by chance know what this means? It's constant for about a week now. Thanks!!

How old are they?
This could be a result of molting, egg laying, mating, and many other things.

Is it correct that you have 2 ducks, 2 drakes?

 

[whynotpoultry]

They will be a year old in July. Yes, 2 males and 2 females. The girls are laying. And they rounes.

 

[whynotpoultry]

Grrr they are rounes.

 

[Amiga]

Okay, good. First, welcome to the Duck Forum.

With two drakes and two ducks (females), you may be seeing a situation where both drakes are mating with her too much. That happens pretty regularly.

So keeping her to herself, or better, separating boys from girls till you get this sorted out, may actually save her life.

Now, some ducks, when their hormones are raging (I learned this from my runners), do this weird thing with their necks, they kind of S their necks, and chatter, moving their heads down and to the side again, and again, and a again in rapid succession. From what I have been able to make out, it is some kind of statement about their relationship with another duck or ducks. Like being a fan of the other duck, or in my case sometimes a few of my ducks come up to me that way. It is not a bad thing, seems to me.

Anyway back to your duck.

If there is any way you can video her little habit, that would help.

I think the important thing is for your drakes to be separate from your females, and for us to consider the whole situation. I hope others will come in on this discussion, soon.

Please try the bath so you can look her over real well.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

...



Now, some ducks, when their hormones are raging (I learned this from my runners), do this weird thing with their necks, they kind of S their necks, and chatter, moving their heads down and to the side again, and again, and a again in rapid succession.  From what I have been able to make out, it is some kind of statement about their relationship with another duck or ducks.  Like being a fan of the other duck, or in my case sometimes a few of my ducks come up to me that way.  It is not a bad thing, seems to me.

My ducks do the head bobbing too, just as Amiga described. I think it means something like "hey I think you're cool, let's dance or whatever", But it's def different from holding their necks scrunched up, Altho I have seen my drakes do that a few times. but again, not something that lasts a really long time, like days and days. I think you may have one too many drakes. Do the bath and go from there. You might think about separating into girls and boys too, and see if things improve. Good luck.

 

[whynotpoultry]

Hello, ok here's an update. Got her out of the coop and in the house last night. Her and the smaller of the males had a dip in the tub. Checked them both over from head to toe, no problems and they were actually really good about it. I chose him instead of the other female because of all of them he is the sweetest and the easiest to handle, he also doesnt have mating in water thing down so he really isn't a threat. It worked surprising well. All but the neighbors running over when they heard her screaming. We got them dry and back out to the run. Our coop is in our secure run. Last night we didn't lock the birds in the coop. We thought some extra room might be a good idea. Today being so warm we let them out for several hours. I started videoing her like you suggested. We found the problem. Rooster. Without a doubt he terrorizes that little duck. He tries to mount the other ducks and they either out smart him or turn on him. Not dolly she tries to run. We separated the ducks in the yard from the rooster. After 15 minutes she relaxed and waddled head up like the others. Later when the hens came around she was still ok. Rooster showed up and she started the head down tight back feathers up and nonstop open mouth quacking and constant tail wagging. My husband cooped the chickens and we are leaving the ducks in the run by themselves. A duck house is in the works, it needs a few more weekends before its finished but we are hoping it will help. Thanks so much for responding, I do love these things!

 

[briannac]

Hi, her head is close to her body so her neck isn't up. I'll try and separate her now. Thank you so much!

Oh is there any eggs cause one of our ducks does that but it’s when she comes out of the house to eat cause she was in there laying on eggs so she’s probably stressed