Duck drowning another?

[Hgc]

I have 3 ducks, around 13 weeks old. One male and two females. I have 3 containers of water for them, everybody likes the bigger one, of course. When one female, daisy, gets in and starts playing and having fun my male, quaxwell, will quack and Bob his head, then he will hold her head under water. Every once in a while he jumps on her back. He doesn't do it to the other female, ducklett, but she will lay as flat as possible when he comes around. Aren't they too young for it to be a mating thing? It almost seems like he's jealous she's having so much fun in the water, is that a thing? The video is just them playing, no one is being attacked.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Post video to YouTube or Vimeo or similar, then post thr link here.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

It does sound like a mating thing, actually, but I'm not a duck expert.

 

[sourland]

He's trying to breed her and is uncertain about exactly how to get the job done, and she is inviting him to mate. Yes, it is possible for a large or unskilled drake to inadvertently drown a hen.

 

[CoriM]

Just keep a close eye on them. He is trying to mate. You will need to make sure he doesn't only mate with one of your girls - they can be injured by overmating, and can be drown if the drake is very aggressive.

 

[Tristuh]

It’s a dominance thing. If you know for sure it’s a male doing it then it is mating. Eventually he will stand on her back but usually the females don’t do that in a show of dominance unless they’ve seen a male do it.

 

[Hgc]

Unfortunately since I posted this, my poor male has passed, from what I can guess flip over disease. I had never heard of it until I googled why my duck would just randomly die. His name was quaxwell, and I loved him so. He was only about 4 months old. I did have insurance on him, so I got a new male, but they had to send three in the mail, so that was nice, except I still would've just liked to have quaxwell alive.