Duck Enrichment

[RouenBud]

I have 1 duck and he is realy lonely but has chickens to hang with at least (he has a crush on one of our 3 year olds when he's not even
8 months!) but I feel bad so what are some good things he can fiddle with?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You shouldn't keep a male duck with chickens unless he has some duck hens. He will eventually try to mate with your chickens and could seriously hurt them. He needs some duck hens.

 

[Pyxis]

You'll want to get him a mate. As oldhenslikedogs said, he's going to try to mate with your hens otherwise and he's going to hurt or kill them thanks to anatomical differences. Plus he'll be much happier with other ducks to hang out with.

Preferably you'd get him three or four girls, but one is better than nothing if that's all you can do.

 

[RouenBud]

Well he is a seriously nice duck to all the chickens and sometimes we see him wait to eat till the others are done

 

[RouenBud]

He did have a female duck to play with but a fox got her!

 

[RouenBud]

Ya we are planning on getting a saxony duck for him. He is a Rouen but I read the history of a saxony duck and a Rouen ends up breeding with a German Pekin and a Manerain duck to make a saxony

 

[cayugaducklady]

In warm weather I float their favorite fruit and veggies in water for them. Halved watermelons also provide hours of entertainment.

Last year I added about 2 lbs of composting earth worms to their pen. They hunted those all winter and had a blast looking for them.

In winter I put out whole cabbage for them, Napa and Savoy are their favorites and only last about a day for 5 ducks. Regular cole slaw type green cabbage and red cabbage last a couple of days.

I'm considering putting a dog treat ball in for them this year and filling it with BOSS and dried black soldier fly larvae for them this winter. I can't do the composting worms this year because i switched from straw to horse bedding pine pellets.

I also take them for forest walks and let them eat all the things they find in the leaf litter. They really enjoy those and usually need to sleep it off when i take them back to the pen.

 

[RouenBud]

Thanks for the info! all of it could work accept the dog ball toy that he is scared of
He is kind of a piece of work to keep occupied

 

[RouenBud]

Oh also one thing