Duck/Owner Behavior Advice

[Andrea PNW]

What a lovely thing for you to do! Feral is a pretty intense situation - especially considering she's managed to evade predators. How old do you think she is?

Keep us updated on your progress!

 

[SolarDuck]

What a lovely thing for you to do! Feral is a pretty intense situation - especially considering she's managed to evade predators. How old do you think she is?

Keep us updated on your progress!

She is definitely under a year old! At the moment she is in my bathtub and every time I go open the shower curtain to look at her she hisses at me. I'll be keeping her story updated on my "Is this duck okay?" Thread.

 

[LT71689]

This is actually something I am VERY curious of. Whether its possible to actually train them out of that behavior. I feel like it has to be possible with enough time and dedication, considering they are domestic animals, but honestly I have no clue. It would be an interesting experiment. I'm currently caring for an injured muscovy hen that was feral in my area and she wants NOTHING to do with me, but she is getting more comfortable with me as time goes. Treating her injury is going to require a lot of touching and holding her so I guess I will see if she ever gets any less scared of me.

I'm far from any kind of expert but I suspect there's just a threshold that cant be overridden. Like, my two recognized the plate I gave them treats on. Treats were a BIG DEAL and they REALLY REALLY wanted them...but the plate had to arrive in their pen from overhead, and anything moving overhead was VERY SCARY because in nature that's a predator, so there was a constant struggle that was actually visible, over how bad they wanted treats vs how bad their little brains were screaming at them to RUN AWAY when the treat plate was hovering above them. We did that nearly every single day for half a year and it didnt seem to be getting any better

I think theres just a line somewhere - they can warm up to you and trust you and even want to be affectionate and such with you but when you cross over that line - wherever it is for each individual bird - something wild kicks in and takes over months or years worth of "they've never killed me any of the other 9453943975897234897 times they've done this, they won't start now" reasoning that you've tried to build up in them

 

[Dux]

This is something I wonder about all the time.
I've spent a lot of time with my WH girls from when they were a day old but I never picked them up or petted them because it seemed to upset them the few times I tried and I didn't want them to be scared of me. I would just sit with them, feed them treats from my hand and they would nap on/beside me.
When they all got bumblefoot last winter (they were about 8 or 9 months old and I didn't realize that the small area of concrete in their pen would hurt their feet) I had to handle them to soak their feet and give them oral antibiotics 2x/day. 3 of the 4 recovered in a few weeks and pretty much went back to the same trust level as before they got sick but the fourth duck, Clementine, was sick for a really long time (infection was resistant to the first type of oral antibiotic so it got worse for weeks even though I was medicating her, then she somehow broke a toe while it was super swollen/infected, then the painkiller the vet prescribed made her vomit, then the bumbles took a long time to heal, so I was treating her twice daily for 3-4 months and had to take her to the vet at least a dozen times, all during COVID and having to hand her off and wait in the car). It was a nightmare and her toe never healed right. Before she got sick she was the bossiest of the ducks towards me (though she wasn't the flock leader) but she's still scared of me now. It makes me feel terrible - like I did a bad job and should never have tried to treat her. She was better by the 4th of July and now in mid-January she is still skittish. It's only in the past month and a half or so that she hasn't said "Bwock" fearfully when I herd all the ducks very slowly towards their carriers to take them to their tractor for the day. (She is the only one of the ducks who has ever bwocked at me and only started saying it after she got sick). A couple weeks after The Last Bwock she started occasionally giving me a little poke and nibble but still won't climb onto my lap even to get peas (her very favorite treat) when the other ducks are hopping up and snacking and she always is on the side of the group furthest from me, though she now runs over with the other ducks when I come to the pen. She is slowly getting less fearful but it has taken six months of patience and not forcing anything.
Anyway, all this to say that if it were me, I definitely won't force your teenagers unless it's medically necessary, and honestly, even then, probably not unless it's a matter of life or death or maybe if you are convinced it will only be a short term medical treatment.

 

[Andrea PNW]

This is something I wonder about all the time.
I've spent a lot of time with my WH girls from when they were a day old but I never picked them up or petted them because it seemed to upset them the few times I tried and I didn't want them to be scared of me. I would just sit with them, feed them treats from my hand and they would nap on/beside me.
When they all got bumblefoot last winter (they were about 8 or 9 months old and I didn't realize that the small area of concrete in their pen would hurt their feet) I had to handle them to soak their feet and give them oral antibiotics 2x/day. 3 of the 4 recovered in a few weeks and pretty much went back to the same trust level as before they got sick but the fourth duck, Clementine, was sick for a really long time (infection was resistant to the first type of oral antibiotic so it got worse for weeks even though I was medicating her, then she somehow broke a toe while it was super swollen/infected, then the painkiller the vet prescribed made her vomit, then the bumbles took a long time to heal, so I was treating her twice daily for 3-4 months and had to take her to the vet at least a dozen times, all during COVID and having to hand her off and wait in the car). It was a nightmare and her toe never healed right. Before she got sick she was the bossiest of the ducks towards me (though she wasn't the flock leader) but she's still scared of me now. It makes me feel terrible - like I did a bad job and should never have tried to treat her. She was better by the 4th of July and now in mid-January she is still skittish. It's only in the past month and a half or so that she hasn't said "Bwock" fearfully when I herd all the ducks very slowly towards their carriers to take them to their tractor for the day. (She is the only one of the ducks who has ever bwocked at me and only started saying it after she got sick). A couple weeks after The Last Bwock she started occasionally giving me a little poke and nibble but still won't climb onto my lap even to get peas (her very favorite treat) when the other ducks are hopping up and snacking and she always is on the side of the group furthest from me, though she now runs over with the other ducks when I come to the pen. She is slowly getting less fearful but it has taken six months of patience and not forcing anything.
Anyway, all this to say that if it were me, I definitely won't force your teenagers unless it's medically necessary, and honestly, even then, probably not unless it's a matter of life or death or maybe if you are convinced it will only be a short term medical treatment.

I see what you're saying - don't force contact if they don't want it. But ------ they are just so lap ducky once they get settled

 

[NingwoodHill]

I think it is natural for them to be touched by us less as well.

No offence meant, but it's really not 'natural' for ducks to be touched by people at all!

Just because a creature is domesticated doesn't means it's for cuddles!

If you have ducks that will accept being touched, that's fine - bear in mind that juvenile ducks, hand-reared from day-old will accept you as a parent, hence being with you to stay warm is normal behaviour.

As you've pointed out, there is this 'teenage awkward phase' - yes, this is the point at which a duck (or more likely a drake) would be most likely to leave a flock, maybe roam a bit and possibly join another flock, so at this point they may become very obstreperous, because the last thing their instincts are telling them is to spend time with mother!

How many of these cuddling ducks voluntarily come and sit on your lap? Unless they do that, you're forcing your affections on them, which isn't really fair to them.

 

[SolarDuck]

No offence meant, but it's really not 'natural' for ducks to be touched by people at all!

Just because a creature is domesticated doesn't means it's for cuddles!

If you have ducks that will accept being touched, that's fine - bear in mind that juvenile ducks, hand-reared from day-old will accept you as a parent, hence being with you to stay warm is normal behaviour.

As you've pointed out, there is this 'teenage awkward phase' - yes, this is the point at which a duck (or more likely a drake) would be most likely to leave a flock, maybe roam a bit and possibly join another flock, so at this point they may become very obstreperous, because the last thing their instincts are telling them is to spend time with mother!

How many of these cuddling ducks voluntarily come and sit on your lap? Unless they do that, you're forcing your affections on them, which isn't really fair to them.

I agree to an extent, but I think it is important to maintain some level of physical contact, because you most likely will have to treat some kind of injury while you have your ducks and that will be 100x easier if they are comfortable being touched by you.

 

[Andrea PNW]

No offence meant, but it's really not 'natural' for ducks to be touched by people at all!

Just because a creature is domesticated doesn't means it's for cuddles!

If you have ducks that will accept being touched, that's fine - bear in mind that juvenile ducks, hand-reared from day-old will accept you as a parent, hence being with you to stay warm is normal behaviour.

As you've pointed out, there is this 'teenage awkward phase' - yes, this is the point at which a duck (or more likely a drake) would be most likely to leave a flock, maybe roam a bit and possibly join another flock, so at this point they may become very obstreperous, because the last thing their instincts are telling them is to spend time with mother!

How many of these cuddling ducks voluntarily come and sit on your lap? Unless they do that, you're forcing your affections on them, which isn't really fair to them.

Two of the three are particularly cuddly (Bev and Peaches) but since this discussion thread - I haven't picked up or held any of them and have opted to sit on the ground and let them come to me. I'm happy to say that thus far they've been doing that thing where they rest half their bodies in my lap (feet on the floor but crop rested on my legs) and then sort of walk across my legs.

 

[KaleIAm]

No offence meant, but it's really not 'natural' for ducks to be touched by people at all!

Just because a creature is domesticated doesn't means it's for cuddles!

If you have ducks that will accept being touched, that's fine - bear in mind that juvenile ducks, hand-reared from day-old will accept you as a parent, hence being with you to stay warm is normal behaviour.

As you've pointed out, there is this 'teenage awkward phase' - yes, this is the point at which a duck (or more likely a drake) would be most likely to leave a flock, maybe roam a bit and possibly join another flock, so at this point they may become very obstreperous, because the last thing their instincts are telling them is to spend time with mother!

How many of these cuddling ducks voluntarily come and sit on your lap? Unless they do that, you're forcing your affections on them, which isn't really fair to them.

I'm not offended. I didn't mean that it is natural for ducks to be touched be humans. Just that it seems natural for ducks to want to be touched less as they get older. This is by everyone, including their humans. I observed this in my own ducks, who are now 6 and 7. Though there are definitely adult ducks that want to be touched by their owners, as with all individuals blanket statements do not apply.

 

[DukesDucks]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don't cuddle my ducks but maintain enough physical presence that they are not afraid of me when I am doing chores like cleaning the coop. Those times they must be caught, like trimming nails, I make my daughter come over and catch them. I reciprocate by being the one to catch her chickens or peacocks if needed. My first attempt at catching a peacock was not a great success. As I grabbed for the leg, I ended up with a handful of tail feathers and a peacock now sitting on a roost 10 feet above me. I have perfected my style since.