duck picking at me

[claudiaosk]

I have four ducks, 3 month old, one pekin the other a mix of who knows what (grey, black with blue and green feathers at the sides and a black streak through their eyes ). I think they are all females, at least none has a drake feather yet, its difficult to decide from their quak at this point. The white pekin is the most lay-back and friendly. All ducks eat out of my hand, follow me around and seem happy, no aggression amongst them and keep the flock all day. However, there is one that has always been very squittish and its difficult to get near it. Lately I have noticed that whenever I pat one of the others in the pen he comes over and picks at me, up my arm, rather forceful. I have wondered whether this is some dominance behavior..? Has anyone had this experience?

 

[Isaac 0]

Welcome to BYC!

I would be making the assumption that its likely an immature drake starting to practice dominance over you. Give him a big nudge next time he tries.

 

[claudiaosk]

ok thanks, I had a suspicion... except his quaking is so femalish... we'll see. Is this a common behavior?

 

[Isaac 0]

ok thanks, I had a suspicion... except his quaking is so femalish... we'll see. Is this a common behavior?

If the duck is actually quacking, that would mean it's a female, but I would still lean towards a dominance issue.

 

[claudiaosk]

maybe its female dominance....

 

[claudiaosk]

It happened again and I held her/him to the ground, gently but firmly, for a good while, and told her/him off verbally. Stopped when I felt that she/he was relaxing. Everyone stood absolutely still, sensitive creatures, and it took a while until they started chatting again. It seems to have worked because she didnt come at me yesterday. Well see.
By the way, this happens only when I am in their shack, so I was also wondering whether I am encrouching on their space so to speak, maybe not a good idea, as the floor space isnt that big (roughly 2.2 by 1.5m).

 

[ariri30]

It happened again and I held her/him to the ground, gently but firmly, for a good while, and told her/him off verbally. Stopped when I felt that she/he was relaxing. Everyone stood absolutely still, sensitive creatures, and it took a while until they started chatting again. It seems to have worked because she didnt come at me yesterday. Well see.
By the way, this happens only when I am in their shack, so I was also wondering whether I am encrouching on their space so to speak, maybe not a good idea, as the floor space isnt that big (roughly 2.2 by 1.5m).

My drake “bites” /pinch me really hard on my legs if I touch the two ducks. If I don’t go near the girls he would just follow me around. I guess I’m just not allowed to touch his girls.

 

[Maddog_photog]

@claudiaosk
Did it look like this..?

 

[ariri30]

@claudiaosk
Did it look like this..?

Yes like that

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Do you have long sleeves on when it happens? Ducks don't have hands they use their bill to get a feel for things so it could very well be dominance, but I've also had ducks do it out of curiosity. Whenever I have long sleeves on some of my ducks will pick at what I thought was my arms and then look at me like "What in the world is this?". At first I thought a couple were being dominant, but then I only noticed it happened when I had long sleeves on.