Ducks hatched out a lonesome duck :) Got a new plan this time around

[tabetha]

Well, so this will be a different kind of post No questions, just chatter....

Two years ago we got our first chicks and ducklings. Our three ducks turned out to be 2 girls and a male. One of our girls disappeared, but the other two paired off nicely. Last year they hatched out about 10 ducklings, we sold 8. This year the ducks sat and sat on that nest. One finally hatched out. We waited and waited and no more came. So my husband quietly whispered to me, "maybe this one can be a pet"... our others are our layers, they have yummy eggs! This duckling was so different. Would actually prefer to climb right into your hand and sit with it's legs dangling between your fingers. They are mallards, and are rarely, if ever domesticated right? I wonder if it was because it was a lonesome duckling. Well this duck likes the cat, the cat, a year old, not so sure of the duckling. In our house, the rules of animals don't apply. Our large dogs love the cat, and the cat loves to sit on the bird cage. It's actually the two cats that dont get along.

LOL Anyways, the duckling is almost a month old and just got it's first real swim in yesterday.... was actually a bit hesistant at first! That was unusal. Anyways, afterwards she sat on the back of the couch for a bit, then walked along it for a while.... finally he/she settled in to cuddling with a stuffed puppy

We will see how it goes, just interesting since this is a mallard. We did just get two more ducklings though! going to have to find a home for them!

heres some links to my instagram photos from yesterday:
http://instagram.com/p/MuQ6QZJglH/

http://instagram.com/p/MvR2QTpgtU/

 

[FireTigeris]

Ducks 'imprint' Whatever animal (including humans) that they see both first and most for the first three days of life will 'imprint' the duckling, my science teacher in HS did this with domestic Mallards until the FL law changed.

The human imprinted ducklings will follow around any human and often will fail to find a duck mate, in both ducks and drakes this can cause courting behavior towards humans.

Some of these ducks do mate (to ducks) but only if humans withdraw contact and they are in breeding condition at that time (females more often then the males who would prefer a human as a mate).

The experiment was to imprint the duck to us and then see if:

We could get our ducks in a row (for us that had multiple ducklings) [answer- we could not, duck 1 imprints to momma, duck two to duck one, duck three to duck two- that's why they line up)
We could get our ducks to follow us exclusively- (my buddy and I had the best of the ducks responding to us a little more then 50% when someone else walked by calling, any pare of legs would do, any human, gender, shoes etc didn't matter)
We could get our ducks to respond to human words for duck behaviors 'come' 'treat' 'sit' (yes-kinda, especially if you picked words that sound like duck sounds)

 

[tabetha]

Thats so awesome, thanks for sharing!!! This one, the attempt is going to try to make it an inside pet.... so, the trick will be to find/make a diaper for that! LOL duck poop is meesssssyyyyy!!!!!!!!!! This duckling was so cute when it could still fit in your hand, it loved to walk right into your hand with it's little feet dangling between your fingers!!!! This duck is sort of a therapy animal for my teenage sister we have custody of, who has some mental illness.

 

[FireTigeris]

No problem, good luck.

Chickens can be clicker trained ... people learning clicker training to become trainer used to start on chickens... maybe you can train your duck? (we were specifically not allowed to try on our ducks)