Ducks "jumping"?

[Tevyes Dad]

Wobbles shakes like a chihuahua all the time, the poor thing. :/ But that chest thing makes a lot more sense now! Around that age Wobs would love to sleep on my tummy or draped over my shoulder, but he'd shove his chest feathers onto my face first. I thought it was a sign of affection but I guess he really was trying to smother me!

I don't know if the "rules" apply to house ducks: they think they're people. BTW: <chant>"More Pics of Wobbles! More Pics of Wobbles!"</chant>

 

[Julie Birb]

I don't know if the "rules" apply to house ducks: they think they're people. BTW: "More Pics of Wobbles! More Pics of Wobbles!"

I concur. More....Wobbles...

 

[Silvermist]

Yeah, my wife and I would laugh when this happened with our first two ducks (they were 6 weeks when we got them). "Ooooooh, you are attacking me with a big down pillow." It would happen when we hand fed meal worms. They would start by shaking then lunging at us, then shaking and taking quick jabs out of our hand, then shaking and eating out of our hands, then just eating out of our hands, then climbing in our laps (if we were sitting on the ground) and eating out of our hands. When we got the rest of our ducks (at 3 days old), they reacted similarly once they hit puberty. All my ducks settled down fairly well by about 4 months. But at 9 months, I would guess something happened that made Happy a little more nervous (we have had this happen to our ducks sometimes). It could be any change in routine (moved water from one side of the yard to the other), pools got packed up for the winter. You picked her up when she had actively growing blood feathers (I guess they are kind of tender). The leaves fell out of her favorite shade tree. She saw/heard a predator closer than she was comfortable with (even if she was safe.) Just about anything can shake them up a bit, but they come around again. You never can tell. One of our runners, Dove, was always so close to us that between my wife and I, we stepped on her feet on at least 4 occasions (fortunately on nice soft giving grass). This didn't even phase her for the moment... We would lift up our foot and she would lift hers and all was good. But we had a real cold day (-20F overnight) about 3 weeks ago when she was in mid-molt, so we brought her inside for the night, let her swim in the bathtub and stay in a dog crate until morning when the sun came back up and it was warmer. She is just starting to trust us again because that shook her up. (Silly ducks).

We had to relocate our duck's coop because we regretted the location we placed it, which was directly outside of our dining room (the smell!

). And that corresponds to my ducks' age when it was still quite young. Wow, you know so much about ducks you are really a master!

 

[Tevyes Dad]

I am hardly a master. A year and a half ago I had no ducks and I didn't know anything about them. I read a lot on this site and I pay attention to my birds. They seem to know a lot about ducks.

Now Miss Lydia and Amiga on the other hand, between the two of them there is a vast amount of experience and knowledge. I have learned a lot from them.