Funny Duck Behavior Question

[kukupecpec]

I have a new duck we have named ChaCha. Someone dumped her at the local park (a popular dumping ground for waterfowl) and she followed this nice couple back from the park to their home. Everyday they would come outside and there she was waiting for them. She would then follow them wherever they went that day. They couldn't keep her and were afraid a stray dog might get her if they just left her outside so they walked around the neighborhood looking for a new home for her. We've had her for about a week and love her to death. She's super sweet abd affectionate, abd she loves children. She's got bumblefoot and when I gave her a good bath (who knows what she brought with her from the park) and found lots of scabs. Her wings are pretty chewed up too so I'm betting she was picked on quite a bit at the park by the other ducks. She wants nothing to do with other animals of any kind, including our pair of Ancona ducks, she will even attack other animals if they get to close to her. She's very attached to the humans in my house, she freaks out if we leave her alone, including just waking around a corner where she can't see us. I've noticed she does this funny little dance thing and I was wondering if anyone knows what this is? She will do it sitting, or standing, and sometimes she doesn't quack just bobs her head. We can't figure it out. [VIDEO][/VIDEO]

 

[WildWestChick]

Your duck looks like a tufted Pekin. The head bob thing is a way some ducks communicate...when they get excited (like oh look a treat, or oh look some new friends!), angry (when something invades it's space..they will usually bite if this is the case), or in a sort of show for mating. I hope that helps a little.

 

[DurhamDuck]

This is her mating dance. She's very attached to you and thinks of you as a handsome drake.

Being raised by humans, she doesn't realize she's a completely different species from you. She does not realize the Anconas are the same as she is. I would slowly try introducing her to her own kind. It can take weeks for ducks to accept a new member into their flock. Give her and the other ducks lots of supervised play time, and give them praise and treats whenever they are together.

I am surprised you have not noticed this dance from your Anconas but some ducks do it more often than others.

 

[kukupecpec]

A crested Peking? That's a thing? Lol I'm totally clueless about ducks. She seems kinda small for a Peking, is that normal?? I always thought they were huge.

How funny! That's exactly what DH guessed (mating) but I thought maybe she was just a little cuckoo lol.

We aren't really worried about her with the other ducks, she will always be a house pet, my previous house bird (a sweet goose) grew up and wanted a mate so we took her to the next city over to the goose rescue and took her speed dating. She lives on a nice big ranch with her handsome gander. We miss having her inside so are super happy to have ChaCha. She was the perfect little gift at the perfect time.

My other pair are still fairly young. They LOOK full grown but I haven't seen them mating and no eggs yet. It's also over 105 F every stinking day here so she may not lay until the monsoons hit in a month or so.

Any guesses why ChaCha doesn't lay eggs? I've got her on half lay crumble and half alfalfa pellets since she looks like she could use a little more weight. She also gets as much wheat/barley fodder as she will eat.

 

[WildWestChick]

Yes crested! Lol that's the word I was looking for! And as far as her size, maybe she wasn't fed like she should have been as a duckling. Sometimes not getting the right feed can stunt their growth.
As far as not laying eggs...are you 100% sure it's a female? I'm not a sexing expert so I couldn't tell you lol. But maybe that's the reason why, but if your sure it's a girl, then maybe she just needs more time to settle into her new surroundings. I've had chickens and ducks that quit laying when I brought them to their new home(s) for a couple of days up to a couple of weeks. Depending on how long it took them to become really comfortable in their new home.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

First off she is adorable

and her dance means she loves you. As far as the breed, Metzer Farms sells (and we have

) a duck called simply a "White Crested". I am guessing it is a mish-mash to produce a desired outcome, but it isn't a pure Pekin with the crested gene. Our White Crested is a drake (don't worry... all our flocks eggs are eaten - he won't breed). We also have a Pekin duck with the same birthday. The Pekin is MUCH bigger (They are almost 3 months old, he is around 5-6 lbs and the Pekin girl is over 8 lbs and growing). The White Crested is bigger than our Rouens, and maybe slightly bigger than our Swedish, but still not near the size of the Pekin. He also has a more slender build like in the mix there might be 10% runner. From the video, yours looks a little bit slimmer and smaller, but then she is a duck vs. our drake (for pictures, look in my profile under the album "Tevye"). Ducks are pretty good foragers and in the spring in a pond in a park, she probably didn't starve, but may have spent some of her foraging time running away from bully ducks. Let her eat what she wants of a good feed and veggies for treats (ok, ok maybe some meal worms too but only after the bumble foot is gone

) and she will get to her right weight by herself. I wouldn't worry about "fattening" her up especially to Pekin weight.

 

[kukupecpec]

Crested! Haha I originally was calling her a Roman Tufted LOL Poor duck, she already gets called a goose everywhere we go haha. Funnier still because when we took the goose out people always thought SHE was a DUCK!
As far as being female, I haven't full on vent sexed her, although I suppose that wouldn't be hard since I'm always messing with her anyway, but I was under the impression that make ducks have the curl on their tail? I know my Ancona drake has it so I just assumed ChaCha was a girl because of the absence of a curl. Gentila - does your crested drake have a curl?
She definitely is slim, same build as my Anconas but bigger overall.
Why mealworms only after the bumble foot is gone? I don't have any this year but I'm hoping to start my meal worm farm back up. Only have the energy to do one project at a time for a while (fodder vs meal worms), my duck/goose diapers have been selling pretty well so I've been busy =D

I'm glad she likes me though!
Any ideas if sending her to live with a pet sitter for a few days up to a week would mess with that? I don't want to stress her out too much, but we aren't sure if we can take her on vacation with us or not. We treat her like a dog, but I know she's NOT a dog so I don't want to screw anything up since we seem to have a good thing going here. I definitely don't want to leave her in the bath tub for days with someone just feeding her and washing the place up.

 

[Starfire669]

She is definately a crested Pekin. I have 2 of them, Daisy and Ivory, and a tiny crested mallard, Ebony. I had to re-home the full Pekin drake Howard as he seriously injured Ebony by forcing her to mate (when I got them as rescues I really had not wanted Howard, but took him on a trail basis). The dance is her mating dance, my females do it all the time, Daisy, my largest girl now tries to act like a drake and breed the other 2 females, lol. Your ChaCha is lovely. Can tell she loves you!

 

[WildThang]

Does she ever make a loud quack noise? Our females quacks tend to be more defined and louder then our males.

 

[ducksanddoxies]

Do they only do that move as a "mating dance" or is it something they do when they are just happy? I noticed my Pekin doing it yesterday.