help! depressed ducks!

[nibula]

Hi,

I would really appreciate any advice you could give.

We recently bought 2 Pekin ducks. This is the first time we have ever had ducks. We were assured they were a male & female (we really wanted eggs) but as soon as we did some research we discovered they are both male. We are trying to make the best of it and have them for pets and eating pests in the garden but they just seem so miserable. As well as being very scared of us (which we would like to change), they just dont want to leave their (small) pen to forage in the garden and if we make them leave it they just hang around the door wanting to go back in (even when we go away so they dont have to be scared). They dont seem to know what to do outside. I'm thinking maybe they have been penned in all their lives so far. We were told they were 6 months old.

Any ideas about what we could do? Is there any hope for these ducks?

 

[cskotek]

What id do is make then go in the garden and spend time. Even if you put lots of water in the garden making puddles for them to play in would help. Giveing them any treats to coxe them out would also help. My 2 male pekins are very scared of people and now learned to bite...

Heres a super good list of treats they can/cant have

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/242460/the-ultimate-list-of-duck-treats-and-supplements

 

[Missy60]

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Our pekin doesn't do well with change at all. She has been living in the same spot since I've had her. I have been doing some remodeling of her home. I first made a new door on the pen that was in the exact same place as the old door, and she refused to go thru it. She would just stop in front of it and not budge. I had to pick her up and put her inside even with her favorite treat of mill worm just on the other side. She didn't want to stay inside even after I put her in, she kept trying to get out before I could close the door. I build the coop on the back side of the pen and she will not go in it at all. Even in a rain storm she stays in the pen if I put her in the coop she comes right out.

Talk quietly to them, give them treats and lots of love they will come around. Duck like routine and they recognize things. Use the same bag or bowl to bring them their treats in and when they get use to it you can lure them almost any where with it. If I shake a mill worm bag my pekin will follow me any where. Someone threw it away once and I was trying to put her up before a storm and used a zip lock Baggie but she just looked at me like I was crazy.

Can you pick them up or get them to follow you? If so lure them to other parts of the yard maybe to a swimming pool to take a dip. Just be patient with them!

I don't know if it's a breed thing or a personality thing but my mallards adjust to change so much easier. The coop construction hasn't really effected them at all, they dont go in the coop much either.

 

[Amiga]

Ditto Missy60, they need love and patience and a new routine. They are frightened more than depressed, I think.

Please be sure they are absolutely safe. They may have witnessed ducks being attacked outside the safety of a pen, and are rightly reluctant to go where they do not feel safe.

For the first few weeks, you may need to let them stay in the pen. Give them treats. Drag a chair outside, sit and talk with them from a short distance for longer than you can stand it. Sing to them.

And again, make sure the area they are in is safe from predators, dogs, cats, heat, cold, etc. etc.

 

[nibula]

thanks for all your replies, they are very helpful. They certainly do seem to respond to routine. And peas have proved to be a hit. We will keep trying.

 

[jak2002003]

Food is the way to their hearts!

Don't put any food in the pen and feed them in a bowl outside the pen each day. When you take the food, call to the ducks and shake the food about.

Soon they will associate you voice and the sound of the shaking bowl with food and will come running!

You can feed them as much as they will eat once in the morning and once in the evening. Keeping them a bit hungry is the key, and they will then start to look to get their own food in your garden.

My ducks free range and find most of their own food. They always stand outside my front door at 4.30pm exactly each day quacking for their food.

I feed mine a mix of unmedicated chick started feed and uncooked rice.