Help! Lonely duck

[dido123]

Two days ago my male duck Patak (2.5yrs old) died. First his legs got paralysed, we took him to the vet where they gave him everything they could but he unfortunately died an hour later.
I have another duck left, Patka (also 2.5yrs old), who is a female, and she didn't see Patak die. She's a bit confused these past couple of days, being slightly more stressed and eating a bit less. She also had white liquidy poop a couple of times. She cuddles with me, which she did also do before. She's also making a noise that Patak used to make ("rapid fire" quacking) which he typically used to call me. And she also keeps pecking the floor and quacking, a lot more than usual.
I am not sure what to do now. I know ducks need to be together with other ducks. However I'm hesitant to get another duck, because it's just going to repeat the cycle forever. On the other hand, there's no place/farm I can give her to. Personality wise she was always more wild and a stereotypical girl duck but she did have a connection with people.

 

[sourland]

Try providing a mirror that she can 'talk' to.

 

[dido123]

Try providing a mirror that she can 'talk' to.

I will. I don't think it's going to help long term though, right?

 

[Jenbirdee]

Mirror and also stuffed animal.
Ducks are flock animals. It’s always best to have another duck or two with your duck, but if it’s not possible, you just have to give your duck a lot of attention the mirror and stuffed animals should help.

 

[CherishedFowlGuardian]

Mirror definitely helps and stuff animals Alonso do you have any friendly chickens or geee?
It helps my ducks sometimes.

 

[dido123]

Mirror definitely helps and stuff animals Alonso do you have any friendly chickens or geee?
It helps my ducks sometimes.

No I don't have any other animals. The neighbourhood cats do hang around all day and Patka likes chasing them if they get too close, but that's about it.

I'll get the mirror and stuffed animal, hopefully it helps her. She seems happy while there's people around but if we go indoors she starts quacking.

 

[DuckWhisperer8]

No I don't have any other animals. The neighbourhood cats do hang around all day and Patka likes chasing them if they get too close, but that's about it.

I'll get the mirror and stuffed animal, hopefully it helps her. She seems happy while there's people around but if we go indoors she starts quacking.

I have a (almost) 15 year old male and he (Vanilla(I thought he was going to be a girl 15 years ago)), and he just lost his last brother days ago. Vanilla did see him pass, I wanted him to have closure. They were inside the house for the past year. Vanilla is pretty good with us, he's not an imprint, but he has a little Imprint on us, sits next to me outside, etc.

Did the mirror work? I have a wooden duck in with him which he seems to like and a ducky plush and a bigger duck plush. But I def feel like his food intake has gone down.

I never thought of using a mirror for this. I used it on our old ducks 15+ years ago just to see how they'd react(and it was hysterical) but I'm seriously worried about my Vanilla, he's such a good ducky, I love him so much, any help would do

Ty in advance
-Dave

 

[dido123]

I have a (almost) 15 year old male and he (Vanilla(I thought he was going to be a girl 15 years ago)), and he just lost his last brother days ago. Vanilla did see him pass, I wanted him to have closure. They were inside the house for the past year. Vanilla is pretty good with us, he's not an imprint, but he has a little Imprint on us, sits next to me outside, etc.

Did the mirror work? I have a wooden duck in with him which he seems to like and a ducky plush and a bigger duck plush. But I def feel like his food intake has gone down.

I never thought of using a mirror for this. I used it on our old ducks 15+ years ago just to see how they'd react(and it was hysterical) but I'm seriously worried about my Vanilla, he's such a good ducky, I love him so much, any help would do

Ty in advance
-Dave

I am very sorry for your loss.
I think it very much depends on the duck. Patka was a girl so losing her male and her only friend was hard, and she was calling for him a lot the first couple of days (and she still does sometimes). After that however she had a personality change, communicating with people a lot more and I think she resembles him a lot more now. She also became a semi-house-duck in the process. I was the person she was the closest with before and now I needed to become her new duck friend so I need to be close by for her to feel protected and do some of the duck activies. You should definitely spend lots of time with Vanilla because you'll probably become his duck friend now besides being his human friend. Don't know how much any of this helps you, but just spend lots and lots of time with him.

As for the mirror, Patka seemed uninterested and unbothered by it. I showed them a mirror and my phones selfie camera before and they didn't care much about it. I could kinda get a reaction from her by placing it higher up so she only sees her head, but she was overall not interested so I got rid of it.

I didn't try out the plushies because they seem unpractical with the way my duck pen/house is set up, they would just become covered with poop after one day. But if you can have plushies for him it definitely won't hurt. Also make his bed very comfy, I use old clothes and Patka enjoys it.

As for the food, I've noticed less eating overall as well. Whether that is due to no more competition for who gets the food or if it's emotional I don't know. After the first couple of days Patka started eating more though, and she eats more if we feed her from hand. Giving Vanilla his favorite food will definitely help, and make sure he eats enough even if it takes a bunch of time. From what I understand white liquidy poop means not enough food (but it could also be a sign of other issues), so look out for that.

Sorry if this message is long, I just wanted to give all the advice I've got. Just keep giving Vanilla lots of attention, make sure he gets his food and I'm sure he will be fine.

Wish you both the best!