Help!! My Duck Is Running Around Scared And Finding Places to Hide!

[QuackinaTheDuck]

Hello duck community,

I am new to this page, hopefully you guys are able to help me out here.

So I own a female Peking Duck about a year and a half old.

I went out for groceries for a couple hours and left my duck in her little pen in my downstairs. When I came home, normally I would be greeted with multiple loud quacks. But when I went down, my duck managed to get out of her pen. She was sitting in the far corner, in the pitch black. Then suddenly came running(waddling) super fast towards me. She looked so frantic, and scared, and stressed like she’s been through some type of mess. She tried finding all the tightest cracks where she could hide in, and kept pacing back and forth all around the room. I’ve never seen her so uneasy. Her heart was pacing so fast. She only seemed to calm down when she was snug in a tight hiding spot where she thought she was protected, or when I had my arm around her. Otherwise, she could not keep still for 1 second, jumping up onto random areas of the room that she would typically never grow interest to look around in.

I don’t own any other pets, and there was no one else home. Is there something I should be concerned about with her behaviour, or was she simply just scared of something.

My thoughts are:
1) She had a difficult time getting out of the pen which scared her some how.
2) She injured herself somewhere and it is really bothering her(can’t see any visual injuries)
3) gained some type of disease
4) a ghost startled her

Hopefully it isn’t too concerning, but it definitely was a stressful hour for me to see my duck running around like crazy.

Looking forward to your answers. Thanks!

 

[Raenh]

Check for rats... or mice. They like to come in during the winter months and that had mine up in arms most of last winter.

 

[CrystaBub]

Can you post a pic of her pen? Was there food in her pen? When you say she managed to get out of her pen, makes me kinda think something motivated her to want to get out. I was thinking rat or mice too - or snake b/c sometimes those sneaky devils will slip through the smallest cracks to get in to stay warm this time of year.

 

[chickens really]

She might of knocked something down and scared herself... don't put human emotions on her. She would be happier with another Duck for emotional support.

 

[thumper650]

My ducks act similarly when spooked. Mine are outside but I can tell when a predator has been in the yard. They hide in a corner and give me a weird look.
Your duck probably hates being alone. Another duck would be great. Mine hate being seperated.

 

[Callender Girl]

I hope your girl stayed settled down and doesn't freak out again. However scared she might have been, I imagine you were equally frightened. It's terrible when you don't know what's causing them to be upset.

 

[Slike]

Could there have possibly been a rat inside, or perhaps a stray cat or dog seen through a window?

I'm kinda glad you brought up number 4 on your list. It is a possibility. Barring any injury through struggle (like she got caught trying to squeeze out of her crate, something fell, etc), or possibility for a threatening animal to have gotten in the house, etc, it may well have been that.

I had a pet black Silkie rooster who was really tuned into that sort of stuff, as am I. He wouldn't run, but there were times when nasty entities would roll through and he'd hunker down hard, wouldn't even blink, his eyes were bulging out and he'd be like a statue in place and I could see his eyes tracking things I could not see, only felt, as they'd move around the room we were in. He was super chill and lived with me, usually inside with me so he was extremely accustomed to being inside as well as out. He never acted like this outside of times I too was picking up on disturbing intangibles.

That house sucked. A lot of weird junk went on there in the past and continues to plague it long after the fact. I'm so glad I don't live there anymore.

I hope she didn't hurt herself. And I hope you don't have disgusting vermin running around in there. Do you know the history of that house at all?

If this occurs again could you set up a game camera in her vicinity to try to catch evidence of what is going on?