Hey it’s me and goose (duckling) again

[Sierra67]

Quick question! With goose because she’s all alone and I want her bonded with me (which she has imprinted on me) how do I keep her that way when I have 5 other people around that will be playing with her too. I want her to stay attached to me because I’m the duck feeder and cleaner outside with my other ducks but they don’t like me so I wanted to keep her liking me. Can I do that still with 5 people playing with her all the time. My step kids come home tomorrow for a week and right now goose is only 4 days old so it makes it easy for her to bond to someone else instead. Right now I always have her out and about chasing me around the house and sitting on my lap snuggling. I just don’t want her to shift her bond to someone else (which sounds selfish I know, but as I said I’m the one that lets them out in the morning, feeds, cleans pools, brings treats and hangs out with them so I think it makes sence to want her with me)

 

[Abpoultry]

Quick question! With goose because she’s all alone and I want her bonded with me (which she has imprinted on me) how do I keep her that way when I have 5 other people around that will be playing with her too. I want her to stay attached to me because I’m the duck feeder and cleaner outside with my other ducks but they don’t like me so I wanted to keep her liking me. Can I do that still with 5 people playing with her all the time. My step kids come home tomorrow for a week and right now goose is only 4 days old so it makes it easy for her to bond to someone else instead. Right now I always have her out and about chasing me around the house and sitting on my lap snuggling. I just don’t want her to shift her bond to someone else (which sounds selfish I know, but as I said I’m the one that lets them out in the morning, feeds, cleans pools, brings treats and hangs out with them so I think it makes sence to want her with

Quick question! With goose because she’s all alone and I want her bonded with me (which she has imprinted on me) how do I keep her that way when I have 5 other people around that will be playing with her too. I want her to stay attached to me because I’m the duck feeder and cleaner outside with my other ducks but they don’t like me so I wanted to keep her liking me. Can I do that still with 5 people playing with her all the time. My step kids come home tomorrow for a week and right now goose is only 4 days old so it makes it easy for her to bond to someone else instead. Right now I always have her out and about chasing me around the house and sitting on my lap snuggling. I just don’t want her to shift her bond to someone else (which sounds selfish I know, but as I said I’m the one that lets them out in the morning, feeds, cleans pools, brings treats and hangs out with them so I think it makes sence to want her with me)View attachment 2764460

Make sure to call her by her name lots so she recognises it, spend the most time with her, feed her treats and rewards. Hope that helps x

 

[Sierra67]

Make sure to call her by her name lots so she recognises it, spend the most time with her, feed her treats and rewards. Hope that helps x

I always have her with me, always following me through the house or on my lap only in her box if I have to do something she gets in the way of and at night time. Problem is that the step kids are 7 and 9 and love the ducks and don’t like to leave them alone which worries me that goose will switch her bond to them instead and they’re only here for a week at a time

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'd also be a little concerned about them handling her too much like you said she is so young. so maybe set some limits. The duckling that imprinted on me knew I was its mama and he is now 10 yrs old and still knows. So Just keep up with what you are doing.
She may like the kid's attention and then again she may not if they are rowdy and scare her, but she knows who she saw when she hatched and that is her mama.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Quick question! With goose because she’s all alone and I want her bonded with me (which she has imprinted on me) how do I keep her that way when I have 5 other people around that will be playing with her too. I want her to stay attached to me because I’m the duck feeder and cleaner outside with my other ducks but they don’t like me so I wanted to keep her liking me. Can I do that still with 5 people playing with her all the time. My step kids come home tomorrow for a week and right now goose is only 4 days old so it makes it easy for her to bond to someone else instead. Right now I always have her out and about chasing me around the house and sitting on my lap snuggling. I just don’t want her to shift her bond to someone else (which sounds selfish I know, but as I said I’m the one that lets them out in the morning, feeds, cleans pools, brings treats and hangs out with them so I think it makes sence to want her with me)View attachment 2764460

The easiest thing to do is let them all hold her initially once while sitting down for 5 minutes each and then after that they can look, but not touch. That's what I do with my kids grant it they are only 3 & 4, but they know that they can hold any new ducklings once initially supervised for 5 minutes and then after that they have to wait until they are a little older. Ducklings are just too fragile in my opinion to let kids (particularly young ones) grab and hold them whenever they want. We recently had a family members over who brought their kids and gosh it was a complete nightmare my kids came running to me saying "mommy they're going to kill our ducks please come save our ducks!" and sure enough I walked into the barn to see kids screaming chasing and holding my terrified flailing ducks like little maniacs. Now before hand I explicitly stated no one was to go in the duck pens, touch the ducks or even go near them and unfortunately I had turned my back for only minutes to help unload a car before they disappeared to the barn. The worst part was their parents laughed and said "kids will be kids". I very sternly said "No kids need to be taught not to pick up or touch an animal without clear permission from the animals owner and how to correctly handle an animal. My ducks could have been badly injured and have been traumatized by your children". Those kids are a prime example of how boundaries, proper handling procedures and respect for animals need to be taught to children. That's just my opinion anyways and the rules here at our barn

 

[Miss Lydia]

When my grandkids were young and came to stay they knew they were not allowed to go inside the poultry area without nana. It was a rule I established right off. It's very important to teach them respect for life and to teach them to care properly for the animals we have.
@AstroDuck gave very good examples.

 

[Sierra67]

I'd also be a little concerned about them handling her too much like you said she is so young. so maybe set some limits. The duckling that imprinted on me knew I was its mama and he is now 10 yrs old and still knows. So Just keep up with what you are doing.
She may like the kid's attention and then again she may not if they are rowdy and scare her, but she knows who she saw when she hatched and that is her mama.

I read that they don’t recognize faces for about a week or more

 

[Sierra67]

When my grandkids were young and came to stay they knew they were not allowed to go inside the poultry area without nana. It was a rule I established right off. It's very important to teach them respect for life and to teach them to care properly for the animals we have.
@AstroDuck gave very good examples.

They’ve always played with the ducklings I wouldn’t be able to stop them now

 

[Sierra67]

The easiest thing to do is let them all hold her initially once while sitting down for 5 minutes each and then after that they can look, but not touch. That's what I do with my kids grant it they are only 3 & 4, but they know that they can hold any new ducklings once initially supervised for 5 minutes and then after that they have to wait until they are a little older. Ducklings are just too fragile in my opinion to let kids (particularly young ones) grab and hold them whenever they want. We recently had a family members over who brought their kids and gosh it was a complete nightmare my kids came running to me saying "mommy they're going to kill our ducks please come save our ducks!" and sure enough I walked into the barn to see kids screaming chasing and holding my terrified flailing ducks like little maniacs. Now before hand I explicitly stated no one was to go in the duck pens, touch the ducks or even go near them and unfortunately I had turned my back for only minutes to help unload a car before they disappeared to the barn. The worst part was their parents laughed and said "kids will be kids". I very sternly said "No kids need to be taught not to pick up or touch an animal without clear permission from the animals owner and how to correctly handle an animal. My ducks could have been badly injured and have been traumatized by your children". Those kids are a prime example of how boundaries, proper handling procedures and respect for animals need to be taught to children. That's just my opinion anyways and the rules here at our barn

I’ve had 3 sets of ducklings now (this baby included) and they’ve handled all of them with no problem, this one is just different because she actually imprinted on me unlike the others and I’d like to keep it that way