how do you introduce a duckling to a 4 week old duck?

[marcelineduckie]

This is Gunter our new girl she's an Indian runner we have a 4 week old pekin named marceline. We just got Gunter yesterday she in now 5 days old, marceline keeps trying to peck at her and bite her pretty hard I don't let her of coarse they see each other through a mesh netting . How do I go about making sure they're friends? We got her so that marceline wouldn't be lonely when it's time to be transferred outdoors. What can I do to let marceline know.that Gunter is her baby and they are both ducks? Will they get along better as Gunter grows?

 

[Miss Lydia]

This is Gunter our new girl she's an Indian runner we have a 4 week old pekin named marceline. We just got Gunter yesterday she in now 5 days old, marceline keeps trying to peck at her and bite her pretty hard I don't let her of coarse they see each other through a mesh netting . How do I go about making sure they're friends? We got her so that marceline wouldn't be lonely when it's time to be transferred outdoors. What can I do to let marceline know.that Gunter is her baby and they are both ducks? Will they get along better as Gunter grows?

What your doing now is the best way for Marceline to accept Gunter, keep them separate but where they can see each other, Gunter is too young and tiny to be able to stand much of Marcelines picking so give them time let Gunter get some strength and body size before even thinking about letting the 2 be together all the time by then they will be best buds. After a few days you can try letting them be together for snack time dried meal worms always make ducklings happy and this is a good way for them to interact since both will be more interested in eating than Marceline wanting to bite. Always supervise any one on one time they have. Gunter sure is a doll.

 

[marcelineduckie]

@misslydia thank you I fell in love as soon as I saw her good I know ducks need friends and I was able to talk my husband into getting just one more cutie pie I love that they are both different in so many ways my daughter's will learn a lot from their behaviors. I wish I had the room to have 100 duckies how old are your ducks?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@misslydia thank you I fell in love as soon as I saw her good I know ducks need friends and I was able to talk my husband into getting just one more cutie pie I love that they are both different in so many ways my daughter's will learn a lot from their behaviors. I wish I had the room to have 100 duckies how old are your ducks?

That is a nice number, and you can always add more later

you did the right thing in getting Gunter they will be fast friends it just takes time. I love it when children are interested in caring for animals.

My ducks range in age from 11 yrs old down to 2 yrs old. we don't let them raise ducklings every year or we'd be knee deep in them, although if I had the space it's hard to resist those precious ducklings.

Please keep us updated on how they are doing.

 

[marcelineduckie]

That is a nice number, and you can always add more later   you did the right thing in getting Gunter they will be fast friends it just takes time. I love it when children are interested in  caring for animals.

My ducks range in age from 11 yrs old down to 2 yrs old. we don't let them raise ducklings every year or we'd be knee deep in them, although if I had the space it's hard to resist those precious ducklings.  
Please keep us updated on how they are doing.

my girls are very awesome at the duck care we study together although the cleaning is all me Haha . That's so sweet I kind of can't wait for them to be bigger but I am enjoying this stage too. They really are cute. What kind of enclosure do you have for them?

This is how we have them right now but only while I'm sitting next to them that is a mesh laundry basket marceline seems to like her and wants to be near her but only when she's in there. I've also been holding both together marceline on my lap and Gunter sits on my shoulder and gets in my hair

 

[Miss Lydia]

my girls are very awesome at the duck care we study together

although the cleaning is all me Haha . That's so sweet I kind of can't wait for them to be bigger but I am enjoying this stage too. They really are cute. What kind of enclosure do you have for them?

This is how we have them right now but only while I'm sitting next to them that is a mesh laundry basket marceline seems to like her and wants to be near her but only when she's in there. I've also been holding both together marceline on my lap and Gunter sits on my shoulder and gets in my hair

Gunter thinks she is a parrot lol.. I have 2 duck houses and since I had so many drakes at one time, only 2 now we made the inside into stalls similar to horse stalls except smaller scale for ducks that way my drakes would not be together at night and peace would reign. So only 4 of my ducks sleep together the rest have their own bedroom but the 2 pairs are not sleeping together now because 2 of them are broody and they cannot stand for another to be in their space, even though they are sitting on fake eggs doesn't matter it's the principle of the thing. lol Girls

They have 1/2 acre to forage in daily it's fenced in we have lots of cover in summer with the tree canopy in fall after leaves are off the hawks are always looking for a chance, so I put up predator tape to deter them. Too large an area to put a cover over top.
My drake has 2 of his girls sleep with him it is a converted goose house now turned ducks house/feed room. we built another house for our geese.then we added 2 more. and we have a small chicken coop actually our first coop when we adopted a hen and 10 chicks now it's used only for laying the girls love it. And use it in winter to get out of the cold and wind. If your trying to decide on housing for the girls when the time comes there is a section on coops here on BYC and some really nice pallet houses. also ducks house and runs if you go to the search and type these in. Main thing is to make your house as secure as possible because no one thinks they have predators till they get ducks/poultry then they find out sometime the hard way when a raccoon has stuck it's hand through chicken wire and grabbed a duck and tried to pull it through the fence or a mink or weasel has climb through 1'' wire and killed their flock. So remember hardware wire is your best friend when building a coop lots of ventilation for health of the ducks.
Have you decided what your going to use for their outdoor housing?

They are both adorable and Marceline is quite a bit bigger than Gunter, you'll see it won't be long before they will be best friends. If your interested in my houses flock, put your curser over my name on the left then go to view profile all kinds of pics there of houses etc. Keep us updated on how they are doing. Look forward to pics too.

 

[marcelineduckie]

Yeah haha I've always wanted a parrot so it works out I think the predator thing is all that scares me I may have them sleep.inside at night in a portable dog house I don't know I will look at your pictures though and see if I can do something good for them. The stuff we have here is kinda like a plastic chicken wire and I was going to use it to top the top off of their night house (a wooden dog house my dogs don't sleep in) I know my dogs will keep raccoons and cats away but what if they aren't fast enough I'd cry forever if one got.hurt or died my husband doesn't like the idea but I may be able to convince him it will be best haha

 

[marcelineduckie]

Also, you don't think the size difference is so bad do you?they are 3 weeks apart I wanted to get another sooner but we just couldn't.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Also, you don't think the size difference is so bad do you?they are 3 weeks apart I wanted to get another sooner but we just couldn't.

3 weeks is not bad both are still young ducklings Marceline will be huge compared to Gunter but can't see it will be a problem once they become good buddies.

But plastic poultry fencing will not keep raccoons out it will need to be something like 1/2" hardware wire to keep out all predators.

 

[marcelineduckie]

Yeah that is the same thing o read in another thread on here, Friday I'll have to go down to the home depot and pick some up . That stuff should be ok for their day time fencing pen though. Which I'm only going to use when I need to come inside to cook or clean house so that the dogs don't have unsupervised access to them. I'm making the uncovered yard next to the covered home part which will have a house and 4 by 7 feet of room when including the outside it'll be 9 by 7 feet. That should be ok right? While I'm outside they'll have access to.the whole yard which is pretty large not.farm large but bigger than normal homes backyards