I need a pep talk

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You know how much I adore my pets. Their care can be, and often is, overwhelming. I question my choice to add them to my life at times as well.

Just last week I lost an entire 1000ml bag of fluids and a venoset!! I had to call my vet and request a new one the next day because my cat needs it to be alive. It's much bigger than vetricyn spray and we still haven't found it. I'm flabbergasted that I lost it.... But, yeah. I do that, too.

I hope your little and big ones sort out their duck drama. I know how upsetting it is, Thimble used to peck at Nettle and I was always jumping between them.
 
I usually find that the young ones start to settle down as they begin to lay. I have had one intergration that went amazingly smooth. The rest all took time. My first integration my older ducks picked on my young ones, which I think is worse. Everything settled when the females started to lay. Other times my young ones have terrorized my adults. I have multiple water and food sources, and multiple pools. It helps prevent one group from dominating. Again as they mature and start to lay, the females settle down and start getting along with the older ducks. One group was like teenagers that didn't want anyone else around and hung out far from the older ducks. As they matured, they spent more and more time together. My latest three are still settling into the flock. Unfortunately my 3 think they can challenge my Muscovy, and they are realizing they can't. Most of my Muscovy females have been all attitude since molting and caused a couple of them to limp for a couple days. So things could be wise, but even that is starting to settle down.

They will all settle in with time. It sucks to watch when they working things out, but you must give them time.

Mealworms can also sometimes conquer barriers. I like to feed them with my husband, so we can prevent anyone from pushing anyone else out. It allows us to direct attention to the more shy ducks, while distracting the others. Also, having good moments like this with them helps remind you of the joy of ducks. They can be a lot of work sometimes that you need to take a step back once in a while and just have fun with the ducks.
 
Quatie said:
I usually find that the young ones start to settle down as they begin to lay. I have had one intergration that went amazingly smooth. The rest all took time. My first integration my older ducks picked on my young ones, which I think is worse. Everything settled when the females started to lay. Other times my young ones have terrorized my adults. I have multiple water and food sources, and multiple pools. It helps prevent one group from dominating. Again as they mature and start to lay, the females settle down and start getting along with the older ducks. One group was like teenagers that didn't want anyone else around and hung out far from the older ducks. As they matured, they spent more and more time together. My latest three are still settling into the flock. Unfortunately my 3 think they can challenge my Muscovy, and they are realizing they can't. Most of my Muscovy females have been all attitude since molting and caused a couple of them to limp for a couple days. So things could be wise, but even that is starting to settle down.

They will all settle in with time. It sucks to watch when they working things out, but you must give them time.

Mealworms can also sometimes conquer barriers. I like to feed them with my husband, so we can prevent anyone from pushing anyone else out. It allows us to direct attention to the more shy ducks, while distracting the others. Also, having good moments like this with them helps remind you of the joy of ducks. They can be a lot of work sometimes that you need to take a step back once in a while and just have fun with the ducks.
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Thank you - that is helpful and encouragin!
 
If it makes you feel any better I've been looking all morning for the goldfish crackers for my kids and I just found them sitting in the pantry right at eye level as you walk in. I've also had my run around with bumble foot this past year. At the old house I spent over $10,000 for the coop, run and fencing to be perfect then we found out last minute we had two months to move across country for my husband's job right in the middle of the housing market craziness. We bought our farm sign unseen and have had to do a lot of work to get things running so my ducks have had to free range here until we get the fencing and aviary up. I have anxiety everyday worrying about them because I never wanted to completely free range them, but I've had no choice. They love to nest in the rose and raspberry bushes despite me blocking it off which of course has led to a few cases of bumblefoot🙄 I feel like ripping my hair out daily sometimes, but we have had to replace all appliances, run new electric, replace siding on the barn, buy a tractor to maintain the acreage, started building new barns and well it's been an expensive year so the ducks whole area had to be put on the back burner. Thankfully we have finished the moat important projects and we can get back to finishing up the duck area, but now we're hitting winter here so progress is going to be slow🙄
 
HollowOfWisps said:
If it makes you feel any better I've been looking all morning for the goldfish crackers for my kids and I just found them sitting in the pantry right at eye level as you walk in. I've also had my run around with bumble foot this past year. At the old house I spent over $10,000 for the coop, run and fencing to be perfect then we found out last minute we had two months to move across country for my husband's job right in the middle of the housing market craziness. We bought our farm sign unseen and have had to do a lot of work to get things running so my ducks have had to free range here until we get the fencing and aviary up. I have anxiety everyday worrying about them because I never wanted to completely free range them, but I've had no choice. They love to nest in the rose and raspberry bushes despite me blocking it off which of course has led to a few cases of bumblefoot🙄 I feel like ripping my hair out daily sometimes, but we have had to replace all appliances, run new electric, replace siding on the barn, buy a tractor to maintain the acreage, started building new barns and well it's been an expensive year so the ducks whole area had to be put on the back burner. Thankfully we have finished the moat important projects and we can get back to finishing up the duck area, but now we're hitting winter here so progress is going to be slow🙄
Click to expand...
Wow, your burdens sounds heavier than mine! You've bee through a lot this past year. You should post some pics of your farm - it sounds amazing. I hope you get your duck shelters up and running quickly! Isn't it amazing how something we're looking for can be right in front of us sometimes? I still haven't found my spray!
 

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