Jamey Duck, Give us Yee Jamey!

[valley ranch]

I'd like you tell you of Jamie. We adoped him years back his mate had been killed, wifey drove up to the north side of the lake to pick him up. He was a great looking mallard.
We bought a young female mallard and she was all over him. Patd is duck in Armenian, Potdair is ducks, so we named them James and lilly Pottair after Harry's parents. He loved wifey, did a dance for her each time he saw her. He was a bit arthritic. Took on a giant rooster we had, fought him until we dressed out the roo for breaking and eating eggs. We went overnight to the lower ranch, wifey was concerned, Jamie hadn't come to her when they were feeding before we left. The next day, as soon as we arrived home, wife called " Jamie. Our McNabb Border Collie, who stays with the animals at night and when we are gone, brought Jamie, he had died several hours earlier. Lilly is out there in the barn with her head under her wing, didn't come out, to say hello, at feeding time this morning. Give us yee Jamie, we hardly knew yee. Akch, we'll miss him.

 

[Amiga]

Oh, poor little mallard duck.

I hope you can help her get through her grief. She'll need some duck company.

 

[valley ranch]

Lilly ate today but is sad, the girls say. We have muscovy so she isn't alone, God love her. Thanks for understanding,

 

[Amiga]

Over a year ago, we adopted Romy and Michele, two buff ducks. They were BFF. Had been dumped together on a pond, and rescued before winter closed in. Well, last late summer Shelly died of egg yolk peritonitis, quite suddenly. I showed Romy her body so she would know what happened. Romy just looked quickly and walked away. She began grieving, to the point I though we were going to lose her. Took her to the vet, who diagnosed a calcium deficiency in addition to grief.

I'll skip every detail, but we saw that the runners were not being inclusive or helpful to Romy, so we adopted three more buffs, a drake and two ducks. Fast forward, Bean has been giving Romy the special attention she has wanted since he arrived, and she is part of the buff group, and much happier. But it has been over five months. And she still gets the far away look. We miss Shelly, too.

 

[valley ranch]

Funny wouldn't attribute this type of emotion to a wee mallard. She, Lilly, was very vocal. She hasen't said a quack, but sits where Jamie used to with her head under her wing. We'll see, we may have to get other mallards or send her to live with some.

 

[Amiga]

Poor girl. If you decide to rehome her, there is a forum on BYC to help with that, if you need it. And also, I hope you mean in a protected domestic situation, not out on a lake where she cannot fend for herself.

 

[desertdarlene]

We had a duck at the lake, recently, who had a buddy which he had probably been together with since they were day olds. They did everything together and his buddy always followed him around. Even when they joined up with another group, they always stuck together. His buddy got caught by a predator after they had been at the lake for almost two years. The remaining one acted fairly normal the day he died, but started acting stranger, later. When the rest of the group moved on, he stayed behind. When he did go with them, he stared at any other duck that looked like his friend. He constantly wanted to do courtship displays with other males, but didnt care if he impressed the females. Then, even after his friend's body was long gone, he stayed near where he last saw it. He finally went back to the rest of the group, but he still sometimes goes off on his own.