- Dec 10, 2014
- 24
- 0
- 24
I raised a single Muscovy duckling named Pumpkin from the time he hatched as a little yellow duckling until now when he is 3 months old. He was sick as a baby and I held him a lot to give him medicine so he was strongly imprinted on me.
For the last few months he has been going outside and meeting the Muscovies in my backyard. He can't fly yet to escape predators, so though he stays outside all day, I let him sleep on my patio at night if he wants too, which is does. I leave the door open so he can go outside whenever he pleases at night and in the early morning but shut it so he has to stay outside during the day. He's bigger than all the backyard females at this point and as big as the smaller males.
He eats with the backyard ducks whenever I feed them, though I do give him a bowl of lettuce for himself every day. He can't get down to the canal outside to eat there because the bank is too steep and he can't fly so he only eats what I give him or he forages for in the grass. Since he has no place else to swim, when he comes onto the patio in the evening, he sometimes swims and bathes in my pool which is OK because it's winter and we don't want to use it. Once he can fly, he will be an outside duck exclusively. Hopefully!
So much for the background information.
Even since he was a baby he would be comforted by pecking and nuzzling my fingers. He just loved doing it. But now that he is bigger, he's taken it to a new level. He runs over whenever any human goes outside. He chatters at you and likes to peck and bite and twist his beak on you so it actually hurts. He's pretty strong now. He also pecks your shoes, clothing, ankles and whatever else he can get his beak on.
Is he just being affectionate? Or is something more going on here? I have heard he might want to mate with me when the time comes but he isn't sexually mature at 3 months, is he? And he pecks all the humans he sees, not just me.
He seems to prefer people to ducks though he gets along with ducks well enough. He has actually dominated one of the smaller backyard adult males but gets put in his place by the bigger ones. He chased a female around the yard one day though I don't know what he was planning if he caught her.
So the question is this: is there a way to get Pumpkin to stop or discourage the incessant and painful pecking?
For the last few months he has been going outside and meeting the Muscovies in my backyard. He can't fly yet to escape predators, so though he stays outside all day, I let him sleep on my patio at night if he wants too, which is does. I leave the door open so he can go outside whenever he pleases at night and in the early morning but shut it so he has to stay outside during the day. He's bigger than all the backyard females at this point and as big as the smaller males.
He eats with the backyard ducks whenever I feed them, though I do give him a bowl of lettuce for himself every day. He can't get down to the canal outside to eat there because the bank is too steep and he can't fly so he only eats what I give him or he forages for in the grass. Since he has no place else to swim, when he comes onto the patio in the evening, he sometimes swims and bathes in my pool which is OK because it's winter and we don't want to use it. Once he can fly, he will be an outside duck exclusively. Hopefully!
So much for the background information.
Even since he was a baby he would be comforted by pecking and nuzzling my fingers. He just loved doing it. But now that he is bigger, he's taken it to a new level. He runs over whenever any human goes outside. He chatters at you and likes to peck and bite and twist his beak on you so it actually hurts. He's pretty strong now. He also pecks your shoes, clothing, ankles and whatever else he can get his beak on.
Is he just being affectionate? Or is something more going on here? I have heard he might want to mate with me when the time comes but he isn't sexually mature at 3 months, is he? And he pecks all the humans he sees, not just me.
He seems to prefer people to ducks though he gets along with ducks well enough. He has actually dominated one of the smaller backyard adult males but gets put in his place by the bigger ones. He chased a female around the yard one day though I don't know what he was planning if he caught her.
So the question is this: is there a way to get Pumpkin to stop or discourage the incessant and painful pecking?
