There's always that risk but if introduced slowly ducks are pretty good at accepting one another. You just have to be patient and go about it in the right way but if you got 2 and something happened again God forbid then you'd at least still have 2 for each other. Do you know the sex of your duck?
X2
I don't think at 8 weeks you can tell, so you have the choice of waiting till older so you know for sure and that way if this one is a drake you wouldn't be adding another drake to the mix, 2 ducks and 1 drake is much better. in the meantime giving the only one alot of attention and like Amiga said a mirror for company will help until you decide.
Glad you were able to find more ducks even if ducklings, but please be cautious and keep the chicken wire up till the 2 new ones Crosby and Eve have gotten almost as large, Chickens can be very hateful to ducklings and Dewey being larger could also hurt them. Supervised time together in a common area where noone feels threatened giving out dried mealworms or other treats will start the process of everyone being together soon. Pics when you can.UPDATE
we looked all over to try and get another pekin similar age but were unable to do so. so we got two more week old ducklings and after a week seperated we are integrating them into the flock slowly. they are all in the same coop but i put up chicken wire to seperate them. all seems to be well for two weeks now. hopefully Crosby and Eve get along just fine with Dewey and the chickens
My crested duck has these same symptoms besides the leg issues, and he sneezes a lot (although I only caught him panting once) I'm not too sure about the weight because the only other duck I have to compare it to is an Indian Runner, so I don't know. I thought it might be effects of the time I saw it start to drown when it was maybe two or three weeks old? I came outside to check on them just as it's head went under the water and bubbles started coming out of his mouth. He and I were lucky I came out at that time and saved him, but I had to stay with it on my lap for a few hours to get it working again and to this day it still kinda leans over a bit to the right but not enough that I thought I had to get worried about it. He's fine now, but I think he might be nearing the 8 weeks old "death age" and you guys just freaked me out. Is there anything I can do or just sit here and hope my duck doesn't die? thanks!Very sorry to hear
We lost one of our 8 week old Pekins last week, very similar description, minus the larger weight.
He seemed to be a bit off when we got him as a 5 day old chick - leg issues, and always panting (regardless of the temperature).
Over the last month, Chunk seemed to be improving - though still less active than our other two (another Pekin and a KC), still panting often and his feathers always a bit out of sorts.
I had been out in the yard with them for a few hours on the morning it happened (I spend several hours everyday out supervising their foraging). I put the three back in their predator secure pen and went inside for an hour or so. When I went back outside to check in on them before heading off to work, Chunk was laying still on the floor, he had passed.
Our ducks are our pets, and are extremely well cared for, they are fed waterfowl specific feed, get several hours of daily supervised foraging time in our yard and such...we just chalked it up to it being 'his time'.
Our other two are healthy and well, but you can tell they are missing their 3rd... and we were heartbroken - I've become quite attached to the little quackers.
Dan
