My ducks are scaredy-cats

[Miss Lydia]

We use to go to St Augustine beach when we lived in Florida[born and raised there] and I can tell ya, standing out in the water and having little fish come up and nibble on ya and of course, you can't see them, is very strange feeling.

 

[CalliBee]

We use to go to St Augustine beach when we lived in Florida[born and raised there] and I can tell ya, standing out in the water and having little fish come up and nibble on ya and of course, you can't see them, is very strange feeling.

Oh for sure! Me and the fam visit near by rivers and lakes and the minnows like to nibble at my freckles. I guess I could see how ducks could be weirded out by it, but idk I just figured ducks were smarter than that

 

[Miss Lydia]

Being prey they can't take any chances lol

 

[CalliBee]

Just finished draining the pond. Luckily no signs of any turtles but 30+ fish out of the 50 I put in there over TWO WEEKS ago have managed to survive. I couldn’t even tell you how they’ve managed this long! I heard keeping fish alive in a duck pond was difficult

 

[CalliBee]

Update for everyone who’s interested-

Ducks finally went to the pond (willingly) for the first time today! I grabbed some treats to help coax them in but they were already heading in before I could. No hesitation or anything. I think removing the fish is what did it for them.
They enjoyed eating them as long as I threw them to them, but still refused to eat out of a bowl with fishy’s swimming. Weird ducks for sure. Just happy to see them back in the water again.

 

[Luv Ducks]

So happy that you found the answer to your problem. Another critter that loves water is the raccoons and they will try to kill your ducks for sure. Hopefully you don't have any of them in your area. It sounds like a great pond you have for your ducks.

 

[CalliBee]

So happy that you found the answer to your problem. Another critter that loves water is the raccoons and they will try to kill your ducks for sure. Hopefully you don't have any of them in your area. It sounds like a great pond you have for your ducks.

Unfortunately I do, they’ve snagged a few chickens before. My backyard has a creek and on the other side a bunch of woods. Perfect living conditions for a raccoon family to hang out especially when they have a free meal! (My flock )
I’m sure building a pond that intertwines with the creek probably only made everything more inviting lol

 

[lwharran1]

Hi all, so I recently built a pond for my 4 ducks (7 feet wide, 4.5 feet deep) and the ducks naturally loved it immediately. We couldn’t keep them out while we were building it!

Well as of lately they have been hesitant going in. The past few days they will approach the pond and examine it really closely to which my drake will then rough his feathers up and seem like he signals that it isn’t safe and they all waddle away together. They’ve only been in once in the past week which was yesterday when I threw some tasty treats in. And even then, it took them forever, and when they finally did they were floating around all quiet like, and out of now where they spazzed and came bolting out. Reminded me of a person who touches sea weed in the bottom of the ocean and freaks out lol they haven’t been back in since.

I don’t understand because they have LOVED this pond since the first day. We’ve had it for little over a month now.

The only changes made to the pond since it’s been established is 1) natural wildlife have already taken a liking to it. I see frogs in and out of it all the time. And 2) I put some feeder fish in it. About 50 of them 3 weeks ago and they’ve only ate a few of them. Plenty still live in there surprisingly. They usually in the past have gobbled them up out of the bath tub.

So my theory is, is something is scaring them from the pond. But they’re DUCKS. If it is the frogs and the fishies touching their feet… what kind of duck cares?! Ahh I worked too hard on this pond for them to act this way lol I’m hoping maybe one of you will have a better idea of what’s going on and how to fix it. Thanks!

Check for snapping turtles and if they are there remove them all immediately before you get more and more..... There are traps you can build to catch them and then you can release them somewhere far away from your pond. Snapping turtles will hurt the water fowl of any kind.

 

[Member 671655]

What kind of ducks do you have our flock is blue Swedish and one pekin one runner and three Campbell. All are pretty brave and watch out for the entire yard

 

[Sosalty]

The 3 rafts of ducklings I've raised around our pond went thru phases of day1; "oh I can swim and this pond is cool!", then next 2 days, "ah there might be really scary stuff in the water, don't make me go in there!", lastly, 3) "I'm headed out to explore, can't wait to try diving!"

About those snapping turtles, I had a big one that lived under a rock 100ft below the pond dam. Seems he wreaked havoc for a year before putting together what was happening, (big bream floating up partially eaten). He visited only at night. It could only be a snapper yet found it hard to believe, so laid down a thick string 'tween his rock and the pond. The string the next night was in the shape of a "V" headed up the 7' pond dam. Set it again late that evening and in the morning it was in the shape of a "V" headed back to his cave under the rock. Also, the neighbors dogs were excited last spring and it was a snapper out in the field traveling across land. They get around.

As to ducks, there's a frame to an old canopy that comes up just inches below the ponds' surface. I've watched one of my ducks squawk and panic while swimming, pretty sure it's foot just touched the sub surface metal for the 1st time when the water level was down a few inches. And yes, young ducklings love to play panic dashes out of the water. My still new to ducks observation is that ducks are drama queens. Keeps life amusing.

So there, you have your pick of possibilities plus what others have said. 4 & 1/2' deep, bet your ducks are having a blast in their pond!