My ducks refuse to swim in the pond...

[sidsmama]

Hi, We are new to ducks. Our daughter wanted to show ducks for 4-H, so we picked up 4, 2 Rouens and 2 unknowns. They have been hand raised by us, and have been moved out to their own coop. We bought a baby pool for them to swim in until they were bigger. We have a nice pond maybe 50 feet from the house for them. We have taken them down to the pond several times to swim and they just plain refuse. We put them in the water, they swim across the pond and high-tail it back to the house. We have a pair of turkeys, which are the leaders of this pack, oddly enough. We tried taking the turkeys with us to the pond thinking that would make them feel safer, well they all just leave. Is this normal? They refuse to swim in the pond, but love their nice clean pool water. They are too big for the pool now that they have 5 months old and only 1 duck fits comfortably, so they fight over "pool rights" Any ideas how to get them more comfortable in the pond? Thanks!

 

[decomposed]

try splashing them with water first so they are completely wet then throw them into the pond my drake does exactly the same thing when i try to put him in the pool but if i splash him with water first then put him in he will usually stay in, its probably because they aren't used to a deep pond they should get used to it eventually

 

[gilmeryote]

I'm new with ducks too,got my first ones this year. I wonder if you could throw out some floating food to coax them out on the water?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm wondering if it's what might be beneath the water that is scaring them? we have seen this summer ducks and ducklings bitten by snapping turtles. could you pond be harboring some?

 

[rlmitchell]

As another poster said, it could be that there is something in the pond that is scaring them (turtle or something perhaps?). However, if you check the pond out and there isn't any cause for them to be scared, I'd just wait it out. My ducks took about a week before they got real excited about going into the pond. Now you can't get them out of it, even at bedtime!

 

[sidsmama]

Thanks for the great ideas! The water is kind of murky so we can't really see what is down below. We can barely even get the ducks to the waters edge, they just quack at us and head home. I'm just ready for them to be in the pond because of the mess they make in the yard by their pool. We are going to keep trying to get them on the pond. They are highly amusing to us and our Rouen was prized the Grand Champion of our little county fair, so our daughter is very happy