My once-friendly male runner ducks are biting me - help plz.

My boy was overwhelmed today. All of his 8 girls wanted his service right then and not later. Poor boy he did his best. The pool got more and more empty as he rendered his services.

You boys may be defending their girl against you. Have you tried capturing one and carrying it around for 5 minutes just to show you are boss? Or pinning one down for 5 minutes. Worse a try.

 

Their hormones are raging, and they are so socialized that you look "good" to them. Convince them that this is unacceptable behavior or get more females. This behavior will not go away by itself.

 

I have the same thing 2 males 1 female
The males were super freindly starting fallowing me everywhere then they started to sit about a foot away and peck the ground then it progressed to infront of mh toes and now they attach the crap out of me biting my toes , legs , shoes , they will fly after my feet if I try to run and no matter how u try and diciplin them they don't learn !!

 

Not to make light of your thread, but this is really funny to read. Your ducks think you're another duck, either competition or a prospective mate, I think.

 

Could it be that having 2 males they are even more hormonal and aggressive because they have to compete with each other? You know the way men get all macho in front of the ladies if there are other guys there, posturing, strutting, etc. I am talking about humans by the way, lol. Get one guy on his own with the girl, and he will be as sweet as pie just trying to get her affections rather than show he is the most manly in the room (sorry, yard,lol).

In short, I think that replacing one of your guys with a gal might solve your problem. Perhaps a swap with another duck-keeper? You could try an ad on CL?

I will most likely be faced with the same dilemma in a few weeks. I have 2 boys and 2 girls, and that is not a good ratio. They are still young, and I am dreading the hormones kicking in. All that back-chatting, door-slamming, moodiness, etc. And then you just worry about them getting a girl pregnant, drinking, tattoos, etc. Ooops sorry, here I am talking about human teenagers

When the time comes, I think I will try and do a swap. But how do I choose between my boys? so hard, but I think I'll go on personality rather than colouring. Perhaps you could rehome the one that is worse than the other, if there is one?

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

Quote:I have a male runner who did the same thing - thanks to someone on BYC - when he would run up to bite me, I would pick him up, turn him on his back and carry him around for a few minutes then put him down. we had to repeat this two or three times but now he doesn't bite me any more - he will put his head down and charge at me then he stops short. You just need to show who's boss

 

Another knowledgeable person on BYC said if you grab the male and sit on him for 5 minutes holding his neck down he will get the idea that you are the alpha duck. I actually tried that with my male Muskovy "Flipper" .. I will be darned if it did not work like a charm... he still hisses at me a lot but no more biting or grabbing my slacks and pulling me like a dog with a rag. She knows what she is talking about . Katharinad - If you see that she has posted - look at her posts - one smart lady!! I have learned a lot by just reading the posts. Now if I can get Flipper and Darkwing to accept the two new females I just got... we will see. They are hiding out in their own little ducky house right now..They are eating and drinking ( lots of water and food in the house) plus I got an egg from one of them already YAY! A tincture of time my Dad always said....