My surgery update, and an interesting duck behavior!

nettie

Enslaved by Indoor Ducks
11 Years
Nov 20, 2008
1,725
246
214
Chicago, IL
As some of you know, awhile back i was building a new pen for my ducks and was trying to figure out their sexes before i finished the design. The reason i needed to know was because i was having surgery at the end of feb. and needed to finish it before. Well, my ducks all turned out to be females and the need to seperate them is now non existant. But thought i would give you guys an update. My surgery went well, and i am recovering. I'm still very sore, but i am feeling better each day. I haven't checked BYC in 4 days and there was 4 pages of new topics! lol. I had part of my stomach removed due to 3 tumors (non cancerous). They removed them as a precaution, and also removed the acid producing parts of my stomach to prevent ulcers and other stomavch problems. In about 6 weeks i'll be fully recovered.

While i was a 100 miles away at the hospital, we had to do something with my indoor ducks. I set up the new pen i built and seperated the little ones form the big ones. (the big ones have recently gone broody and kept chasing the babies out of the nestbox). So for two full nioghts/days they were in their new pen with plenty of food and water. My F drove home for a few hours after my surgery to check on them. He noticed that Victor, a big duck,and Sammy, a very small duck (5 week old mallard) were putting their beaks together through the netting seperating the compartments.

I came home on saturday from the hospital and we set up for the ducks to keep me company in my room while i recover. (my ducks are in my house all the time). I saw the funniest behavior... Victor, who has recently gone all broody on me, keeps trying to stand next to sammy. But of course sammy's body guard peter bites and chases Victor away. But Victor is very insistant that he gets near Sammy. Today i put both of them together and held sammy down so she couldn't run away. Victor came over and sat on/over sammy and pulled the little baby down feathers left from the back of her neck. Sammy sat there and let Vic do it. Sammy didn't run away until peter yelled for her. I"m wondering if broody victor sees little tiny sammt as a baby duckling and is trying to mother her? Sammy seemed to like letting vic sit on her. My duckies are so weird.
 
So Glad you are feeling so much better.

Good luck for your recovery,

Sounds like you are having great fun wih those ducks.

Hope the weather improves soon and you will feel completely well by summer.

best wishes,

Jena.
 
Awww Nettie! Sounds like you had some MAJOR surgery! I'm so glad to hear you are getting better.
Victor is so sweet. Your ducks might be a little weird, but I bet this plucking feathers our of her back thing is just something most of us never get to see because we don't have the opportunity to watch our ducks as closely as you do.
That reminds me of when I brought home a very young kitten to my unspayed four year old cat. She had never had kittens and hissed at the kitten for the whole first day. But by the second she was "nursing" the kitten. That momma/baby instinct just breaks through.
How funny that Peter tries to protect Sammy! Peter sees a threat, Sammy sees a momma, and Victor sees a baby. Each one is so unique.
 
Great Story!
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thanks guys, they are so funny. When we first got the babies, Victor ran away from sammy. Today Sammy started running away from Victor, who is very insistant that he be near sammy. Peter of coure chases Vic away. For being a little duck, peter is a feisty little thing with a major biting problem. It funny because my older ducks were taught not to bite and won't bite him back, but look at me like, "mom, see see i'm not touching him, he's biting me, he's in trouble!" then they seem to take some saticifaction from watching me scold peter. lol
 

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