My three Saxonys are now almost a year old (I very much appreciate the advice I got here last year!) and I finally having to deal with what I was hoping, naively, wouldn't be as big a problem as I feared. Basically of my eggs we hatched two boys (Elvis and Jimmy) and one girl (Joey).
They've been together 24/7 since day one and 95% of the time all is well in their world. They're friendly and like humans, love to come in the house, have three little pools, go for walks in our quiet neighborhood with me, work hunting snails in the neighbor's yards, LOVE worms, spaghetti, and mushrooms. But since around January things have gotten hard. They've been mating since late Fall (Joey has been laying eggs non-stop since November when she was six months old...she's so tired. I wish I could turn off the eggs) but in the past few months it's gotten really aggressive.
Elvis is clearly the dominate male and he's gotten more aggressive and now bites my ankles/hands/legs as much as he can (just me - not my boyfriend or neighbors) when I first come into the yard in the morning. But when they mate it's Elvis on top of Joey - but then Jimmy pulls the feathers out of Elvis's neck in an effort to get in on the action. Otherwise Jimmy has remained totally docile and sweet and almost seems to enjoy being held by me. In the past month we've put Joey by herself for the night to at least give her some rest - and that seems to help. But her back is still torn up and the feathers gone from her neck.
My question is who should go stay with my sister. She's volunteered to take a duck in her yard with 11 chickens, two kids, and two dogs. Will Jimmy get aggressive like Elvis once he's promoted to top duck? Or should I send Joey away so she'll have complete rest from this pretty painful mating process? I really love all of their personalities (except Elvis when he's tearing up my hands!) and I hate to think of one of them being a lone duck.
Thank you for your input!
BTW - has anyone else noticed a male's feathers changing color? Elvis's grey head turned light brown as he got more and more aggressive. Maybe the stress hormones or testosterone?
They've been together 24/7 since day one and 95% of the time all is well in their world. They're friendly and like humans, love to come in the house, have three little pools, go for walks in our quiet neighborhood with me, work hunting snails in the neighbor's yards, LOVE worms, spaghetti, and mushrooms. But since around January things have gotten hard. They've been mating since late Fall (Joey has been laying eggs non-stop since November when she was six months old...she's so tired. I wish I could turn off the eggs) but in the past few months it's gotten really aggressive.
Elvis is clearly the dominate male and he's gotten more aggressive and now bites my ankles/hands/legs as much as he can (just me - not my boyfriend or neighbors) when I first come into the yard in the morning. But when they mate it's Elvis on top of Joey - but then Jimmy pulls the feathers out of Elvis's neck in an effort to get in on the action. Otherwise Jimmy has remained totally docile and sweet and almost seems to enjoy being held by me. In the past month we've put Joey by herself for the night to at least give her some rest - and that seems to help. But her back is still torn up and the feathers gone from her neck.
My question is who should go stay with my sister. She's volunteered to take a duck in her yard with 11 chickens, two kids, and two dogs. Will Jimmy get aggressive like Elvis once he's promoted to top duck? Or should I send Joey away so she'll have complete rest from this pretty painful mating process? I really love all of their personalities (except Elvis when he's tearing up my hands!) and I hate to think of one of them being a lone duck.
Thank you for your input!
BTW - has anyone else noticed a male's feathers changing color? Elvis's grey head turned light brown as he got more and more aggressive. Maybe the stress hormones or testosterone?
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