Need help with our ducks unusual behavior!!

[Rose Carter]

Hi, we had our duckling hatched a week age and we originally were going to allow the mom duck to take care of them on her own. But, one was taken by a predator, so we decided to put them in a cage so they would be safe. The next day I went to feed them and some had gone to our other mom duck with her older baby's (there was a large age difference, some were a week and the others were 12 weeks) . And she (the original mom of them) had trampled some. 1 died, but we were able to save the others. Why did the baby's go to the other mom? Why would the mom kill her baby?

Thank you for taking your time to read this, any help is greatly appreciated -Rose

 

[Aunt Angus]

Hi, we had our duckling hatched a week age and we originally were going to allow the mom duck to take care of them on her own. But, one was taken by a predator, so we decided to put them in a cage so they would be safe. The next day I went to feed them and some had gone to our other mom duck with her older baby's (there was a large age difference, some were a week and the others were 12 weeks) . And she (the original mom of them) had trampled some. 1 died, but we were able to save the others. Why did the baby's go to the other mom? Why would the mom kill her baby?

Thank you for taking your time to read this, any help is greatly appreciated -Rose

So did the mom trample her own baby? My guess is she may have been trying to run off the babies that weren't hers. The newer babies probably ran to her for warmth, and mama wanted nothing to do with them. It's really not uncommon for mamas to run off or kill babies that aren't theirs.

I'm sorry you lost one, but I'm glad you saved the others. How are they doing?

 

[Rose Carter]

So did the mom trample her own baby? My guess is she may have been trying to run off the babies that weren't hers. The newer babies probably ran to her for warmth, and mama wanted nothing to do with them. It's really not uncommon for mamas to run off or kill babies that aren't theirs.

I'm sorry you lost one, but I'm glad you saved the others. How are they doing?

5 are ok, but the one that we saved had some problems and passed away.

 

[Rose Carter]

And yes the mom killed her own baby's not the others.

 

[JedJackson]

She might have been panicked by being in the new environment and trampled them by accident. If a duck wanted to kill her babies she would attack them with her bill, so I think it was unintentional.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Ducks tend to stomp their feet when their ducklings are not listening to them or something is going on and they need their babies to come back to them. If they were all in a small area, this is what could have happened. It's not on purpose. I've seen my muscovy do that with their ducklings and oddly enough I just watched a video of it.
Once, I saw a post where the person had put two moms and hatching eggs in a tote and the hatching ducklings got trampled and eggs got smashed. They were asking why, well they hadn't given the moms enough room and there was no way for them to get out with their ducklings.

Video of muscovy mama stomping her feet when a man picked up her duckling: https://www.instagram.com/p/CR3WbE9j0Tb/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

[Rose Carter]

Thank you for all your help!