New Duckling

KatM41

Chirping
Sep 19, 2018
31
38
51
A few weeks ago I bought a six week old duckling, brought her home and put her with my Bantam birds. They are a fairly relaxed set of chickens and I figured theyd help Charlie (The new duckling) find her way around the new world. Well that was a fail to say the least. I went in the next morning and they had pecked her poor little beak and she was all sad looking. So off she went into her own bin with her own light.

I've read that Khaki Campbells are skittish. I know ducks need friends. As soon as the coop is finished outside I'm planning on putting them all back together again. I think the dog cage my bantams are being held in has just run out of space for any new flock members, but their outdoor pen will be a good size run. As baby like as the the duck is I'm hoping these guys will get along.

I know Charlie needs buddies, but she has some serious issues. She whines all day. If you go to pay attention to her she freaks out and sprays poo all over the place. She's bananas. We took her outside but there is no way except through catching her with a net will she get out of that pond and she certainly doesn't care to come to you for treats. Where she lived before was outdoors in a huge pen with other animals including ducks, but also chickens and goats and a goose.

Is two weeks just not long enough? I don't want to super bond with her because she's headed outdoors and I've read too many posts of people babying their ducks and the ducks just want to hang themselves when the owner is gone. I also don't want to baby it because, well, it's a duck. Is there anything I can do to teach this duck to chill out? We've held her, "played" with her, tried to hand feed her, pet her, cooed at her, put her out to free range with the other chickens. Nada, nothing makes her life happy. Seriously, the most miserable duck in the world.
 
Of course she is lonely they really do so much better if they have a buddy or two of their own kind doesn’t necessarily have to be KC but another duckling of same age and size. How terrifying that must have been to be put out with the bantams who most likely looked at her as an intruder not a baby it’s a wonder they didn’t do more serious harm I read s post on here of chickens wounding some Muscovy ducklings to the point of death. Never a good idea to introduce a newbie that way. Give her a mirror so she can see herself it will make her feel secure.also a stuffed animal may help. Make sure to spend time with her not trying to pick up but just chilling out with her. Maybe have some dried meal worms or thawed peas and toss some out to her. Try to get on her level if you can. Poor thing has had a traumatic experience so it’s going to take patience and time and TLC to get a relationship going and she probably wont ever be a lap duck but you can get her to where she enjoys your company having a buddy will help a lot. May I ask why you only brought home one duckling? They really are flock animals and do much better if more than one.
 
My horrible back story was I was an idiot. This person found what appeared to be a duck in the middle of the road and brought it to the property I'm staying on right now. There's a pond. Didn't seem to be any injuries, possibly a duckling since it was kinda small, like fit in the palm of my hand. However, it had all it's adult feathers. Well, no one was going to take care of this and because we have chickens these people assumed I was up for a duck. We aren't prepared for ducks. We want ducks in the spring when I can toss their little smelly butts outside in a house and run.

The duck seemed a little odd looking, but I haven't been around alot of ducks so I just assumed it was a wild duck that looked odd. It seemed sad so I went on craigslist to find it a friend. Someone had a duck that was about the same size as this one. I was going to bring wild duck inside (against my better judgement, I don't believe in bringing wild animals indoors but it would only be for a few weeks.)

I went to pick up duckling and that looked nothing like the duck I had at home. I pulled the duck out of the pond and inspected it, it was definitly not a duck. But I figured water fowel could maybe live peacefully with this new duck. So after much searching I found it and the wild duck was actually a pied bellied grebe. Great, really not a duck, not social and lives quietly hidden all by itself. Next day it was floating dead in said pond, so the not duck was probably sick. I hope I was able to bring it peace since they rarely leave the water.

Now this left me with a sad lonely duck who hates everything. Worst part is, I'm an avid hiker, my daughter is a vegan we know about animals, wild animals, how to care for them. I made the worst newbie mistake ever and if this had been someone else I would be scalding mad at them. All I can offer is I got so worried about this wild duck I wanted to do the best I could by it. I do have the skills and most of the education, but evidently I forgot to rub two brain cells together. No one has any ducks my ducks age and I'm one more week out before I can put everyone outdoors. As we have to put the doors on the coop. embarrassing to say the least since I'm such an advocate for treating animals well. My mistake however does not have to be detrimental to all involved and I'm working on rectifying it now. I will work on the treat thing and hanging with this duck, but I am i no position to try to get this little girl her own flock. I won't have the resources for more building until end of winter beginning of spring sometime, so everyone has to learn to get along. It doesn't make me any less worried or sad for our new friend and I will try the methods you all are suggesting.
 

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