Odd and worrisome behavior of my ducks

[chooks4life]

lol heartsizedfarm, maybe your dog's the one that needs to change its mantra into something other than 'the world is a platter of goodies'.

Stomach-driven dogs can be hard to manage when they're 24/7 seeking food. But easier to manage than a dog not driven by praise, affection, food, or anything like that. With that sort you've just got to hope they love you enough to want to be good.

Best wishes.

 

[Smartconnect]

I would suggest not leaving food in the coop at night (for a multitude of reasons), and placing the food and water in a secure area away from the coop and deck to encourage them to spend time elsewhere. I feed mine in the AM and just before dusk, and occasional snacks (fresh cut grass/greens or cat food) in the kiddie pool, so they spend a good portion of the day foraging. This may or may not be helpful, because we don't handle our ducks as pets just to avoid what you are going through. How old were they before they were allowed to stay outside?

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Thanks so much to all of you for the replies. I apologize for taking so long to respond. I've had several work emergencies in the past couple of days that have left me little time to do personal stuff on my computer.

Chooks--Yes, they're hand-raised since three days hatched. They'll be ten weeks old on Monday.

I tried the suggestion of closing the blinds even though I don't want that as a permanent solution. It did seem to make some bit of difference, so I think I might try the suggestion of stretching some cardboard about two feet tall along the inside of the door when I'm in here. Maybe I won't have to do it forever and they'll eventually get where they find something more interesting and duck-like to do.

In answer to Heart's question, they have a kiddie pool right now, It's three feet wide but only about eight inches deep. They go in it all the time when we're outside, but very rarely when we're not. They also can roam our almost two acre property anytime during daylight hours, but they don't seem to find that particularly interesting, either, unless we're outside. We're putting in an 18 inch deep pond so it will be deep enough for them to swim and dive rather than to just get wet, but we're still waiting for a date from the backhoe guy to dig that and a few other things we need.

SmartConnect--What is the reason for not leaving food in the pen at night? Overeating? Contamination? Their food dish is in the pen. We feed them early every morning and around dusk every night, but always in the food dish in the pen.

I think it's four weeks today that they've been outside. We kept them inside with their heat lamp when they were little and brought them out every day when we could supervise, then took them back in the house.

Thanks again to all of you!!!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

I just put in a swan pond so have useful info about gravel liner, pump, filter, and water plants for in and around if you're interested. All the best!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I just put in a swan pond so have useful info about gravel liner, pump, filter, and water plants for in and around if you're interested. All the best!

I'd be very interested! We've already picked out most of what we think we want, but we haven't yet bought any of it. I'd really love to see what you did, and I'm sure my hubby would as well. He's far more creative than I am, so he changes his mind on things like this about a hundred times before he settles on his final plan.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

I'd be very interested! We've already picked out most of what we think we want, but we haven't yet bought any of it. I'd really love to see what you did, and I'm sure my hubby would as well. He's far more creative than I am, so he changes his mind on things like this about a hundred times before he settles on his final plan.

Backhoe dug a 4 ft deep and approx 12 by 12 foot hole which we lined with clear gravel. Decided against a liner. Bought a pump for that size pond, but here's the cool bit. We watched a YouTube video entitled filter for duck pond where this Scottish man had designed a natural filter system, using gravel, pond vegetation and charcoal and pine bark in a barrel. So we bought a concrete planter box with a hole in the bottom, ran a tube out of the bottom to splash in the pond, filled the planter with gravel, pond veg and pine bark (didn't have charcoal) and pumped the pond water up into and through that. It works amazingly well! We run the pump for about four hours a day and have very clear water.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Very neat, and the hubby is interested in this! We can't go more than two feet deep at the deepest point because of local regulations classifying it as a swimming pool if it's deeper than that, but this is great. Thank you so much for sharing it!