Pekin neckless?

[Myra]

Okay - my 1 1/2 year old pekin female has developed a weird neck walk - let's see if I can describe it...it's like neck has a crick in it or that her head has been jammed down so she really doesn't have a neck....then when she walks she kind of bobs her head to the side. Does that make sense? It's hard to describe. She hasn't any injury or change in food/diet/eating habits/nor is she different in any other way!

Any ideas?

 

[1duckychick]

My rouen female does the same thing - not always but often. I sometimes look at her and she looks crooked.

Does she straighten out at all?

 

[Amiga]

Does she make a kind of staccato, cascading sound, a series of short, choppy ah-ah-ah-ahs?

Mine do that when they're feeling, uhm, ornery, but not mean. When Zehn yells at me, Funf or Zwei will walk just behind her with the funny neck and the choppy call, as if to say, "you TELL her, Zehn!!! We're with you!!"

They do it to me at times when I appear to be about to ask them to do something they don't want to do, like go inside after playing all day.

 

[DuckLady]

That's the "hussy head-bob".

She is flirting.

 

[Wifezilla]

Yup!!!

 

[Amiga]

Quote:
I love that term!

 

[aduckstolemyheart]

Yup, I agree with above posters. My pekin hen does the same thing, when she is flirting with the boys, or herding them back to her. I think she also does it front of me, as a way to "claim" the boys and let me know they're HERS. lol

 

[ejctm]

Mine also do it when I let them out of the coop into their enclosure, or out of the enclosure to free range. As well as flirting, it seems to be an expression of pure joy or excitement! They also do a lot of wing flapping and quacking when they get excited about something too.

 

[karbear]

I love my Pekins and their head bobs and tail wagging.

 

[desertdarlene]

I think I've seen a mallard do something similar, once. She hangs out with her brother and another unrelated duck that has been hanging around them since they were all about 6-8 weeks old. She likes the unrelated one and did that head-bobbing with a weird kind of short, low-toned calls. It looked bossy to me, but the male responded by moving closer to her. It was almost like she was saying "you better come over here right now!" to him.