Pulling feathers-ducklings

[duneslider]

Hello,
We have a couple little ducklings and one of them seems to be plucking the feathers off the side of the others head. It’s a little interesting that it’s the smaller of the two that is pecking the larger.

Anything we can do to stop this?

I believe we are feeding them correct. They are getting plenty of duck food, adding some extra nutritional yeast and giving them some chopped greens. Always have water and we try to get them out a few times a day to play in the pool and roam the grass a little. We are working on some semi contained free ranging to see if that helps.

Anything else we can do to alleviate this issue?

 

[ruthhope]

I rescued two dumped juvenile pekin drakes a year ago and one had the feathers above its eye and all down the side of its neck pulled out, Once I had them safely at my home under observation, I found that although the boys were very tightly bonded, one was doing this to the other and excluding him from the wading pool. I had to separate them during quarantine with a divider in their dog crate, and even after they were in the coop with my other drakes as the behavior continued. Eventually, the bully was sent to my son's for 3 or 4 months. When he returned, the two clearly knew each other and were glad to be together again. When the returned drake tried to exclude the other from the pool, the boy that stayed with me stood his ground -- he wasn't going to be excluded from 'his' pool. End of problem. Photo taken several months after they were reunited.

I don't think there is anything you can do with your little ducklings at this stage. If the behavior persists, or if it gets worse, you will have to separate them: see but no touch. 2 or 3 weeks like that should break the habit, but if it doesn't longer term separation might be needed

 

[duneslider]

Thanks for the info. I will keep a watch on it and if it gets worse I will separate them. I am hoping it stops. I don't see them picking at each other at all when we are around so it only happens when we aren't around them. They seem very sweet with each other whenever we are observing them.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Thanks for the info. I will keep a watch on it and if it gets worse I will separate them. I am hoping it stops. I don't see them picking at each other at all when we are around so it only happens when we aren't around them. They seem very sweet with each other whenever we are observing them.

Are you sure they're pulling them out?
How old are they?