Show off your house ducks!

[Julie Birb]

You have to wonder how something so cute can make so much of a mess in so short a period of time...
....then I'd dawned on me I'd been asking myself the same question about my husband for years.... No wonder they love him so - they aren't just cuddling... They are plotting their next great household disaster!!

they are all Tuckered out after their reign of terror.

 

[Amykins]

they are all Tuckered out after their reign of terror.

Right?? Hey, do any of you guys have any way to deter your house ducks from eating paper, or is this just a part of life I have to accept? Wobbles has always loved tearing apart cardboard, as most ducks do...but he also will try to get at my books, pamphlets, and he took a chunk out of a contract I was signing and had to explain in e-mail why there was a small blank spot covered in duck spit!

 

[Julie Birb]

Right?? Hey, do any of you guys have any way to deter your house ducks from eating paper, or is this just a part of life I have to accept? Wobbles has always loved tearing apart cardboard, as most ducks do...but he also will try to get at my books, pamphlets, and he took a chunk out of a contract I was signing and had to explain in e-mail why there was a small blank spot covered in duck spit!

first off I will say not funny he ruined the contract, but funny that he does all these shenanigans because he's Wobbles. Does he roam the house willy nilly and poke his snooter everywhere? I hope he isn't swallowing it? I have no solutions since I don't own ducks, but I think it's common for ducks to put their bills in and on non food items. John's welsh girl started poking at and destroying this foam insulation lining his garage door. Then she started in on a mini hole in the sheetrock and made it bigger and soon her Pekin pal started poking and destroying the sheetrock too. And another time when John was painting his house, Mont the welsh poked her bill into the paint and saturated her bill so John and his wife had to hold her down to clean her bill inside and out. It seems maybe the ducks are bored? Or curious? And their bill is this tactile unit that they use to handle everything.

 

[Amykins]

Hehe, "snooter", I am so stealing that! And YES, he does! Usually I catch him before he swallows anything, 'cuz I'm with him 24/7. We still need to build out their enclosure so they can be left alone, though. We have all this wood, caulk and liner downstairs and yet we haven't even begun to nail a single board! /sheepish

And the image of those two ducks pecking a hole in sheetrock is just too funny! And PAINT? Oh my gosh, that's far worse than ranch dressing or pancake batter, but the very same concept, ha! I often muse aloud how on earth ducks are such successful animals, when it seems everything they do has "Darwin Award" written all over it.

On a side note, I think it's so cool how ducks have salivary glands. <3

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

No matter how duck proof I think I have the house, there is always something else they find and try to eat!!

Tragedy hit this afternoon. Mama saxony had set up shop and was preparing to lay a new clutch. She left her next box to forage, and got gang raped by the geese. She escaped the first gander only to get tagged by the second one as she scrambled for the porch. I heard the commotion and opened up the back door and called to her. She fought off a khaki campbell drake on the way to the door but scrambled into the house and immediately collapsed into a shaking heap on the kitchen floor. She hates diapers, and gives everyone in the household back sass, but I have never seen a bird look more relieved to be inside. Her ducklings don't know she's back yet, as they have been sleeping away in the family room, oblivious to the noise. I'll check her over once she relaxes a bit. I want her to feel that she is 100% safe.
I must have done something right by her, even though we thought she hated us, because as soon as I called her she dredged up every ounce of energy she had left to make it into that open door where I was calling her.
So she will be a permanent house duck...

 

[Amykins]

Oh no, the poor little girl! I'm so happy you were there to intervene, oh I can't even think about what could have happened if you weren't there...it's good that she's happy to be inside. I hope you guys can all make the transition smoothly and that she opens up to you even more!

 

[Julie Birb]

No matter how duck proof I think I have the house, there is always something else they find and try to eat!!

Tragedy hit this afternoon. Mama saxony had set up shop and was preparing to lay a new clutch. She left her next box to forage, and got gang raped by the geese. She escaped the first gander only to get tagged by the second one as she scrambled for the porch. I heard the commotion and opened up the back door and called to her. She fought off a khaki campbell drake on the way to the door but scrambled into the house and immediately collapsed into a shaking heap on the kitchen floor. She hates diapers, and gives everyone in the household back sass, but I have never seen a bird look more relieved to be inside. Her ducklings don't know she's back yet, as they have been sleeping away in the family room, oblivious to the noise. I'll check her over once she relaxes a bit. I want her to feel that she is 100% safe.
I must have done something right by her, even though we thought she hated us, because as soon as I called her she dredged up every ounce of energy she had left to make it into that open door where I was calling her.
So she will be a permanent house duck...

oh no, that is making me cry. I am so sorry. that is dreadful. poor little sweetie. Why do those males do that? I've seen it in the wild before and it horrifies and sickens me. one time I did break up a gang rape of two mallard drakes on a female and as a woman i was insulted by it so I chased them off. Sh!t. But I am glad the sweetie came to you and that she'll be sheltered for the rest of her life.

 

[Julie Birb]

Hehe, "snooter", I am so stealing that! And YES, he does! Usually I catch him before he swallows anything, 'cuz I'm with him 24/7. We still need to build out their enclosure so they can be left alone, though. We have all this wood, caulk and liner downstairs and yet we haven't even begun to nail a single board! /sheepish

And the image of those two ducks pecking a hole in sheetrock is just too funny! And PAINT? Oh my gosh, that's far worse than ranch dressing or pancake batter, but the very same concept, ha! I often muse aloud how on earth ducks are such successful animals, when it seems everything they do has "Darwin Award" written all over it.

On a side note, I think it's so cool how ducks have salivary glands. <3

By all means use snooter because in your humorous writings you will make it funny. The pecking in the sheetrock is funny. If you were to give them a month, they'd probably destroy the whole garage. As for the paint dipping incident, John said the expression on Mont's face was one of bewilderment and yuck. And you are right about the Darwinian concept. Thank goodness John and his wife intervened immediately to clean her up. She hadn't swallowed any. But geez, silly duck.

 

[Amykins]

Seriously! Ducks are probably one of the most successful group of birds in existence, they're thriving all over the globe, and yet every time I see Wobbles walk straight off the side of the bed I just shake my head and wonder how.

 

[Julie Birb]

Seriously! Ducks are probably one of the most successful group of birds in existence, they're thriving all over the globe, and yet every time I see Wobbles walk straight off the side of the bed I just shake my head and wonder how.

is he an anomaly of duck? Cute little bitty mini web footed drake. How's his landing when he hits the floor?