maddiegray
Hatching
- Jul 19, 2015
- 3
- 0
- 7
First of all, hello everyone!
I am new to the site, but used it many times before making an account and I thank you all for your helpful threads and comments! I have two ducks, one female cayuga and one male pekin. They are both about 3.5 months old. The cayuga has had a rough start. I believe she has developed wet feather, and I work every day to try and help her out with that. She has also struggled from the day I got her as a chick, with sneezing and watery eyes. She is healthy now, has grown like crazy (finally), and has new, healthier feathers coming in yay! She still struggles as she has from the beginning with balance, but she gets better all the time. Still, though, she is much smaller than my male pekin.
From time to time, I take them both to the creek by my house to swim around and play. He especially LOVES it. She cleans off, and then comes over to me to take her out because she gets cold, so I let her preen and hold her until he's done playing around. (Sometimes I have to forcibly remove him, he would never leave if I didn't
). It's always gone smoothly until today. I took them to the creek as usual and he got in first. When I put her in she swam out to the center of the creek! I was so excited, usually she stays by the edge. To my horror, he took her by the neck and began trying to mate with her. He held her head under and she struggled to come up for air a few times. I intervened and finally got him to loosen his grip. I picked her up and she was limp. I was so scared. I thought it was the end for her. She got her energy back after catching her breath, and she was okay. I took him out and let her finish cleaning off and have them separated for now.
I'm just not sure what to do about this. Is it normal? Will it end? Is the size differential going to kill her if they spend too much time together? I've never seen him do anything like this on land, this was by the far the most aggressive thing he's ever done. He is usually very sweet and docile. Someone please help with this! I don't know what to do!
I am new to the site, but used it many times before making an account and I thank you all for your helpful threads and comments! I have two ducks, one female cayuga and one male pekin. They are both about 3.5 months old. The cayuga has had a rough start. I believe she has developed wet feather, and I work every day to try and help her out with that. She has also struggled from the day I got her as a chick, with sneezing and watery eyes. She is healthy now, has grown like crazy (finally), and has new, healthier feathers coming in yay! She still struggles as she has from the beginning with balance, but she gets better all the time. Still, though, she is much smaller than my male pekin.
From time to time, I take them both to the creek by my house to swim around and play. He especially LOVES it. She cleans off, and then comes over to me to take her out because she gets cold, so I let her preen and hold her until he's done playing around. (Sometimes I have to forcibly remove him, he would never leave if I didn't
). It's always gone smoothly until today. I took them to the creek as usual and he got in first. When I put her in she swam out to the center of the creek! I was so excited, usually she stays by the edge. To my horror, he took her by the neck and began trying to mate with her. He held her head under and she struggled to come up for air a few times. I intervened and finally got him to loosen his grip. I picked her up and she was limp. I was so scared. I thought it was the end for her. She got her energy back after catching her breath, and she was okay. I took him out and let her finish cleaning off and have them separated for now. I'm just not sure what to do about this. Is it normal? Will it end? Is the size differential going to kill her if they spend too much time together? I've never seen him do anything like this on land, this was by the far the most aggressive thing he's ever done. He is usually very sweet and docile. Someone please help with this! I don't know what to do!
