Strange muscovy drake behaviour

[MixWizard]

For the second night in a row after putting my Muscovy ducks in their coop for the night, I observed one of the drakes acting like something was stuck to his butt. He stretches his head towards his vent area and snaps at open air then stretches his head on his other side and does the same thing. He will repeat this several times then go about his normal routine then about 5 or 10 minutes later he does this again. He is eating, drinking and pooping normally. Also, he seems to be the alpha duck, at least presently. There are 4 drakes and 4 ducks, 3 drakes will be going to different home soon before other issues arise

.

None of the other ducks do this at all and it only happens to this one drake in the coop at night. I keep their coop and pen clean and change out the bedding and straw regularly, their pool is dumped and refilled daily, as long as its above freezing.

Any thoughts?

 

[Miss Lydia]

For the second night in a row after putting my Muscovy ducks in their coop for the night, I observed one of the drakes acting like something was stuck to his butt. He stretches his head towards his vent area and snaps at open air then stretches his head on his other side and does the same thing. He will repeat this several times then go about his normal routine then about 5 or 10 minutes later he does this again. He is eating, drinking and pooping normally. Also, he seems to be the alpha duck, at least presently. There are 4 drakes and 4 ducks, 3 drakes will be going to different home soon before other issues arise

.

None of the other ducks do this at all and it only happens to this one drake in the coop at night. I keep their coop and pen clean and change out the bedding and straw regularly, their pool is dumped and refilled daily, as long as its above freezing.

Any thoughts?

I have no idea although I saw my alpha drake doing the same thing last fall, he'll be 2 this June. other than what you just described I saw nothing else wrong, he would do it in the evenings right before going to bed, It's been about 4 months since I have seen him do this so maybe your drake will grow out of it, It worried me since I have another drake that is 9yrs and had never seen him do it. Hopefully what ever it is yours will get over it too. Keep us updated. maybe some vitamins added to drinking water, that is the only thing I did.

 

[Going Quackers]

Hmm.. no idea, he is not rubbing on the oil gland? I have only seen oil gland rubbing here after that i have no idea.. keep an eye as ML said, if everything else is working as it should, i am uncertain what more you can do at the moment.

 

[MixWizard]

Thank you both for the replies, I will try adding a vitamin supplement to their water and continue to observe.

 

[PamD]

must be the time of year, I have a 6th month old female muscovy doing exactly the same. The other 21 birds are fine, just her doing this weird thing 4 or 5 times a day??

 

[Miss Lydia]

must be the time of year, I have a 6th month old female muscovy doing exactly the same. The other 21 birds are fine, just her doing this weird thing 4 or 5 times a day??

Maybe so, one thing I forgot to mention was when my drake would do this I kept thinking while watching him is he going to start chasing his tail, he never did but kept making me think he was going to. I watched him today to make sure i hadn't missed him doing it and nope he must be over it what ever it was.

 

[PamD]

Yes same here, she is almost like a puppy chasing her tail but does not quite reach it, her beak gets to the back of her legs and then she twists to the other side and reaches around again. I have checked her for mites, wormed her, checked for injuries-nothing. I have no idea what she is doing it for.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes same here, she is almost like a puppy chasing her tail but does not quite reach it, her beak gets to the back of her legs and then she twists to the other side and reaches around again. I have checked her for mites, wormed her, checked for injuries-nothing. I have no idea what she is doing it for.

As long as there are no reasons for her behavior, hopefully she'll just get over it, my drake finally did. Oh and forgot to say

 

[Going Quackers]

How odd, as ML says, keep an eye, without any other strange or change in what is otherwise normal behaviour it's hard to figure.

 

[MixWizard]

Well, after much observation, I think I've discovered why my drake is doing what he's doing. I was watching my flock this morning after letting them out and setting out their food and water, etc.

It would seem that all the males' "equipment" would randomly pop out and then go back in, well the one drake in question was trying to catch it, making the same motions I observed earlier, but it would go back in when he would almost get it. He's in for quite a surprise if he does!

Is this a normal thing for drakes, they weren't interested in the females at all during this. They are just over 6 months old.