Support Group for Abused Duck Keepers

[New duck mommy 2021]

I didn't know what to make of the thread from the email notification. Now I find that it is gramatically correct and I'm responding to an already long thread by duck mammas and pappas who have been abused by their ducks. So many of us!!

This is Daffy one great fat loveable lump of ducky hooligan. He was snatched from the jaws of death at 2 days old -- I had my car heater on full in July in Florida, while I drove him home nestled inside my teeshirt. I fed him with crumbles and drops of water from my little finger every 10 minutes ALL NIGHT and only went to sleep once he was able to stand and eat crumbles and drink on his own in the brooder. I recognized he was a depressed lonely duck 3 days later and tried my best to find duckie friends of the same age -- nearest 4 hours drive away. That was too far to drive with a sick duckling in a box on the seat next to me [with the heating on full in July in Florida!] So I had him up on my dining table between my laptop and me, giving him so much attention and love -- lots of toys for enrighment: all dropped onto the floor for me to pick them up. At 8 weeks I got two ducky friends from a rehabber and that is when I think our relationship took a turn for the worse. He seemed friendly with the two newbies and even slept with his head and neck over one of the others. But that was to lead me on....

Now he has forgotten all about nibbly nibbly and its bitey bitey every morning when I go down the garden to let them out for the day. He comes straight out biting my ankles, calves and most painfull my shins. I am being punished for leaving him in the duck house with his now three ducky friends, and not letting him spend the night in the house.

Any time I go out in the back garden, he comes "running" if his fat wabbling from side to side can be called running and starts biting my ankles demanding attention. He wants a hand against his body inside his wing -- he really likes that best of all -- and his crop cooched. He's quite partial to his chest and belly being played like a drum. But most of all he wants to get in the house and this meanie duck mamma wont let him in!

It’s the boys
If they imprint they get crazy woth hormone time
I have 2 out of my 5 boys
@Miss Lydia snd I talk about our brats
She also has a boy who imprinted and acts this way
Advice to new duck parents
Do not bond with baby boys
Or wear rubber boots even on hot summer days
I carry around a cut piece of blue pool noodle and if I pull it out they run
Why I don’t know but it works so I’ll keep doing it

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Omg a muscovy keeper! How are they with flying and brooding? Do they need bigger ponds than "normal" ducks?

Much is personality, be careful of thinking a whole breed is one way...

That said, my Muscovy were very partial to digging in the mud along a tiny run off series of creeks leading away from the pond. Not really big on bathing, daily in summer, but not all day. In winter we could go a few days without their being interested in the pool bath (the preferred the pond... Little snobs! It is the same water source for my faucet as their pond)

But!! They could fly like fighter pilots! They were using the road as a landing strip so I had to cut flight feathers on one wing (really not something I wanted to do, but we were near misses on a few car accidents so I had no choice)

But the Muscovy were raised in the house like babies and they were very very smart.

The closer they are to you as babies the smarter they grow up to be. If they grow up with little stimulation they aren't as clever.

Be careful not be ever have a lone duck, they get depressed when alone. (And more worried about predators, they hide more)

Oh, and someone said it, but I will repeat: Duck math is much harder than chicken math!! Gosh, if it weren't that my pond cannot accommodate more than a few I would have as many as could be brought to me.

That said, my 2 ducks (and now 3 ducklings) are more work than a dozen hens.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Advice to new duck parents
Do not bond with baby boys

But I love the love! Turkey males are like that too... Momma's boys

 

[ruthhope]

Advice to new duck parents
Do not bond with baby boys

How to not bond with little fluffy cuties? I bond with all those I brood or rehab in the house.

We didn't know Daffy was male until he was nearly 16 weeks -- he was so cuddly, and so sweet with his new ducky friends, and didn't grow fast like the drake growth charts. For more than 3 months, I thought he was female!

He's still ridiculously cuddly

 

[Chicken poppy]

I’m wishing you all the best on surviving your ducks sass. One day you might find the FBI at your door because the outdoor pool cleaning service was delayed.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well I am abused on a min by min behavior by my Muscovy drake Opie. My fault when he hatched his mama tried her best to kill him and what could I do but bring him inside and raise him as my own child. Haha well, everything was just so wonderful until he got to around 4 months of age. Then he would climb my leg or if I turned my back he'd fly onto my back. So What to do, well we went and got him 3 females of his very own. His dad had the rest of the girls so Opie needed his own harem. This made him happy and he stopped climbing my leg but he never gave up on his attacks he can be the sweetest thing one day and be in full attack mode the next. I didn't know at the time [almost 12 yrs now] that imprinting would be detrimental to one's own health. He will chew on my boots and my leg if I let him, He will open his wing and make that stance like he is ready to fight, he would do this with my gander too so I know the signal. So Opie gets many baths a day. I bless him with them because once he gets into the pool with me helping to get him in there he is a totally different drake when he gets out. Starts preening and has forgotten he was after me, Well until next time any way. lol

 

[fluffycrow]

Well I am abused on a min by min behavior by my Muscovy drake Opie. My fault when he hatched his mama tried her best to kill him and what could I do but bring him inside and raise him as my own child. Haha well, everything was just so wonderful until he got to around 4 months of age. Then he would climb my leg or if I turned my back he'd fly onto my back. So What to do, well we went and got him 3 females of his very own. His dad had the rest of the girls so Opie needed his own harem. This made him happy and he stopped climbing my leg but he never gave up on his attacks he can be the sweetest thing one day and be in full attack mode the next. I didn't know at the time [almost 12 yrs now] that imprinting would be detrimental to one's own health. He will chew on my boots and my leg if I let him, He will open his wing and make that stance like he is ready to fight, he would do this with my gander too so I know the signal. So Opie gets many baths a day. I bless him with them because once he gets into the pool with me helping to get him in there he is a totally different drake when he gets out. Starts preening and has forgotten he was after me, Well until next time any way. lol

I'm seeing muscovy drakes are the sweetest a-holes. I love it

 

[Miss Lydia]

They really are.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Well I am abused on a min by min behavior by my Muscovy drake Opie. My fault when he hatched his mama tried her best to kill him and what could I do but bring him inside and raise him as my own child. Haha well, everything was just so wonderful until he got to around 4 months of age. Then he would climb my leg or if I turned my back he'd fly onto my back. So What to do, well we went and got him 3 females of his very own. His dad had the rest of the girls so Opie needed his own harem. This made him happy and he stopped climbing my leg but he never gave up on his attacks he can be the sweetest thing one day and be in full attack mode the next. I didn't know at the time [almost 12 yrs now] that imprinting would be detrimental to one's own health. He will chew on my boots and my leg if I let him, He will open his wing and make that stance like he is ready to fight, he would do this with my gander too so I know the signal. So Opie gets many baths a day. I bless him with them because once he gets into the pool with me helping to get him in there he is a totally different drake when he gets out. Starts preening and has forgotten he was after me, Well until next time any way. lol

Aww bless him
I'm kinda glad mine are girls
I think the hormones would be much more brutal if they had been drakes.
Thankfully although Dougie insists on clamping her beak onto my skin, or scratching me, she does it all with the best of intentions. She simply does not understand that her behaviour is unwelcome
she only behaves this way when I trigger her hormones, and if I back away she gets the hint, the rest of the time she's a little angle who wants face strokes and kisses

 

[fluffycrow]

I am not so proud to announce that this thread is making me want ducks sooner