The power of peas

[TLWR]

Seems I'm not so scary if I have peas.
Blue and little miss no name were eating out of my hand and walking/running over me as long as I had peas available. Cadbury was still not so sure about me, so she kept her distance still.
Of all of them, she hates being picked up the most - sorry girl, but that's the only method of transport from your kennel to the bathroom floor to hang out to the tub to swim and back again. Not to say the other 2 are thrilled with it, but they aren't trying to take a flying leap out of my hands.
I'm hoping more pea bribery will bring her around and maybe she'll take her queues from the other 2 as well as they are more comfortable being around more than just my head (my head is pretty much all they see while in the kennel since I have it up and sit in a chair to hang out with them in their kennel.
We want them to be person friendly and used to being handled. What else can I do to get them more comfortable with me?



pea hunting in the tub this morning

little miss no name got in on the diving action today (Blue started yesterday - Cadbury dives out of reach when it is time to get out of the tub)

 

[desertdarlene]

Cadbury sounds like a handful!

I tried to feed peas and defrosted frozen corn to the wild ducks and abandoned domestics, but they wouldn't have it. I think they're spoiled by all the cracked corn, millet and sunflower seeds they get. I will try straight defrosted frozen peas next. The coots, however, will eat anything I give them except carrots.

 

[katharinad]

To gain their trust, and to know you are not out to hurt them I suggest the following. I did this with all my babies and it does improve their trust in you a lot. Ducks don't like to be on their back so it is a huge thing for them to allow you to do so. After bathing I dry them off with towels. At that time I simply put them onto their back and rub their bellies for a few seconds. It's scary for them first, but they will get used to it. That is when the trust thing kick in. That and all the peas in the world will have an impact on them.

 

[TLWR]

Is there such a thing as too many peas?
I mean they stuffed themselves full of bugs they caught last night, so I don't want them to stuff themselves too full of peas too


She threw herself over the edge of the box the other day and landed on her back on the kennel floor (too easy to just go around the box!). I let her struggle for about 10 seconds before I reached in to help and just getting her foot on my hand was enough to get herself upright. She ran over to my head, said thanks and ran back off again. (or she said "Why the heck did you wait so long to help me?" I choose to believe she said thanks for letting me try to figure it out on my own before helping out lol)

 

[TLWR]

Blue seemed to decide on her own this evening I was ok. They were chowing down again so I just sat with my hand in the cage a little while they ate. Blue and NoName kept checking out my fingers. Eat, drink, nibble my fingers, repeat. Cadbury was hanging back just far enough to not be reachable. NoName curled up in the corner and was letting me pet her side and back through the kennel. Then Blue was walking under my hand when I had kennel open again. Then she waltzed over to the front, stood up on the lip of the kennel tray and was hang as much of her body over the edge as she could. I told her not so bright an idea and pushed her back in. So she turns around, stands on the lip again and stuffs her head and neck out through the side bars of the kennel. Ok, push her head back in again and tell her I'll add more cardboard so she doesn't find herself falling out with her bright ideas. So I had my hands in front of the open door to the kennel and she just stood between them bouncing. So I scooped her up and sat her in my lap on a towel for a minute until she got wiggly and noisy since the other 2 were yelling at her from the kennel.
So she either decided I'm ok or she was in dire need of peas and was hoping I had some hid on me somewhere lol

 

[suburbanduckmom]

To get our little ones familiar with us we would put them on our lap with a towel. They would hang out and watch tv for a while and then go for a swim. It was just part of the routine. Most of the time they would find a way to snuggle in the crook of an arm and take a nap or climb up to a shoulder to get a good view and preen our hair. We did this until they were entirely too big and too messy. They still like to get on our shoulders and like to be snuggled, except when they are broody. Then all of the peas in the world can't tempt them.

By the way their favorite movie was Wall-E. They would perk up whenever they heard the beeping and booping of the cleaning robot. Winged Migration was not so popular.

 

[b.hromada]

Such little cuties!!!

I know, sometimes ducks act so afraid of us! I know when my girl was small, she was kind of afraid of us too. Just keep handling them a lot. This should help cure their fears some.