Wat is wrong... Stressed out duck

[Stipenvlerk]

Hi everybody,

It's been a while since I've visited this website.
I've something very strange happening with one of my female ducks lately.
She has hatched 5 pullets all by herself and trouble started after this.
She seems very stressed. Almost to the point she will fly against the wall at the slightest disturbance around her with the risk of hurting herself. It seems that she has gone completely mad.
Before she was a very calm independent duck which didn't like to get picked up so much but always was near.
She almost eats nothing but enough to survive. Even the mealworms are not being eaten most of the time. It's not that she doesn't like to eat them, she does! However she doesn't give herself time it seems.

Also when she is in the garden, multiple times a day she flights up like she has been bitten by something.
Besides having children, nothing has changed. The rest of the flock is fine...
Can she have a disease after all? Is motherhood to much for her? What can be the reason for this behaviour?

The children are 4-5 weeks old now and thriving.

 

[KathiQuacks]

Any chance you could get a video of her behavior? You can upload it to YouTube and link it here.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

It’s her mothering instincts. When they are watching over their young they often will alert or be startled over every little disturbance some more so than others. What other food does she have besides the mealworms?

 

[Stipenvlerk]

It’s her mothering instincts. When they are watching over their young they often will alert or be startled over every little disturbance some more so than others. What other food does she have besides the mealworms?

She has the "normal" waterfowl food she had before. It's from a really good agricultural factory with their own nutritionist.

I've had multiple ducks raise their own brood but this one takes it next level. She lost her flock of pullets to a group of magpies last year. within a few moments of appearing with her young and us preparing a save haven te raise them, the magpies got them all. Maybe she is extra skittish because that stuck somehow.

Good to know this can still be mother instinct... she is quite closely related to a wild mallard in a way she behaves more like a wild mallard than a domestic one. although she is really comfortable around us.

And she is a good mum!

 

[Stipenvlerk]

@KathiQuacks, not a video but a picture from how she sits between her children. She is a good mom! Sorry for the fence in the picture. Don't want to disturb her by going in...

@HollowOfWisps also for you

 

[BigBlueHen53]

So sorry she lost her babies! Can you set her up a nest in a safe place so she can hatch another clutch and raise it safely?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@KathiQuacks, not a video but a picture from how she sits between her children. She is a good mom! Sorry for the fence in the picture. Don't want to disturb her by going in...

@HollowOfWisps also for you
View attachment 3904562

Is this another clutch she raised?

 

[Stipenvlerk]

So sorry she lost her babies! Can you set her up a nest in a safe place so she can hatch another clutch and raise it safely?

Yes these are the "new ones" the loss was last year!

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Is this another clutch she raised?

yes it is!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

She has the "normal" waterfowl food she had before. It's from a really good agricultural factory with their own nutritionist.

I've had multiple ducks raise their own brood but this one takes it next level. She lost her flock of pullets to a group of magpies last year. within a few moments of appearing with her young and us preparing a save haven te raise them, the magpies got them all. Maybe she is extra skittish because that stuck somehow.

Good to know this can still be mother instinct... she is quite closely related to a wild mallard in a way she behaves more like a wild mallard than a domestic one. although she is really comfortable around us.

And she is a good mum!

If she lost her last brood then that perfectly explains her extra mothering this time around. Animals remember traumatic events.