Week-old Muscovy Ducklings Leaving mother

[mtgirl2]

We have a Muscovy duck that nested in our yard and the ducklings are now a week old. Half are black and half are yellow. Today, all the black ducklings have left their mother. They are out wandering the neighborhood on their own having a ball. It is obvious that they are not lost, they just have no interest in their mother, the drake or the yellow ducklings. All of the yellow ducklings are still being attended to as usual by the mother and drake. I have Googled this and can't find anything, except that it seems that 1 week is too early for independent ducklings. I thought perhaps that the black ones feel more confident than the yellow ones because they don't stand out as much to predators as the yellow ones do. Is this normal? Should I do something like gather them all up and plop them down in front of their mother again? I think they would just run away again. Just let nature takes its course or intervene? Thank you in advance for your responses.

 

[mtgirl2]

I just saw them now. They are running around together like a little gang of delinquents

and I saw their mother come after them and they ran away from her as fast as they could go.

 

[Amiga]

Oh, mercy, I don't know what you could really do, there….

 

[mtgirl2]

Update: The mother is definitely driving them away. I saw her pick up one of the black ducklings by the neck and throw it on the ground. It looked like she was trying to kill it. I intervened and he ran off. The black ones are down from 7 to 2. I still cannot find anything about this behavior. So no one has ever heard of this?

 

[pattyhen]

Do you have a pen to put the babies in? Or a large container in the house where you can keep an eye on them. They are way to young to be running the neighborhood. I would get them away from the mother if she is treating them that way.


Patty

 

[cayugaducklady]

A Bathtub is a great place to brood them in a pinch. THe mess they make is very easy to clean in the tub.

 

[mtgirl2]

Well I finally talked to someone who knows about this breed. He said that another female laid her eggs in the same nest and the black ducklings where not this mother's ducks, which is why she is driving them away. Apparently only one mother will sit on the nest but more than one will lay eggs in that nest. All of the black ducklings have disappeared but one and he is now hanging out with a lone drake.