Why are my call ducks afraid of water?

[Scifisarah]

So I am totally confused at this point. My first three call ducks LOVED water from the time they were ducklings through adulthood. They even slept in the water all night. Now I have one male duck who is a little over a year old and currently molting, and two young female ducks a few months old who will not go into their pool. They will walk up the ramp and drink water out of it, but never go in. Today I tried to tempt them in by putting the hose over it with some running water trickling out. The adult male went in for about three seconds before bursting out like he was frightened. He used to love the water and he was rarely out of the pool. The two young ducks were hatched by a chicken, but I wouldn't think that would matter. They are in with chickens, so I would like to be able to feed them floating food in the pool so the chickens don't end up stealing it all. Is this normal behavior?

 

[chicken boy sam]

I don't think it's normal for a call duck not like water......but try tempting them in by throwing some peas in............

 

[magistradomina]

Perhaps it's because they are molting and they don't want to be cold? Good luck with you ducks!

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

If you bought them older and they never had swimming water chances are they won't swim.....

 

[AdamD77]

I think I'd agree that it might be due to the moulting and not wanting to get too wet and cold, since they have less feathers and therefore less waterproofing

I recommend you don't try and force them to swim/get wet, just let them do it in their own time, even if all they do is wash for 10 seconds

I'm sure they'll start to like it again soon. If you're really worried about them being dirty or something then you could try tempting them with a treat in the pool...