wild duck visitors – concerns

[RubberDuckee]

Good morning! Please bear with me, as I am not too good at being succinct. THANKS!

Short Background Info: I have 3 domestic mallard susies that are almost 15 weeks old/3 months. During the day they occupy my wooded yard, mostly right behind my house. At night they are kept in the pasture barn with the horses.

As I live beneath one of the 4 major North American flyways, I am used to seeing lots of birds and lots of mallards. While there was 1 wild mallard drake who occupied the natural drainage ditch out in front of the house for a couple of weeks last summer, I have never seen any other wild duck/s on our property in the 27 years I have lived here. (Then again, I have never had ducks as pets living here until this spring either.)

Over the past 3 weeks or so, however, we have been visited by several wild mallard ducks. One pair, a drake and a susie, appeared more interested in nibbling around the yard and flower bed than in “joining” my little sord. The lone mallard susies that have visited, however, have appeared insecure and have acted as if they are looking to join. One particular susie continues to return time after time. She has figured out that my ducks are in my yard during the day and in the pasture in the mornings and evenings, and in the barn at night. She has even learned her way from the barn to the house and vice versa.

At first, I was quite enamored with the wild mallards that have taken an interest in my ducks, etc. However, my 3 girls are very rude hostesses… When the drake and susie pair visited my back yard, one of my ducks ran over and jumped on the back of the drake, flattening him on the ground on his stomach. He then proceeded to toss my duck off of him and then he ripped out a beak-full of her tail feathers. When the lone female mallards visit, my 3 ducks immediately attack the lone duck.

MY CONCERNS: Just as other animals have a “pecking order,” I assumed that the best thing to do when a “girl fight” broke out would be to let the altercation play itself out. This morning, however, when the returning lone susie joined us in the pasture the fight appeared a bit more aggressive in nature and I became concerned one of the ducks would be injured. My 3 ducks have me to take care of them, but if the visiting wild mallard susie were to be injured, I am concerned that could affect her overall survival in the wild (even if it is something as small as an eye injury, etc.) I also do not wish for one of my ducks to be injured either. I can’t keep wild ducks from dropping in, and I can’t change the reaction my ducks have to outsiders, but I do not know if I should allow the altercations to play out or if I should intervene… I am just not sure what the right course of action, if any action, is correct within this circumstance.

In addition, I am not aware if there is such a thing as vaccinations for ducks, but, if duck vaccinations do exist, I am wondering if I should get my 3 ducks vaccinated since they are having altercations with wild ducks.

Any advice on breaking up or allowing the fights to play out? Any advice on the vaccinatons?

THANKS!!!

P.S. Here's a pic: My 3 girls in foreground. Drake and visiting hen in background.

 

[HauiBali]

Looks like diplomatic negotiation over the territory and food. I would put some duck food out for the visitors to a place where your domesticated ones (who are absolutely right in securing their territory from invaders) cant get it easily but the wild ducks can. Your ducks will then clearly see that the wild ducks are allowed by YOU to be around, and you are against fighting. Maybe this will change their attitude towards them.

Vaccination? Some iodine on the wounds if they are deep, but no other medication seems to be necessary.

Interesting this behaviour.. My runner ducks' father(s?) is wild mallard, but runner susies (their mom) didn't made any drama with them as I heard, other than enjoying their honorable attention.

 

[Amiga]

Well, this is a pickle!

There are some vaccinations for ducks, you may wish to contact your state's ag school or extension office about that.

My inclination would be to intervene when I was aware of an altercation. Ducks do not easily and immediately make friends with those not in their flock. Many of us have gone through hoops to integrate new members into our flocks as a simple introduction appears to be insufficient.

 

[Eglantine]

Ever since I've moved my eight female ducks outside (they were born in March) I've had three "bachelor" Mallards flying over our yard a couple of times a week. I have been waiting for them to actually land some day, but so far that has not happened. We'll see about that. I'm curious as to how our females would react. In fact, they just began to lay eggs this week so they might welcome a drake to their yard. But as for me, I am not interested in fertilized eggs or more ducklings so hope that they find mates elsewhere!

I agree with the above post that suggests putting food somewhere else to lure the wild ducks from your domestic ducks' feeding area. Perhaps that would keep them separated a bit and cut down on the aggressive behavior.

 

[RubberDuckee]

Thanks HauiBali, Amiga, and Eglantine,

Today that same, persistent wild female returned once again. I first saw her outside with my ducks while looking through my kitchen window. I started to run outside, but then hesitated... it seemed as though everyone was surprisingly peaceful about the arrangement. I didn't want to run outside and stir things up. When I finally did go outside, I noticed an immediate difference in my 3 ducks' behavior. While they did not attack her as they have been doing in past days, they immediately began chasing the lone female around each time she got too close to me.

I took your advice: I sat several containers of water around the area and I went ahead and tossed a few handfuls of food in various parts of the yard so that the lone female would not venture onto the porch for food or water. After setting everything out, I went back inside and watched through the window. This DID seem to HELP! Before I knew it, all FOUR ducks were nibbling together in the flower bed just beneath my back window. My ducks would chase her off of she was nibbling in a spot they wanted to nbble, but overall it went well!

I am not sure what occurred that originally made my girls less aggressive today overall, but I do know that your advice did appear to work. Thankfully I did not have in intervene in any violent girl fights today!

THANKS!

 

[duckmamma]

Great solution...they usually fight because they're competing over a select feeding/breeding spot. If you have several spots, then they can each pick one and the fighting lessens. When I feed my ducks, I'm always aware of the pecking order and I put food/water in different spots so the smaller/more timid ducks/newcomers can get their share too.
That said...wild ducks can carry viruses that could infect your ducks, but that's life. Your ducks could become infected even without contact with the wild ducks. The only way I know to prevent the viruses is by having your ducks drink a nanosilver solution at night, a few times a week, put into a small ramekin with a little distilled water. Other than vaccinating them, there is no better way to prevent a viral infection.

 

[RubberDuckee]

Great solution...they usually fight because they're competing over a select feeding/breeding spot. If you have several spots, then they can each pick one and the fighting lessens. When I feed my ducks, I'm always aware of the pecking order and I put food/water in different spots so the smaller/more timid ducks/newcomers can get their share too.
That said...wild ducks can carry viruses that could infect your ducks, but that's life. Your ducks could become infected even without contact with the wild ducks. The only way I know to prevent the viruses is by having your ducks drink a nanosilver solution at night, a few times a week, put into a small ramekin with a little distilled water. Other than vaccinating them, there is no better way to prevent a viral infection.

Thanks! That is interesting - I learn something new every day! This forum has proven VERY HELPFUL thanks to the wonderful people on it!

Where does one obtain nanosilver solution? Also, what amount per 1 gallon of water would you mix for 3 ducks?

Thanks!

 

[duckmamma]

There are different types of nanosilver solutions available from consumer grade to medical grade. Consumer grade is weaker but is something you can buy at your better vitamin/supplement stores. I've bought the well-regarded nanosilver solution called "Silver Biotics" at nice supplement shops, but you can order it online (from amazon.com and other places) for half the price. Its online price is about $24 for a 16-oz. bottle. Your goal in using it as a disease preventive agent would be to get it into each duck, on empty stomachs (at least an hour after they have eaten), every night or at least every other day. For one duck, I use my smallest ramekin (about 3" wide and 1" deep) and I put 2 tsp of nanosilver solution and 2 tablespoons of distilled water. Let the duck drink it all night and it'll probably be almost gone in the morning. For treating a few ducks, you could just use a slightly larger ramekin and put in a tb. of silver solution and 3 tb of distilled water. Don't use anything but distilled water or metal salts in the water could bind to the silver and render it useless.
If anyone tries to tell you that the silver will build up in the ducks, you could let them know that nanosilver has no known toxicity and no drug or food contraindications, and it does not cause the problems of a coarser type of silver solution called colloidal silver.
If you want to use a medical grade nanosilver solution, there's one called Patis 30 that you can order online. It costs about $50 for a 16-oz. bottle. There's also a nanosilver solution that's mid-grade between consumer and medical called ASAP Plus, also available online. Any of these solutions you could also use for yourself and your family for disease prevention. They're not cheap, but they go a long way, and can be bought at maybe somewhat of a discount if bought by the case or in multiples.

 

[duckmamma]

One other thought: there is no guarantee that the wild ducks will not bring a particularly virulent strain of some disease to your backyard that would be hard to control without vaccination, especially diseases like duck viral hepatitis and duck viral enteritis. Your ducks could infect the wild population as well so it goes both ways. The nanosilver can help prevent such diseases but I can't guarantee anything. To help prevent disease more, you should try to keep your ducks from having contact with the droppings of the wild ducks. Most of the disease is carried in the droppings. You could even have a nightly sanitation routine where you use a flat shovel and remove all the duck droppings (put them in a sealed bag and right into the outside trashcan), then disinfect the area where the droppings were with a spray bottle and a bleach solution of 1 tb plain unscented bleach to 2 cups water, let it sit 10 minutes (don't let any creatures drink from that area), then hose it down well. The bleach will break down and dissipate in a few hours and you'll have a clean area back for the next day.