Aaron von Frank

You’re very welcome, Rachelle! Also, be sure to check out our book, The Impractical Guide to Keeping Pet & Backyard Ducks. 🙂

Aaron von Frank

Hi Diana! Sorry for your troubles.

1. The way we do things with our ducks isn’t necessarily the “right” or “only” way to do things. However, our ducks always have access to a bowl of feed (we use Mazuri waterfowl feed) and water. So, if they get hungry or thirsty, they can satiate themselves. Treats typically come at the beginning of the day when we let them out and in their bowls at night when we put them up.

Once you get ducks on a certain schedule, that’s what they expect and they can be quite irritable if the schedule isn’t kept. Ha. For instance, our ducks expect to be let out in our front yard gardens to forage with us every night around 5pm. If we haven’t let them out by 5:15, they’re going to loudly voice their frustrations to us.

Interestingly though, if we’re busy or our schedules don’t allow us to put them out for a few nights, they’ll adjust pretty quickly to the new schedule and won’t quack loudly to be let out at 5:15 – unless we get back into that schedule/routine. The same thing happens when we leave town and our duck sitter doesn’t let them out for evening foraging while we’re gone.

So two suggestions: 1) consider always providing food and water for your ducks, and 2) let your husband know that you’re going to try to establish a new routing/habit for the ducks, but the first 2-3 days might be really loud and irritating for him. After that, they should mellow out and acclimate to their new schedule.

As for the limp: that’s a tough one. We hate to see a duck suffer but we also understand people not wanting to pay hundreds of dollars for something that might not be serious or life-threatening to the duck. If it’s just a mild twist or strain, that should heal with time even if the duck ends up with a slight limp. If it’s something more serious like a break or bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO), that’s going to require treatment. Did your vet give any indication of what she thought the problem was? And is the medication intended for pain and inflammation or something else?

Aaron von Frank

Ha! Sorry, Ashley. Yes, definitely up your treats-giving game while handling your ducks so they start forming positive associations. Also, be patient. It might take a few weeks before they’re ready to start giving you a chance.

Aaron von Frank

Mature drakes can be very aggressive towards ducklings, even chasing them and biting them (we had that happen years ago). Depending on the age and size of the ducklings, drakes could definitely cause them injury. Thus, you’ll want to keep your ducklings and drakes physically separated with wire fencing/mesh that’s small enough that the drakes can’t reach their bills through and grab a duckling (so probably ~1/2″ – 3/4″ at the largest for opening size). Once your new ducks reach maturity and have had prolonged exposure to the drakes, the drakes won’t attack them with the intent of causing injury. However, during the warmer months when their hormones are raging, the problems will then be the drakes: a) fighting/injuring each other, and b) potentially over-mating your females and causing injury to them that way (and while chasing them to mate).

We’ve paired back to only one drake in our flock, and he is fenced off from our girls in his own run for most of the year.

Aaron von Frank

Treats, treats, treats. That’s the way to a duckling’s or duck’s heart and how to get them to like you — trigger a Pavlovian response/association. So find healthy treats that your ducklings love (bite-sized pieces of tomato, peas, lettuce, mealworms, etc), then hand-feed them, ideally while also holding them safely in your lap. (You don’t want them to squirm loose and fall a long distance to the ground, potentially injuring themselves.) Then keep at it!

Aaron von Frank

Wow, that’s a lot of ducks and chickens to adopt! Thanks for taking such good care of them. Were they relatively friendly when you adopted them or did you have to train them to be sociable with you?

Aaron von Frank

Hi Llana! First, thanks for your kind words.

Your ducklings will get better at keeping warm the older they get, especially as they start getting some true feathers. It is important for them to get outside for health reasons as much as you’re able to manage it (safely). Sunlight, foraging, grit, playing, microbiome development, etc – all good things for growing ducklings that are available in abundance outside. Your ducklings will also huddle together to generate warmth so even if it’s a bit cold out they can still do fine. You just wouldn’t want to leave them outside for prolonged periods if it’s cool and wet. Other than cold, the highest outdoor risk to mitigate is keeping them safe from predators (including neighborhood cats) any time they’re outside.

Long answer short: no, you don’t need to keep your ducklings in your basement for the next 6 weeks. Put them out as often as possible during the day and strongly consider bringing them in at night until they have their first set of full feathers, which doesn’t take long (~6-8 weeks from hatching). If you haven’t already, it might also be helpful to read our article about raising ducklings here: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-raise-ducklings-a-step-by-step-guide/

Hope this helps and let us know if you have any other questions!

Aaron von Frank

Hi Jenny! Yep, duck breed does make a big difference in how well they tolerate being picked up and handled. Even then, it varies by individual duck, regardless of how they were raised and breed. All of our ducks are Welsh Harlequins, which are a very social breed. Due to having a baby and not having as much time to spend with our ducks over the past two years, our Welsh Harlequins have gotten acclimated to not being picked up and handled nearly as much. We not-so-jokingly say that some of them have gone feral. Some run from us when we try to pick them up and others still tolerate it ok. Like you said, it’s the initial catching them that tends to get them agitated, not so much the being held part (the instinctual woes of being a prey animal to so many different types of predators). By providing treats each time you pick them up + repeating the process regularly, you can definitely get some positive associations formed and hopefully get to where you don’t have to utilize your ninja skills. Best of luck!

Aaron von Frank

Hi Katie! Sorry to hear about your misanthropic ducks! Technically, yes, your ducks are in their “teen” period and are going to be less sociable due to hormones and other factors. Also, a bit of bad news: Cayuguas tend to be among the least sociable duck breeds, as you can read about here: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-choose-the-best-duck-breed-or-breeds-for-you/. (They score 1.2 out of 10 on our sociability ranking.) This doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel on trying to make them more gregarious towards you. Continue giving them their favorite treats and trying to get those positive associations formed. The fastest way to a duck’s heart is through their gizzard.

A couple of other things from your comment: it’s very surprising that ducks wouldn’t use their pond. Do they have another water source they’re using instead? The reason I ask is because one day our ducks suddenly stopped using their pond and just stood on the edge looking in and occasionally alarm-quacking. Turned out, a small snapping turtle had somehow gotten into our fenced yard and into their pond. Once the invader was netted and relocated, our ducks were right back in to their pond. Is it possible another critter has turned the pond into its home?

As for trauma: it’s possible that something may have happened to make your two ducks highly bonded to each other yet fearful of everything else. Are they afraid of your chickens as well? In their duck brains, they may view the chickens as a persistent mortal threat. As far as they know, there are only two ducks in the world, and everything else is out to get them.

Getting our ducks into their coop at night would be impossible if not for herding sticks, which ducks seem to instinctively respond to. Here’s how we herd our ducks and how you can too: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-herd-your-ducks-aka-get-your-ducks-in-a-row/.

Hope this info helps and please check back as your ducks age to let us know if they mellow? Hopefully, by their one year birthday, they’ve settled in better and begin to calm.

Aaron von Frank

Treats/rewards! Every flock/breed/individual duck is different and enjoys a different favorite treat. For our girls, it’s tomatoes (and sometimes mealworms) that tops the favorites list. Whatever that treat is for your ducks, consider drawing them back inside by showing them a small bowl of their favorite treats and then tempting them back towards your home with the bowl of treats, before finally giving them the big reward once they’ve done what you want them to do (presumably come inside and go back into their brooder). Give this a try and let us know how it goes!

Aaron von Frank

Hi Zoe! Glad to hear you’re progressing in your relationship with your ducklings. We probably do need to create an article (with video) about translating various duck sounds and movements, but we don’t currently have anything published. As far as the shaky head combined with head lunge, yes, that’s a duck asserting herself and showing aggression. They’ll also do it to each other, so don’t take it personally or interpret it to mean she doesn’t like you. We’ll usually get a good shaky lunge when diapering a duck, but sometimes they seem to come out of nowhere (perhaps pent up frustration that it doesn’t rain tomatoes, who knows). Obviously, being the victim of a duck shaky lunge doesn’t hurt (even when they’re older); it’s more entertaining than anything. You should also expect them to nibble you with their bills during the process. Hope this clarifies what you’re experiencing, which is essentially a duck tantrum and/or attempt to show you who’s the boss.

Aaron von Frank

Well, that’s a lot more difficult given that they already come with life experience and a certain baked-in view about how to relate with humans. However, you should be able to slowly (over months) attain more sociable ducks. You probably don’t want to jump right to physical contact. Start with just letting them get used to you being around them, providing treats, etc. Once that becomes acceptable, you can try to slowly progress towards holding them while providing treats. As mentioned in the article, this process will likely be easier with certain breeds and with certain individual ducks within a breed. Best of luck!

Aaron von Frank

Hi Andrea! Congrats on being a new duck parent.

Since your ducklings are in a brooder, you should be able to lean down and pick them up without chasing them, correct? Or is it a large brooder? You don’t want to chase your ducklings around your house trying to catch them since that would likely be more stressful for all involved. Another option: lay down some “poopy” towels in a small room like a bathroom, bring in a small bowl of treats, bring the ducklings in with you then close the door. That way, you’re all close enough that you can reach out and grab them without giving chase. Once you figure out how best to get hold of them while minimizing chasing, it’s just a matter of repeating the process regularly while giving treats to help them form a positive association with being handled. Also, when holding them, remember that they’ll be calmer if another duckling is also being held at the same time or is within close viewing distance.

Out of curiosity, what duck breed(s) do you have?

Aaron von Frank

Hi Brittany! Sounds like the ducks you were given weren’t well socialized with people from ducklinghood on up. They likely won’t ever be super tame birds, but you should be able to get them to at least tolerate your presence with time, repeat exposure, and positive associations. You probably don’t want to jump straight to trying to pick them up, as that requires a pretty advanced level of socialization for them not to freak out. Unfortunately, that may be reinforcing their pre-existing fear of humans. Even our very tame ducks aren’t thrilled when we pick them up since it’s pretty baked into a duck’s mental hardware that being picked up by a larger creature means predator attack which means thrash and get loose asap. You’ll likely just need to spend at least the new few months just having them get used to your presence: feed them, water them, give them treats, etc – but don’t try to touch them unless you have to due to injury or illness. Think about it as a hierarchy of social trust, and you have to start by building the foundation, since that was never done by the previous duck parents.

It’s also really important to note that calmness/sociability varies pretty widely by duck breed. Some breeds are generally going to be harder to tame than others, as we detail in this article: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-choose-the-best-duck-breed-or-breeds-for-you/. Pekins and Runners rank around the middle of the pack on calmness.

Best of luck to you and your flock. Please check back in periodically to let us know how the relationship progresses!