Making friends with ducks

Hmm... I'm going to keep that title in mind.

Anyway.

Moose (NOT SWEETENED, just sayin' here), bought ducks on the weekend at the auction, and boy was he proud of those things. He specifically spotted them at the auction and wrote down the lot number, taking note of exactly which cage. He was down in the ring when he bid on them to make sure he got the right pair and everything!

I have to say, they are lovely little call ducks.

However, I'm surprised they aren't dead, to be honest.

Our breeding pens have about a 70% cement floor, the rest is dirt and straw, and one of said pens was unoccupied -- soooo, I found a shallow container we had and made a pond for them on the cement and set up a nest and covered it so it was super secret, and put food down and so on.

Those ducks go -NUTS- when you walk in the coop. Absolutely ape. They fly themselves into the chicken wire that is the pen, climb it screaming, even squeeze themselves through the one really small section where I need to put another zippy tie. I'm afraid they'll break their necks one of these times.

You befriend chickens with corn and whole grains and lentils, in my experience. What do you befriend ducks with?

a wascawwy wabbit

Hillbilly wrote:a wascawwy wabbit

I has wabbits....

stay low and slow. I only have big ducks but this is what I do. Bring treats like cut up strawberries, strawberry tops, spinach, romaine or other green leafy stuff, watermelon (don't throw those rinds away!) most of your fruit and veggies but the ones I listed will be favs and will make you a welcome visitor Oh mine love dandelions too

They obviously were not handled much by their previous owner so you will need to take time. Our call ducks are super sweet, but my girls are in there almost daily. One thing you can do is clip one wing so they cannot take flight and hurt themselves. After their next molt they will have all their feathers back so not to worry.

You may have to just sit in there and let them get used to you, feed them some corn or lettuce and eventually they will be much tamer for you.

I have been wondering about this a bit lately.
I am down to my birds a few times a day. I sit with both the older bird and they young ones. I will spend up to an hour twice a day with the growing, flock replacements so they are used to me and my moving about. I talk to them and make noises so they get comfortable with all that. They are great with me and climb on me.
This is where I think some of the trouble can come from. I am the ONLY one they ever see or have contact with. If my husband does come down to talk to me they can go crazy. He calls them skittery, but I think it is because they are only exposed to me and he is SCARY to them.
So this could be one of the things you are up against and once they become comfortable with you they will be ok.

I was going to suggest that you wiggle when you walk and quack low and slow

Ruffled you need to post a video showing that process exactly

SerJay wrote:Ruffled you need to post a video showing that process exactly

Agreed.

I found the key to winning over the ducks I had was a combination of patience and yummy treats. They had a real thing for fresh mushrooms, and I used that shamelessly. Before I rehomed them I had 3 out of 4 ducks willing to take mushrooms from my hand.

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Sweetened wrote:

SerJay wrote:Ruffled you need to post a video showing that process exactly

Agreed.

I concur!

I was working feverishy at getting that video clip made than when I was stretching for my big opening act, and you'd never guess it but I blew out a wing so your going to have to wait patiently .....
apparently you have to be really flexable to be a duck, who knew?