Why ducks bob their heads

All three are males. Even when I discipline them by tapping their beaks or pushing them back or prying their beaks off, they run right back angrily. When the barrier is up they pace back and fourth the fence staring at your feet trying to get ahold of them. The third one just kinda hangs out. Anything I can do to fix it and make them lovIng again? We have been lucky ours have been pretty tame. My guess is with another drake around that is trying to be top dog, Sunny is going back into aggressive, protective mode, and it sounds like the third duck is just content being at the bottom of the heap and hopefully will stay chill.

You need to make sure they know you are lead duck. Tapping their bills and saying no like you are is good too. I am a new duck mom! I have 3 ducks, 2 I believed were females by how loud they are. While most domestic duck breeds are not monogamous, drakes do usually have their favorite hen.

We have three girls and our drake definitely has a favorite he follows around and mates with often. The other two he will mate with but not like with his favorite gal. I would expect there to be some fighting if your Pekin was also a male. Hello great article! I just had 18 duck delivered this past Wednesday. Today is Saturday. I am brooding them in a bathtub in the house. I guess they are about two weeks old.

I brought them outside today and let them have a swim and sat in a baby corral with then. Most of them will happily take a little bit of smashed peas out of my hand and get pretty close to me. A few hours in if I set my hand o the ground they come and bite my hand. Thanks for any advice. That sounds like playful behavior — or them just testing out to see if your hand is food lol.

My ducks definitely nibbled my fingers when they were little. Hello i have 4 mallard ducks 2 full grown ones that are a male and female and 2 half grown ones that are male and female the full grown drake always chases them off and bites at them when they get close to the female do you think this will ever stop?? It really depends on the personality of the drakes. If the younger one shows interest in being in charge or tries to woo the older hen, the older drake will feel threatened.

He likely will settle down after awhile and let the new couple join the flock but he will probably always be pretty territorial during high mating season. I hope he calms down for you though! Sounds like he is suddenly feeling protective of his environment.

I know you said they are big, but is he still under one year old? When they come into full maturity, drakes can sometimes want to assert their dominance. When he does that you need to firm grasp his bill and say no. He should get the hint eventually that you are top duck and will hopefully settle back into his old, friendly self. Not sure if best to keep him now..?? Unfortunately, sometimes males can just take their protective duties too far.

Keep working with him and hopefully he will fall in line. Six weeks ago, my dog found a mother duck mallard along with 11 ducklings under a bush in our backyard! We do have a koi pond, so we decided to do everything we can to help them survive.

The problem is one of the ducklings has been chased from the group. He keeps his distance but is always close by. The mother duck was not with them at the time he was chased. What a cool discovery! As the ducklings get older, they will naturally compete for top duck and will practice skills they will use the rest of their life.

Some ducklings are calm and quiet while others will be aggressive and pushy. Unfortunately, the calm ones can get picked on. The upside is it can help them learn to survive. Thanks for your answer. We noticed early on that one of the ducklings seemed to be the first to follow the mother, jump in the water, stand watch, whatever she was were doing he was right with her.

He also continued doing it when she was gone. Watching our little outcast she does seem a bit smaller than the rest. Or could it be an indication of a problem? I even started leaving food for her away from the rest to make sure she was getting enough to eat.

She kept as close to the others as she could without being chased away. In fact, when they started practicing flying in the pond they would run around and flap their wings, she would go in the top of the waterfall and do the same.

We did notice that she seemed to be growing and her wings were getting bigger and longer. After a couple of days another duck flew into our pond. Mystery Duck would leave in the evening, but come back every morning. After about a week Mystery Duck and Outcast were flapping their wings in the water and doing the things the other ducks did before they flew away.

At 11 wks Outcast and Mystery Duck flew off together. What a great summer! That is amazing!! Thank you for this lovely page! My brother is adult special ed. He was on his patio near a river feeding ducks and little birds. Suddenly a duckling who was being chased by large ducks ran into his apt.

The ducks started pecking at the duckling. Gil picked it up and brought it inside and nursed it to a good state. Having it on the patio is hard…the duck gets too hot and Gil has to keep bringing it into the tub to cool it off. But can you advise us on how to make the transition? That was sweet of your brother to step in and help this little guy. Do you know if your friend keeps any male ducks? Female ducks are much more likely to accept a newcomer. Sometimes males can get territorial. Hopefully when the duckling is released with the other ducks everything will go smoothly, but especially if there is a male, there could be some chasing.

Most human raised domesticated ducks are bred to be too large to fly, but as Lucky is a wild duck, it is very possible that once he can fly he might just fly off and find his own flock. We have to put extra food in in different places to make sure she eats as well.

Is this common or do I have a problem Any comments gladly welcome. Drakes can do strange things sometimes. My drake does this with our Cayuga female sometimes. I would say half the time he is cool with her, but the other half he is chasing her away. Sounds like you are doing a good job keeping the poor outcast happy. I have three ducks raised from babies and together. My one Cayuga, Roger, has always been more curious more brave more bold even as a duckling…I am certain they all imprinted on each other BUT a fair amount of mandatory snuggle time was had with Roger haha!

So now when I hold the ducks, the other two are peaceful and subdued. Franklin is very muffled and soft… My khaki hen and Franklin are both pretty quiet quackers…and no drake feathers yet. Unlike rooster, drakes are the quiet ones compared to hens. Drakes have a low, raspy sounding quack where as females have a loud, crisp, distinctly quack sound so it could be that Franklin is the drake.

Time will tell — it should be any time now that their little drake curl will pop out! You want that to be you! When he does that, hold his bill and firmly say no. So am I doomed with this backwards ratio? Cayuga pair Roger is definitely the girl you were right! So when they showed up I was completely confused bc I thought for certain Andi was a khaki hen!!

They always keep you on your toes! You might end up with one dominant drake and one that is content to just lay back and chill. The boys could also want to fight each other over breeding rights. You will probably be fine through the winter, but if I had to guess sometime around early spring when breeding season gets in full swing those hormonal teenage boys might start to cause problems.

See how it goes, but you might have to add another hen or two or rehome one of the drakes. Thanks for the update! I have 2 ducks, that are exactly 22 weeks old today. They are an Indian Runner, and a Buff Orpington. I have noticed a few bizarre behaviours with my Buff. She often flattens herself out on the ground, and will assume this pose for up to 30 seconds. This is seemingly random. Another weird problem is that she has trouble getting up a ramp.

The Indian runner is always fine to bolt up the ramp, getting its food and swim etc. The ramp is about 15 centimetres wide, and 2. Once on the ramp, she seems fine, and waddles up, to get her food. Both of these ducks are females, to the best of my knowledge. My Buff seems very willing to be held by humans, whereas my Indian Runner is very skittish, and is a bit more of a challenge to keep.

Why would this be happening? You mentioned she likes being held, so that is another sign she is willing to accept you as head duck. Runners are also more nimble than naturally fat, round Buffs so that could explain the ramp issue. Is there a step to get onto the ramp, or is the ramp too steep for the Buff? Is there a way you could extend the ramp to make the incline easier for her? You could also try adding outdoor mats to the ramp so they have something to grip as they climb up.

Sounds like you have two healthy, normal ducks! The incline seems very shallow. Thank you once again for your help! I agree a 12 degree incline should not pose a problem for her. We often home to find the Indian runner with water on her chest, and the Buff dry. Hi Liz, my Hen just starting laying for the first time about 6 days ago. I have only gotten 3 eggs. Are they inconsistent in the beginning? Yes, the first few months they are laying can be a little hit or miss.

We are also coming into winter when the days start to shorten and that can mess with their egg laying schedule also. I have a Cayuga drake that was given to me as a rescue. He has been a really good duck up until a few days ago. He has attacked my husband and has also attacked my little boy twice for no reason. Both times my little boy was just standing there. No provoking, chasing. Any thoughts on why this has started happening and how to make him stop?!

He lives with 2 blue Swedish females and 1 blue Swedish drake, 2 Welsh harlarquins females, 1 welsh drake and 1 we think is a female but is still a kind of a unknown. That is too bad! Is he just coming into maturity weeks-ish? He could be testing the waters to see where he is going to fit into this flock and sees the humans as part of this new flock. Especially with the other drakes around, he might feel like he needs to prove something. Definitely let him know the humans are the top ducks.

When he gets aggressive or uppity, firmly grab his bill and say no loudly. You definitely want to stop this behavior before it gets out of hand. Then June 2 we rescued an orphan Black Swedish. The other ducks just hate her. Grabbed and shook her neck every chance.

The others are trying to get the Swedes constantly. I just want them to all be out of their pens at the same time and not try to kill each other. That is so great that you were able to get her a friend, that is definitely going to help. Sometimes for no apparent reason, ducks will just ostracize one duck from the group. The original four are definitely feeling territorial. With winter coming, you might find they are more agreeable to sharing space now that the hormones of mating season are behind them.

If they are all full grown at this point, it might just be time to let them work it out. Let them all out to free range together. Start with a half hour of supervised time and give out lots of treats for everyone. The next day let them out together for an hour, gradually lengthen the time together.

There will probably be some chasing, but hopefully nothing worse than that. I would allow the chasing, but if they are actually trying to hurt them, I would intervene. It will likely take them a few weeks before they accept the Swedish ducks are here to stay and let them in the group. The mean duck sounds like he is just really protective of his area and wants everyone to know he is in charge.

He especially wants you to know why he chases you and why he picks on the other duck when you are around, he wants you to see how tough he is. You should try to reassert yourself as duck leader. Stand up to him. If he nips at you, grab his bill and say no. If you are consistent, hopefully in a couple weeks he will at least respect your position and leave you alone.

The other ducks might be trickier to fix. Did you just add the female to the flock? I would put him in a time out area by himself when he acts up, as a punishment to him but also so the other ducks can get some peace. I have two ducks one of them is very large and one is really small they are the same age. I just started raising ducks can you please help me? Is it sick or something?

Are they different breeds? Males grow bigger faster and different breed ducks grow at different rates, so both of those could easily effect size.

It could also be possible one is just a runt. Do you see the little one eating often? Does the big one push her away from the food? Does she act normal, running around, drinking, eating, exploring? Same breed and yes it acts very normal eating drinking playing and the big one kinda babies the smaller one.

Maybe she has growth spurt ahead of her, or maybe she is just destine to be small. I introduced the female when she was about 3 months. He sounds like quite a bully! I wish I had something to magically help him! My duck lays eggs all over the yard and not in a nest, nor does she sit on them.

I feel you there. My ducks will lay eggs all over the place. They have a few hidey places around the yard that I try to check daily. I also find if I keep them locked in the run until about 9 AM they have usually all laid by that point and they are at least in the run instead of around the yard. A good way to check for egg freshness is to put the egg in a pot of water. If it stays flat on the bottom, it is fresh. If it is starting to stand up it is still good to eat but do it soon.

If they stand straight up I scramble them and feed them to the animals. If they float, I toss them in the compost heap. As the egg ages, more and more air enters through the pores in the shell. The more air in the egg, the more buoyant it becomes. Where can you find a male pekin duck. I would expect her to be pretty sad and quacking looking for her mate for a couple weeks. Metzer Farms is a reputable duck hatchery who ships through out the country.

If you wanted to avoid shipping, I would start at your feed store to see if any local farms have ducks for sale. You could try seeing if your area has a local homesteading group on Facebook or in Craigslist for people selling livestock. So is it possible that there could be females with a curled tail feather? Or would the female have had eggs hidden somewhere then collected them up and put them in her nest? Ducks are notoriously hard to sex as ducklings. Another way to tell drakes from hens is by listening to their quack.

Drakes have a quieter, raspy quack and females have a louder, crisp sounding quack. Do you know what breed of duck you have? In many breeds, the drakes have different coloring than females.

They are supposedly 9mths old but as I am a novice I really do not know. They all sound the same to me too, although as I get to know them maybe ill spot a difference in their quacks. I have been raising ducks for 6 years now in my backyard with a pond. Let them be ducks. Provide love and they will flourish. Hello, ducks are new to me. I have 5 of them, 2 muscovy, and 3 mallards. They will not let the 1 lone muscovy near the pond and I have actually caught them chasing the loner off the property.

They are mean to him. All my ducks are male. Today I am heading to a duck farmer to buy another duck for the one lone one, a young muscovy… I have fenced in an area to put him with the one lone muscovy who I call Quackers, hoping they will bond.

What do you think???? Is this a mistake? Or am In on the right path? I think you are definitely on the right path. Poor little guy! I ran right out an purchased another muscovy, They are now buddies, I have the loner and his new buddy in a fenced in area.

I will try in a month or so to reintroduce them to the others. Also my moscovy gets my bantam hen like wanting to mate with her also.

Ideally, you should wait until the female Cayuga is about 4 months old and mature. When you say bantam hen, do you mean a bantam chicken? Ducks should definitely NOT be allowed to try and mate with chickens. Ducks have an external phallus roosters do not , so if he tries to mate with a female chicken, it could do real damage to her reproductive system, and could even kill her.

You might have to separate your moscovy until he calms down. Can you separate a mated pair without them having behavioral issues or being sad?

If you separate a mated pair, they will definitely be sad. If they are separated and living alone, it will be especially bad vs having a group of female ducks and a group of male ducks. The easiest thing to do is to just collect eggs everyday.

The eggs will be fertilized, but within the first 24 hours they will not start developing even if the female is sitting on the nest. I have raised a muscovy duck that was found in the wild in someone back yard alone. I am a wildlife carer and didnt know what breed it was until it got feathers as it was one of my first ducks. So when my partner and i seperated, I gave the duck to my new boyfriends school that his dad works at as the agriculture teacher.

Duck is doing great. Free roam of the school and for some odd reason has attracted another duck that isnt native.. No one knows what it is and ive never seen anything like it. Anyhow when i go visit my duck he now bites me to the point i bruise. He draws blood too. He still has a hissing noise and bobbs his head up and down on either side of him as he waddles slowly to me. All this time while wagging his tail rapidly.

Does he not like me anymore? Why the biting? I took the tail wagging and head bobbing as happiness as he has done it his whole life whenever he sees me. Now im confused. Any help would be appreciated! That is why they haul tail for the water whenever a female takes a dip.

While he is hoping, she is often just living her best life, doing what ducks do — swimming. She will set him straight with a couple of stern words loud, angry quacking and will hastily move away from the unwanted flirt and he will often retreat to the edge of the pond to await an invitation and guard the pool.

The females do not always have the last say in mating though. In duck culture, the female can yell or try to run, but often she will be ganged up on by multiple males waiting for a turn to mate with her.

The first time you see your ducks mating can be quite alarming. It looks vicious! It will look like he is either trying to bite her head off or drown her by dunking her head underwater. This is normal mating behavior.

Do not intervene. The female will spread herself flat on the surface to form a makeshift surfboard on the water or on land for the male who will mount her back and, using his bill, hold on to her neck for balance while mating.

Often feathers will come loose. It will look like he is hurting her, do not panic. If you intervene, you will in all likelihood incur his wrath. Drakes are very territorial over their environment and the ducks in their flock. Especially during mating season, you do not want to come between a male and his mate.

During mating season, drakes are more aggressive. Their hormones drive them crazy. They become so territorial that they may fight and even kill other males who are mating with their females. Occasionally, the female caught in the middle will get hurt or even killed. The drive to mate and the territoriality is to blame. You will probably find the same drake who is wreaking havoc is as sweet as can be outside of the mating season. If you watch closely, you will see that they seem to rub under their tail more than anywhere else.

This is because they have a preening gland under their tails that secretes natural oil which they are spreading over their bodies while preening. If your duck is constantly preening, biting its skin or feathers, or pulling feathers, it is likely that he or she has a problem with mites, or could be having a skin reaction to something in the environment or in the food they are getting.

First, check for mites. If the excessive pruning continues, consider taking him or her to the vet for a checkup. Ducks are very social animals, but occasionally they will shun a member of the group. They do this by chasing and biting the shunned member, or chasing it away when food or treats are being offered. This is normally because of a territorial issue.

Often you will find the shunned duck is a drake and the drake in charge does not want to share his females. Occasionally, the shunned duck will be shunned as a result of a health issue. This occurs in many animal species, that if a herd or flock member is ill or near death it is chased off by the others. The accepted scientific view on this is that the other animals sense the shunned animal will not live long and therefore do not want to waste their food supply by allowing the shunned member near the food.

If you have a duck that is being shunned, I suggest you separate it from the others, and give it extra food and vitamin boosters to help it fight off any illness in case they are shunning it due to poor health. You will see that your duck appears to be straining a lot. She may look apprehensive or stressed out. Her tail will be pointed sharply down, and she will flick it about a lot.

Seems like a very easy and fun way to get a mate and tell them you like them if you ask me. Not too complex and everyone knows where they stand. Lol — just kidding. Bobbing their head from side to side on the other hand is usually done by broody females as a sign of dominance signaling to other females to stay away from her nest. Ducks are social and vocal communicators and they have different ways of communicating what they want at various times.

If you keep ducks as pets or for their eggs, then you should learn their behaviours and how they communicate. During mating season, male ducks specifically may also wag their tails in an effort to find a mate. He will cry when he cant see you — he has imprinted on you — and like any baby duck that cant see its mother- it will call out. At this stage providing food, water, warmth, clean bedding and company is all you really need to do for him- there will be many other things as he grows though.

When ducks bite, it can be very painful. Bites range from a slight pinch to a strong grab, and any of them could result in serious bruising or even bleeding. Male ducks, or drakes, tend to bite more often than female ducks. Drakes often bite to protect their partner or territory. The lonely males continue to try and seek a mate and the only way this can be done is to detach one of the loved-up females from their partner. The frenzy of multiple male ducks forcing themselves on a female can lead to the female ducks being killed as they are battered, smothered or, if on water at the time, drowned.

The best way to get them to trust you is to show up on a regular basis, every day if possible, and feed them.