Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: coxyMFC on January 23, 2010, 13:38

Title: Duck behaving strange / poorly ?
Post by: coxyMFC on January 23, 2010, 13:38

We have 2 ducks, both aylesbury, one male, one female (i know)

recently the male one is looking rather "wet", the female will go in the pond and then get out, preen herself and looks very white and vibrant and healthy, whereas the male gets out of the pond and sort of stands there looking very damp, doesnt seem too interested in preening, looks a bit cold, and appears to be a bit unsteady on his feet (looks drunk to be honest)

the duck in question is eating and drinking alright, but doesnt seem to have any oil on its feathers.

does anyone have any suggestions ?  or a suggestion of any kind of oil suppliment that i can put in their food

thanks in advance

Title: Re: Duck behaving strange / poorly ?
Post by: Foxy on January 23, 2010, 16:09

What you have is "wet feather"
Ducks need to preen, this separates and conditions the feathers ensuring they stay watertight. If they are feeling a little under the weather, or have their feathers trailing in mud/water the condition can sort of track up their feathers giving them a bedraggled and damp appearance. They then are reluctant to bathe which makes the condition worse.

They need lots of fresh water to bathe, maybe bring him in once day and bath for a few days to get him started.

Diet is important - use 50% to 70% grains (wheat preferably) and mix in cod liver oil so it coats the feed. Try and keep their run as clean as possible -I know it is tricky, specially with all this rotten weather! Mine are now in the veggie plot and I have filled the pathways with wood chip kindly donated by a tree surgeon :)

Title: Re: Duck behaving strange / poorly ?
Post by: coxyMFC on January 23, 2010, 17:58

thats spot on cheers, it makes loads of sense, because when it was snowy the bottom of the ducks run was obviously snowy and hard with the cold, i had problems with the pond freezing over and ill be honest - the ducks didnt get to bathe as much as i would of liked them to - they did however get daily showers, but baths would of been more preferred

since the snow has frozen though the duck area looks like the somme, they were both knee deep in slop and just looked thouroughly miserable

i laid some concrete in the garden last year and never got round to putting the new duck enclsure on it, however thismorning i moved them across the garden and in doing so found the problem

thanks a lot for the advice, im gonna put him in the bath tonight and at least try and clean the mud out of his feathers, and then tomorrow put fresh water in the pond