Advice Needed for Pekin Duck

[NavaDucks]

Hi there,

One of our Pekin ducks Alex hates the water. Alex will only drink water. He will not swim in water like his sibling. I'm not sure what to do, he eats and sleeps fine, and has a regular BM like his sibling does. He is mainly white now except his head is still yellow and his adult feathers have been coming in as well. But his sister loves to water, he refuses and almost cries when we try to put him in the water. It's almost like he's afraid of the water. Any advice or solution we should try.

Thank you,

The Nava Family

 

[BeanBoy]

My advice would be to just let him decide when he wants to try out being in the water. He might not want to be in the water if it’s cold, so if you have time, you could try pouring buckets of warm water into a kiddie pool or wherever their water is. Hope this helps

 

[Miss Lydia]

Does he have buckets of water to wash his head in? I’d just give him time. Forcing him may cause him to never get in.

 

[Isaac 0]

Could you lightly mist his feathers with water to prevent wet feather?

 

[NavaDucks]

Could you lightly mist his feathers with water to prevent wet feather?

I have tried that but he screams and runs away. But my other pekin duck loves being spray.

 

[NavaDucks]

Does he have buckets of water to wash his head in? I’d just give him time. Forcing him may cause him to never get in.

I will have to try that. Thank you.

 

[NavaDucks]

My advice would be to just let him decide when he wants to try out being in the water. He might not want to be in the water if it’s cold, so if you have time, you could try pouring buckets of warm water into a kiddie pool or wherever their water is. Hope this helps

Okay, I will try the kiddie pool, so far we've been using the bathroom tub for them to swim. And the water is usually not too cold and not too warm.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How old are they?

 

[Isaac 0]

Could you try putting some of his favorite treats in a small dish of water and working up from their, anything to slowly acclimate him to water will work. It's obvioulsy not good for his health to not be bathing regularly, If his scare of water persists I would not be surprised if he gets wet feather along with other problems related to lack of self hygiene.

 

[Miss Lydia]

And it’s very important that they can wash their faces, eyes an nares out as often as they need to usually when eating and many other times a day.