Hi duck folks!!
You may recall my posts about raising a singleton Indian Runner. Our little duckling turned out to be a female and once we were fairly certain we adopted an adult female duck to try to transition our single into a new duck life. I felt an adult in need of a good home would be the best way to get our duckling to start to learn how to actually BE a duck rather than a tiny quacking human.
We found a family that had a single adult Peking female who had lost both of her Indian Runner buddies (hit by cars). They desperately wanted to find her a home with another duck so we took her in. They two of them get along super well and now our singleton wants nothing to do with human things and has learned to play in the mud and chase after frogs and all kinds of fun duck things. We are super happy. It all worked out wonderfully!
Over the past few days we have noticed that the adult duck (Lily) has started mounting our singleton (Duckens). Now that I think more about it I am wondering if this is a sign that maybe Lily isn't a female? Lily also has a much more gruff sounding quack and is no where near as loud as Duckens. That said, she has no sign of a drake feather and it's only the mounting and different quack that make me wonder. She's about 2 years old so if she was a male I would see a drake feather, right?
I've read that females may mount females as a sign of dominance so that could be all it is. The even more interesting thing is that Duckens seems to submit to it. It usually happens when they are in one of their pools so I do worry Lily may accidentally drown Duckens since she is a good deal less meaty.
Anyone else see this behavior and end up finding out their she is actually a he? Do I need to worry that Lily may accidentally drown Duckens? If this is just a dominance thing will it eventually stop? It's happen at least 4 times that I've seen so far today and its not even noon yet.
As always, THANKS!!
Melissa
You may recall my posts about raising a singleton Indian Runner. Our little duckling turned out to be a female and once we were fairly certain we adopted an adult female duck to try to transition our single into a new duck life. I felt an adult in need of a good home would be the best way to get our duckling to start to learn how to actually BE a duck rather than a tiny quacking human.
We found a family that had a single adult Peking female who had lost both of her Indian Runner buddies (hit by cars). They desperately wanted to find her a home with another duck so we took her in. They two of them get along super well and now our singleton wants nothing to do with human things and has learned to play in the mud and chase after frogs and all kinds of fun duck things. We are super happy. It all worked out wonderfully!
Over the past few days we have noticed that the adult duck (Lily) has started mounting our singleton (Duckens). Now that I think more about it I am wondering if this is a sign that maybe Lily isn't a female? Lily also has a much more gruff sounding quack and is no where near as loud as Duckens. That said, she has no sign of a drake feather and it's only the mounting and different quack that make me wonder. She's about 2 years old so if she was a male I would see a drake feather, right?
I've read that females may mount females as a sign of dominance so that could be all it is. The even more interesting thing is that Duckens seems to submit to it. It usually happens when they are in one of their pools so I do worry Lily may accidentally drown Duckens since she is a good deal less meaty.
Anyone else see this behavior and end up finding out their she is actually a he? Do I need to worry that Lily may accidentally drown Duckens? If this is just a dominance thing will it eventually stop? It's happen at least 4 times that I've seen so far today and its not even noon yet.
As always, THANKS!!
Melissa
