Toys for ducks???

[AnconaMommy]

I have two Anconas. They are three months old. This may sound silly, but they seem bored with just their pool and foraging around. They would rather follow me or my yellow Lab around, and trust me, we're not THAT interesting! Will they play with toys like my sister's chickens do? What toys would you all recommend?

 

[quackers619]

I don't know about any toys but minnows in the pool is lots of fun for both you and the ducks or a Little container full of mud with worms in it

 

[Cherib603]

I tried toys with mine - they completely ignored them.

I tried a string of bells tied to the fence (heavy duty, large round christmas jingle bells on a wide leather strap), they each poked it once with their bills, and when no food came out, they walked away, never to return. I tried small dog Kong's stuffed with kitten kibble, figuring if they pushed or tossed it around and kibble fell out, they would love it. Nope. Sat there for a week til the ants found it.
Put tennis balls and floating dog toys in their pool. They refused to go in the pool until I got those weird things out of there.

The only thing they like is FOOD. I drop an entire head of lettuce or cabbage in their pool and they'll go in and tear it apart. I sprinkle dried meal worms in unexpected places so they have to play hide & seek with it. Keeps them busy for a little bit.
Freeze fruits and veggies in a bowl of water, then dump frozen lump on the grass... as it thaws, they chip at it to get to the treats.
Ducks seem to be pretty simple. Food, nap, love.

 

[gal5150]

Mine LOVE bells, I hang them off of the sides of the pen/hardware cloth. They also love very thick, tough rubber bands cut in one spot to make two dangly "worms" hung in the pen. All toys need to be checked daily to make sure they haven't broken them, but the rubber bands we use are very long so on the occasion one of the girls broke one it was far to large to ingest. And the bells we use are metal but fully enclosed so the ball inside can not come out. I'm a firm believer in adding enrichment toys to pens! Have fun!

 

[chickens really]

Mine like wind chimes, MUD flaps on the truck...Rubber balls, String, the sprinkler on low, rubber boots, stuffed dog toys...Pebbles.
My pool is full of pebbles from them hauling them in. Goldfish. My dogs and people.

 

[Orca5094]

Piles of dried leaves, hay, or straw are always a hit with my ducks. I also give mine various baby toys and balls to play with. Anything you can stuff some hay into that they can play with to pull the pieces out one by one is always a hit (old plastic bottles with extra holes cut into them, hollow balls or other plastic toys you can stuff hay into, etc).

 

[Krazyquilts]

Ducks seem to be pretty simple. Food, nap, love.

Don't you mean, "Food, nap, poop?"

 

[Cherib603]

I figured the poop was just implied in the food part!!!

 

[AnconaMommy]

You are all awesome! I am going to go crazy and try all these ideas. And yes, eat and poop....all they want to do!

My first post on BYC...success! Thank you all!

 

[kysilkies]

We have a 2acre pond and 19 ducks that prefer 4' circumference plastic pools. Can't think of any toys they've "played with" but I know how I entertain myself with them, I go buy 500 Minnows from pet store! Other than that, they do what they want which is eat, sleep, swim and poop....not necessarily in that order....