My duck seems very stressed and kind of afraid

[Iasssone]

Hi,
I found this lost duckling 2 weeks ago and I've been keeping it with me ever since. Leading up to now, she has been more comfortable with me day after day, until yesterday. We changed her feed and put some brewer's yeast in it so that she could get some niacin (duck feed is very hard to find in Canada, or at least in Toronto), but by ignorance we put too much, which gave her diarrhea. We changed it and now she's fine, but ever since then, she has been much more less friendly and stressed (I don't know if the two are related) She starts "crying" (idk how to explain it but it's the sound she makes when she's alone or stressed) for no reason at all; doesn't like getting cuddled; doesn't cuddle back; doesn't follow me; steps back when I try to cuddle her sometimes. It's a baby duckling btw; prob around 3 weeks old. Any ideas why that might be?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

From the sounds of it she is the only duck? Ducks are VERY social and need to be with other ducks. She sounds very lonely and since you found her at what I'm assuming was only 1 week old based off of your description she was too old to imprint on you.

 

[Iasssone]

From the sounds of it she is the only duck? Ducks are VERY social and need to be with other ducks. She sounds very lonely and since you found her at what I'm assuming was only 1 week old based off of your description she was too old to imprint on you.

yeah it is only one. We had found one of her siblings a couple of hours after we found her, but he got scared and ran away. I know that ducks are very social and because of that I spend as much time as possible with her and never leave her alone. I could be wrong about the age, but for sure she wasn't a newborn when I picked her up. The thing is that she didn't behave like that before. She was always friendly and sweet with me.

 

[MEEKSandPITTS]

I agree I think your duck needs another duck companion, even if you are spending a lot of time with her it still won’t make up for the companionship they need with ducks. And make sure she has lots of water

 

[Miss Lydia]

What breed? Ducklings go through what I call the boogie man stage where everything scares them. Instead of picking her up for a cuddle why not sit on the floor or ground and let her make the gesture. They don't feel safe when alone so try putting a mirror in with her so she can see another duck. Do you plan on keeping her? if you do maybe you can try your Canada forum at where am I where are you and find a friend for her. If keeping her long-term isn't in your plans then a waterfowl rescue would be the best since they know how to raise them for release when old enough.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/canadians-check-in-here.144/page-550#post-24543780

 

[Iasssone]

What breed? Ducklings go through what I call the boogie man stage where everything scares them. Instead of picking her up for a cuddle why not sit on the floor or ground and let her make the gesture. They don't feel safe when alone so try putting a mirror in with her so she can see another duck. Do you plan on keeping her? if you do maybe you can try your Canada forum at where am I where are you and find a friend for her. If keeping her long-term isn't in your plans then a waterfowl rescue would be the best since they know how to raise them for release when old enough.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/canadians-check-in-here.144/page-550#post-24543780

Our plans (me and my family) are to keep her until she was big enough to survive by herself. I will definitely try out this stuff. I will keep yall updated. Thank you !

 

[MEEKSandPITTS]

Our plans (me and my family) are to keep her until she was big enough to survive by herself. I will definitely try out this stuff. I will keep yall updated. Thank you !

If she’s a domesticated breed she won’t be able to survive on her own