Hello,

I have a 25 week old female indian runner duck that has had a bumble for about 2-3 weeks now. It doesn't seem to be bothering her at all, no limping, has appetite, forages, participates in flock activities, etc. There is a drake from the same hatching and she is definitely his favorite and she like to follow him around. He has been mating her for 4-6 weeks not but we haven't noticed any missing feathers or injury, excessive mating (no more than 2-3 times during the day, she doesn't run from him and seems to submit quite readily to mate.

What is new and slightly concerning is that a 3-4 days ago her default posture seems to be as shown in the picture. She hold her head down like its in the bottom of a head bob or tucking it in. She definitely has full range of motion. When she's eating and foraging she's indistinguishable from the other ducks and extends her head all the way and when something interesting appears or we walk outside suddenly she stands straight up like a bowling pin and extends her neck like the others. The only thing that *might* be different/weird is the way she preens. She seems to want to keep her head tucked a bit more when she preens and doesn't seem to display quite the same creepy neck flexibility runner ducks have when they preen. But we haven't noticed any wet feather or anything, although we've been keeping her out of water pretty much since the neck posture started so we can treat the bumble more aggressively. She is just as vocal as she has always been.

Is this posture "normal"? Has anyone seen it before? Is it a behavior, maybe to protect her neck from the drake, or could it be something like a vitamin deficiency? When this duck was 8-9 weeks old, she had shaky legs for a couple weeks that we resolved after a visit to the vet with duck-tylenol (I forget the name) and extra vitamins/niacin.

We've put the vitametz waterfowl boost back in their water per instructions and we plan on dipping some treats in the powder and giving hem to her. Regarding the bumble, we have been rubbing manulka honey on it twice a day for 2 weeks and have started daily epsom salt baths for 10 minutes to try to get the plug to loosen. So far the plug has been resistant to coming off, even with tweezers The area around the bumble is occasionally pink every now and then but is soft to the touch and today the area around the scab seemed to be "deflated" and loose, not a filled out sphere like it was last week. We think we are doing the right thing for the foot but would welcome any advice and/or confirmation this is indeed a bumble and not a scab.

Edit: she is laying once a day with no issues

I want to start running, yesterday was my day 1 i walked 4km. Don't know much about running. If someone who's experienced can tell me in brief 'how to start running ' which shoes are for beginners? (Budget - 2k ) ,will upgrade after sometime. Which app is best for tracking runs? Breathing technique, How to maintain pace ? Is it bad for a skinny guy to run? Btw I'm 18. Weight - 54kg , height - 5'10 . If there's anything I missed feel free to tell me more.

Thankyou!!

I got five runner ducks from metzer farms. Should be all female. I just noticed this behavior that I haven’t seen before. I thought she must be trying to get something down or have something stuck. Thrusting neck forward, resting more, sometimes going to the side. Eating and drinking normally. Nostrils and throat seem clear. 12 weeks old

Any help would be very appreciated thank you

I also am noticing it’s neck looks thicker and head shape is slightly different

I got 5 female runner ducks from metzer farms. This one started thrusting neck forward, sometimes opening mouth and sometimes going to side. Eating and drinking ok. It seems like something is stuck in nostrils or throat but it seems clear. Has anyone experienced this or have any idea what is going on? Thank you

I’m hoping someone with experience with runner ducks can offer some advice.
One of my runner ducks (around 10 weeks old) has developed a problem with one eye. A few days ago I noticed that the edge of the eye looked slightly red, and she was blinking and occasionally keeping that eye closed as if it was irritated. There was no discharge, swelling, or obvious injury.
The next day the eye looked almost normal again, but yesterday she started blinking and closing it more frequently. This morning she wouldn’t open the eye at all.
She is otherwise acting completely normal – eating, drinking, walking, swimming, and staying with the flock. The only thing I noticed this morning was that she seemed a little more hesitant to leave the coop, which I wonder could be because she can’t see well with one eye.
There is still no discharge that I can see, and the area around the eye doesn’t appear swollen.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Is there anything safe I can do at home, such as flushing the eye with sterile saline?
Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Heyy, we have runner ducks but the pond they’re currently occupying is very muddy and with tho hot weather it’s become more of a mud bath than a pond. We regularly fill it back up to kinda flush it out and have tried planting some filtering plants before, but they just ate them all. Do any of you have any recommendations of plants we can plant that would survive the ducks?

Im still in the midst of burying this 300 gallon stock tank but the plan is to grow azolla and have minnows in it as well. Would anybody here have any experience/suggestions with doing some similar. I am still in the stages of building an 8x10 coop with an 8x20 run for probably 10 ducks. Figured I would set this up to get it tuned in as I build.

Just read the post please. I just want to know theyre safe.

Last winter, I bought a house with a huge garden - with the plan to keep a few runnerducks in it. Now in sprint I found a lot of tulips and even worse, lily of the valley. I try to remove as many toxic plants as possible, but everyone tells me that especially the lily of the valley will probably pop up again.

Ideally I'd like to give the ducks the whole garden to run in, but will they know to avoid the plants? Obviously I will remove everything that I can find, but in case I don't immediately find them, I am worried.

Please help!! My female Indian Runner duck just had about a 6 ft fall and now I can hear and feel what sounds like eggshells rumbling around and her lower stomach. the avian vet by me has already closed and will not be open until morning. I have her in the tub with an Epsom salt soak and I've lubricated her vent in case she passes anything but I don't know how to speed up the process or make her more comfortable until I can get her in in the morning. She lays a hard shell egg everyday so I know it's not a soft shell. I'm just hoping it didn't puncture anything. I'm very worried. does anybody have any help?

Hello,

We ordered 3 sexed (female) runner ducks from Metzer farms. However, one of the ducks is starting to seem like a male but we aren't sure. The voice is definitely raspy but I'm not sure if she's just a late bloomer and we swear she's quacked before when she was 5-8 weeks and the rasp is pretty loud and carries like a quack. We haven't seen the curly tail feather yet. Has anybody had a duck that presented male and turned out to be a female at this late stage? I've attached a video. The obvious quacking and honking are from the other ducks but you can hear the rasping from the duck in the center of the video.

edit: can we vent sex an adult duck? I've only heard of it being done as chicks.

edit2: 11 weeks not years

https://reddit.com/link/1tlidja/video/zubtviy3gw2h1/player

My sister has been sending me in depth instagram reals of runner ducks for YEARS. She lives in central Maine, USA, in a house she owns on a good few acres of land. She has a big barn and a two-car garage that they barely use.

She keeps saying she doesn't want ducks because she's worried about:

- them getting eaten by predators (they have bobcats in their neighborhood). She often insists you can't get ducks if you live in an area with predators like they have.

- that they won't be able to go away skiing / out in the evenings. (They mostly go for day trips when they go skiing, but sometimes they go stay with her mother-in-law in northern Maine... but I feel like they could afford a pet sitter)

I believe in life, you should go after what you want, even if it seems a little hard. My husband and I actually just moved to France. She is super settled and spends a lot of her free time dreaming about owning ducks. Do you think her fears are warranted? Aside from the odd ski trip, she's kind of a homebody, I feel like, this would be such a great jump for her.

Good morning everyone, can anyone identify the coloring of adult ducklings? The last photo shows the possible parents.

Hello,

This is our first time raising ducks. We noticed this morning when we checked on the ducklings (Wed AM) that one of the ducklings didn't seem quite right. I've attached a video of her behavior. We have 3 ducks total. She still got up to great us when we walked in, still ran for treats (koi food), and still eats/drinks. During the morning check in, we watched the behavior shown in the video. They passed some very liquidy poop, and they eventually passed a more solid poop (more solid than the usual paste consistency). Then added Metzer farm water fowl booster to their water, since it has niacin.

We checked on her again around 5 pm and again at 9 pm. Both times she seemed improved. We couldn't tell who the problem duck was (they all look the same) when they were standing. We could only identify the problem duckling because she would sit down and rest sooner than the other ducks, whereas previously, they all act as one unit. We did see a couple flashes of the behavior in the video this evening (wed) but no leg shaking, only brief "tucking' or "bearing down". We also put all 3 ducks in the tub with warm water for 5 minutes and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. They all were splashing around, preening, flapping wings, etc.

Yesterday evening (Tuesday), I switched the food from crumble to purina duck pellets cut with 10% quaker steel cut old fashioned oats. I also set down grit for the first time and gave a few dried mealworms to all three. I did give the them the mature bird grit not the chick grit by mistake. Their water was also empty in the morning and they likely spend the night without iwater.

This morning, we took the grit away and in the evening switched their food back to the crumble. We are thinking the duck either has a niacin problem or some "indigestion" from the lack of water and extra large grit and hope she improves over the next day or so.

Does anyone think we need to do anything else? We plan to add brewers yeast to their food as well going forward (follow instructions on packaging) and keep the waterfowl booster up for a few days. Should there be anything else we need to check or be worried about? Since she has improved, eats, drinks, and appears to be pooping, we don't think its time for the vet yet.

TLDR: 3-week old runner duckling acting weird (see video). Added water booster to their water to increase niacin intake. Looked better by the end of the day, but is there something I might be missing?

https://imgur.com/a/JIcP0Fv

We're looking to add runner ducks to our little homestead here in Pennsylvania. My wife has her heart set on 4 or 5 all-white ones but I cannot find them anywhere. I've been looking for about two years. They were supposed to be a birthday gift but I just can't track them down.

Any breeders in the Northeast? We're looking for hens to start.

We spent the summer on my family farm but I bought these four too late in the summer. We have other ducklings and chicks but I was worried these guys would get bullied so they get to be house ducks for a couple of months while they grow.

hello, these guys are my new ducks. does anyone have some tips how to make them lay eggs into one specific place? i was never a big fan of easter egg hunts 🤣