The female of any species is usually the one who is more docile and nonconfrontational, and the males are usually the ones who you have to fear, but sometimes female ducks can be quite aggressive as well.
If your bird is starting to get aggressive, and you’re wondering why, then this article will be of help to you.
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Aggressive female duck behavior:
Females need some level of aggression, this helps them get through life protecting themselves and serving as a warning to other ducks. Here are aggressive behaviors that female ducks engage in:
Looking for attention:
Ducks enjoy getting attention but they don’t always know how to communicate this to humans, to humans some duck traits may seem antisocial but this is only because we can’t understand them.
A duck may bite you, and this may be interpreted as though the bird is being aggressive, but regular short bites from your ducks may simply mean that you’re not giving the duck enough attention.
What to do:
Give the bird more attention, spend time with the bird and make sure that the bird feels loved, this should stop the aggression and the biting from the duck.
Jealousy:
Female ducks are monogynous but male ducks are not. A female duck will pick one male duck that she will willingly mate with and share eggs with, once she picks her mate, she will become very jealous when other females are around him.
On the other hand, the male duck will go around trying to mate with other female ducks, and his primary partner will not like this.
She won’t attack the male duck but she will angrily quack at the other female ducks and will bob her head sideways to warn the other female ducks to keep away from her drake (male duck).
She may also angrily and aggressively “talk” to the drake in front of the other birds making sure that the other female ducks see this showing everyone who’s boss.
What to do:
There isn’t anything you can do when it comes to a jealous female duck, and it’s in the drake’s behavior to want to mate with a variety of different female ducks.
If the female ducks already have their own mates then the males will protect their females but if you have too many drakes in the flock this will result in the female ducks being over mated as all the males will want to mate with as many female ducks as possible in addition to their partner.
As long as the aggressive female duck isn’t injuring any of the other female ducks then you can let the be, this is normal for the birds.
If the female duck is injuring other female ducks then you may need to isolate the aggressive female duck to get it to calm down, also, isolate the injured female duck separately so you can treat her injuries and help her recover
Ducklings:
Female ducks can also be aggressive towards ducklings. A female duck that has recently hatched a clutch of eggs is very attentive and protective over her eggs and ducklings.
These birds may adopt an orphan who is of a similar age to her ducklings but if the birds are too young or too old then the mother duck will not take these birds as their own
If you give a mother duck ducklings that are not close in age to her own then the mother duck will become aggressive toward the orphaned ducklings and even kill them in some cases.
The mother will do this because she doesn’t want to use resources and spend time taking care of ducklings that aren’t hers, or ducklings that she knows that arent hers, this would cause her own ducklings to have less resources and attention and would thus put them at a disadvantage
What to do:
If you’re wanting a mother duck to adopt a duckling then you’d need to either place the eggs under the mother duck before they hatch or give the mother duck chicks that have a 2-week or less age difference from the ducklings that she already has.
Giving the mother duck ducklings that are very close in age to her ducklings is preferred as she won’t be able to tell the difference between her ducklings and the foreign ducklings.
If the mother duck ends up injuring the duckling then you should immediately take the duckling away from her, she can easily injure the little duckling and she definitely will
Remove the duckling from the female duck and isolate the bird. You can also treat the bird’s injuries and allow it to recover at home or better yet, take the duckling to a vet or to a rehabilitation center to be treated and taken by the professionals
You can then raise the duckling on your own without the mother duck or you can take the bird to a wildlife rehabilitation center to be raised by professionals who know all about raising ducklings.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other duck related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Ducklings Separated From Their Mother, How To Stop Ducks From Pooping On The Driveway, Will Ducks Adopt Other Ducks?, Do Ducks Drown Other Ducks?