Babies are quite a lot of work but we love them so we try to take the best care of them as we can. So, do ducks feel the same way about their babies?
This article looks into whether ducks love their babies and how they show it
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Do ducks love their babies?
While we don’t know if ducks love their babies what we do know is that ducks will definitely care for and protect their babies until the babies can take care of themselves.
Here are signs that mother ducks take care of their babies:
Picking the right mate:
The first step that shows us that ducks love, or want to take the best care of their babies, is through picking the best male to mate with.
The male birds have to impress the females in order to mate with her and for her to actually give him offspring, so, she must be very selective when picking.
She chooses the male who is the strongest, largest, and healthiest duck to reproduce with.
In fact, some males will try to force themselves into a female and mate with her, but, her body has ways of keeping this forceful mating from being successful and keeping him from fathering ducklings.
Sitting on her eggs:
Once she has picked her mate and laid her eggs she will sit on her eggs for extended periods of time only getting up to stretch her legs or get something to eat.
This, to us, makes it seem like she loves her ducklings before they even hatch, or, at the very least, wants the very best for them and wants their incubation to be smooth so they can hatch healthy.
The father duck will show his love by protecting the mother duck as she sits on the eggs, as well as by bringing her food.
Cuddling:
All types of animals love cuddling, ducks included and the mother duck will do this to show her love.
The mother duck will also cuddle up to her ducklings once they have hatched in order to keep them warm.
Ducklings don’t have feathers, they rather have a soft fluffy layer called down on their bodies when they are young.
This layer isn’t enough to keep them warm so their mothers will cuddle up to them to keep them warm.
Feeding the ducklings:
The mother duck also shows her love by making sure that her ducklings eat what is safe and nutritious for them.
Because ducklings imprint on their mothers once they hatch, they will follow her around and do what she does.
She will lead them to grassy areas where the mother will eat grass, weeds, larvae, grubs, insects, slugs, and frogs in the grass, and baby birds will follow suit eating what she eats.
If they get into water then the family will eat algae and aquatic plants.
Keeping them safe from predators:
Another way that a mother duck will show her love for her ducklings is by keeping them safe from predators.
She does this by only going out to feed with her ducklings in areas that she has deemed safe from predators.
If a predator does approach the family, she will put herself in harm’s way by trying to scare the predator off rather than flying off as ducks usually do.
The mother will make loud noises at the predator and will even charge at the predator if need be to protect her young.
If other ducks try to attack her young then she will also protect her young from them.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Duck Biting Other Ducks Neck, Can You Train A Duck To Attack?, How To Care For A Single Duckling, How Do Mother Ducks Protect Their Young, How Do Ducks Know Their Babies?, Abnormal Duck Behavior, Why Is My Duck Making Weird Noises