Muschovy ducks pulling out each others feathers?

Question

I Have ducks now on my farm and for some reason there yanking out healthy feathers and actually causing bleeding to occur. there about 4 months old. Has anybody heard of this? could it be a disease or lacking something in there diet? any help would be great. The ducks appear very healthy except for this feather plucking.

Answer 1

well normally and nearly always feather pulling is a sign of stress.

and it happens due to boredom and cramped conditions.

But I'm going to assume they have space, room etc?

since they are 4 months old I have a theory

They could just be over preening their feathers?

and as they are young their adult feathers are just growing now hence they preen to hard breaking the delicate feathers . .  resulting in blood.

what genders are the ducks or do you not know?

if it's a few males and only one female their could be a bit of rivalry because they are becoming sexually mature.

(Yes! even at this young age)

Muscovy ducks can be very agressive particuraly males against males,

so they do better in pairs (male and female) or 2 females to a male ( a trio)

They could also be trying to mate

(they are becoming sexually mature like i said)

and it takes a while for them to do it right and obviously the female will be not happy at first trying to get away and hence her feathers will break.

It's definitely not a disease.

nor a deficiency.

what i would do if things get really bad (lot of blood)

i would separate in groups of 2. . . example 2 males could be one group and another of 2 females

(or howvere many ducks you have and what sexes)  

they wont fight as long as their is no more then one male in with 1 female separate them just until they get their adult feathers

and then bring them back together and they will pair up.

But then again it might just be a one off.

Just keep an eye on them

Hope i helped some bit.

Good luck!  

Answer 2

Sometimes they can over clean themselves. It sounds that they are stressed for some reason. Did you move them or to another area? Are they in the coop/pen with other fowel? Do they get out to move about or swim?

Sometimes they can stress if you ove them. If you got them they could still be getting use to there new surroundings.

Sometimes they dont like to be in the same coop as other fowel. I had a duck that was in wih chcikens and did that.

Fi they dont have a lot of foom to move anout thats stressful for them. If they are alaways in the coop. If you havw a fnced in yard or let them out in an area that can help. Do you have a kiddy pool for them? They love water and like to stay coop in this hot weather.