Will your pet ducks fly away?
The ability to fly is an important consideration one must keep in mind before choosing a pet for themselves, especially in the case of ducks. Because clipping wings can prove a difficult process for you and some pets as well.
Most people choose duck as their pet because of the protein they get from their eggs and meat, or it can be the reason that their ability to swim, run, walk and fly fascinates them. But besides having all these perks there is a con that when a duck fly, it can lose its way back home.
Now the questions appear!
Will they fly away?
Can we keep them from flying away?
Following are the factors that decide whether your duck will fly away or not.
1. Size and weight
2. Breed
3. Environmental conditions
- SIZE
Some ducks are so big and heavy in their weight that they can not fly. Most of them are domestic ducks that are kept for eating or egg purposes. Following are some common examples of ducks that can not fly.
· Pekin
· Rouen
· Runners
· Silver Appleyard
· Saxony
· Swedish
· Cayuga
· Buff Orpington
· Magpie
Some that can fly may include breeds such as Call, Muscovy, Bantam Hybrids, Mandarin etc.
2. BREED
Most of the domestic ducks cannot fly, because breeders make sure to breed out the ability to fly in many farm ducks.
Why?
Because they want to produce a duck with better meat, so they selectively breed ducks to be larger in size, making them too heavy to fly. But there are other breeds of ducks also present which can fly but, only for shorter distances.
So in this case, if your duck is bred by a professional breeder, you do not need to clip its wings in order to prevent them from flying away.
However, in the case of some ducks which are smaller in size, you may need to clip their wings, for example in the case of Call ducks. Bantam ducks as they are lightweight can fly very high as well.
3. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
If you make your ducks feel at home they might not fly away from you.
But
If they are fearing predators i.e. foxes
They are wondering in search of food
Are feeling lonely
They might consider flying away from your given environment because all of the above conditions are stimuli for them to run or fly away.
So make sure to
Install a better protection system
Provide them with generous food
And buy ducks in a flock. They are very socially active and need one another for making themselves happy.
Final word
If you are planning to have ducks as your pet you must know everything about your breed. It will be helpful in the long run and you will be able to provide them better in their needs.
