Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi, i have been raising rouens and muscovy ducks for quite some time now about 2 weeks ago i recieved an email from a woman who was looking to get rid of her ducks as she couldnt keep them - i did not know this woman but thought if the ducks needed a home - i sure have the space and would take them. she told me she was keeping them in a dog crate in her driveway. she also told me they were pekins. well my husband and i went to pick them up and to our surprise we picked up 4 ducks. 1 runner, 2 khaki campbells, and 1 pekin. sure enough these ducks were unattended in the driveway in a little dog crate. we gladly took them home . the ducks were i would say about 10 weeks old. we seperated them from our other adult ducks for the time being. the problem is i really think they were kept in this crate all the time. when we even get near the pen they go crazy - i think they are absolutely terrified. we have had them now for 2 weeks and at first gave them plenty of alone time and dont bother them - only to round them up to put them away at night. there has been no improvement with them. i will of course keep them . they are no problem what so ever. i am just worried about them being so frightened as i have no idea what their conditions were before. the other thing is one of the khaki campbells is definitely a male and the other a female but the female cannot make any noise at all. you can tell she is a female as her coloring , size, feathering, venting,etc.. she is completely silent. i brought her to the vet and they dont know without knowing her history what is causing this. they are all eating and seem to enjoy the outside and swimming . i am just worried about them being so frightnened. if anyone has any suggestions i would appreciate it.
as i said i have been raising ducks for quite a while and havent had this problem probably because our ducks were all raised by us from babies. thanks in advance.

Maybe they were being mistreated by their previous owner, or somethign happened so they are scared of humans. Or maybe they were not hand raised and were raised by their mother and didn't come into conatact with humans. Or maybe their mother was a domestic duck who ran away, had ducklings then came back with them one day. Well, mother could be mothers. I'm just guessing, I don't know all that much about ducks even though I have two so...

the ducks seem to be getting a bit better now . i put them with our 5 weeks old duck who was incubated and raised by our family and is very very people friendly . so now they seem to be warming up a bit.