Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My muscovy is about a foot long now and is still living inside with us. We want to be able to keep her outside sometimes but we're worried about cats and things. Is there a point where cats won't go after the duck? She's pretty big, so I can't imagine that a cat could actually kill her. I don't know!!! Help!

I have a lot of ducks and our 3 cats get along with them. They don't ever bothem them. The ducks are all grown, though, and they even eat out of the same bowl sometimes. The ducks love catfood!! Are the cats your or are they your neighbor's cats??

They are the neighbors cats and they are just always on the prowl. They've gotten many a fish from our pond already. I just have no idea if they would go after spike.

I wouldn't let him out and leave him. Make sure you watch him if you do. Do you have a fenced in yard? Are you going to get another duck for him?

We have neighbor's cats around here, but none have ever bothered to come into our fence and bother our ducks. I don't believe a cat can kill a full grown muscovy--muscovies are tough ducks. But, he's still a baby (isn't he) and they might try to get after him if you put him outside before he gets grown. I probably wouldn't put him outside unless I was out there since I thought the cats might hurt him, but that's just me. I mean I would be afraid the cats might hurt him.

But, you can't keep him inside forever! So, just let him out and see how he does, but don't leave him. If you had a fence or something like that I would feel lots safer about leaving him out, and it would be good to probably get him a duck friend. Ducks are very social animals.

Genny

Our yard is not fenced in unfortunately but we have a little pen for her and I've built her a nice little insulated house. She is a baby yet so I guess I will wait until she's full grown until I put her out there.
I've heard that two is much better then one but we have a hard enough time taking care of one! We are with her 24/7 and she gets a lot of play time with us. She's more like a daughter for us because of the way we treat her. Is that ok or is there something she's missing from being with another duck?

Oh yeah a pen is good, too. We have a pen for our ducks ( we have 10!) and we put them in it at night and we are grown and when we're home we let them walk around in the yard.

A lot of people have only 1 duck. It's ok. As long as you give her plenty of attention she should be alright. I just know how much my ducks enjoy one another's company.

She might even be afraid of a new duck at first since all she knows is 'you'. She'll be fine without another duck friend. But, (if your like me) you probably have a lot of other things you have to do and can't be with her all the time. I mean I started out with 1 duck and felt sorry for her, because I wasn't with her all the time ( and you know how their little faces look when they look upset or something) so I went and got her sister..and befoe you know it 3 years later I've got 10 ducks!
I know how messy they can be. When they're younger they're more messier and hard to take care of. It's much more enjoyable when they get big enough to put outside. Then you can walk out and enjoy them when you want to.

Did you name her?

but yeah I think if 1 is all you want to get and you have plenty of spare time to give her then that's fine to only have one. The main reason you would want to get another is if you can;t give her much attention and you sound as if you really love her and play with her a whole lot!

Genny

We named her spike before we knew that she was a she. We're obsessed with buffy the vampire slayer and decided that spike was a fitting name.
How often do you feed your ducks? We feed spike once in the morning and that's it. She sleeps with us at night and it's much better that she doesn't eat at night because then she can go the whole night without going to the bathroom. Do you think that is ok? Or are we starving her? She seems to be nice and fat and healthy! (We always provide water for her though)

I feed mine once in the morning and once at night. In the morning they are starving and gobble the food up fast--but, at night they barely eat. I guess they're full from earlier. I don't think mine really need food at night; I just feed them anyway though, because when I go feed the cats at night I hate not to bring the ducks something to eat. If she doesn't act hungry then I wouldn't worry. I can't believe she sleeps with you!! She doesn't ever mess up the covers??

We always have her on a towel so that if she does have an accident, there isn't much fuss. Usually she will go the whole night without going to the bathroom. We love sleeping with her. She LOVES to cuddle!! It's like a little stuffed animal. If she has to go to the bathroom though, she usually wakes us up. She will start squeaking and standing up and stuff. Then we know to take her outside for a second. She's really good.

She sounds so cute! They are so precious--aren't they??

I couldn't ask for a better companion. She's sitting here in my lap as I type and snuggling into me. I think I'll have ducks for the rest of my life!!

yeah--they're adorable. I really, truly love mine. But, after these I don't think I'll ever want anymore. I just love these so much and no other ducks could ever take their place and wouldn't ever be the same.

I'm glad you love Spike so much. Don't be upset about Spike having a boy's name--we have some girl ducks who we didn't know were boys ot girls and they ended up being hirls and this is some of our 'girls' names! Striker, Shere-khan, Jake, J.R., Troy and Diego.

Genny