Do ducks smell? If you don’t like messy pets or pets that smell bad, you might want to rethink having a pet duck. However, if you have the time and inclination to keep your ducks’ pen clean and dry daily, your ducks won’t smell so bad.
We will explain what makes ducks and their coops smell bad and how to keep them and their coops clean and better smelling.
Are Ducks Clean?
Most Jewish rabbis will say that ducks are clean and kosher birds to eat. However, ducks aren’t clean as pets because they tend to make big messes. So, if you’re talking about dirt vs. religion, ducks are not clean birds.
Are Ducks Dirty Pets?
Do ducks smell? Ducks are dirty and messy pets. There is a lot of wet, stinky cleanup involved with ducks.
You don’t technically need a pond or other body of water on your property to keep ducks. However, if ducks don’t have somewhere to bathe themselves every few days, they will get increasingly dirtier.
It is worth noting ducks are prone to getting external parasites like lice and mites. Ducks can also transmit some diseases to humans, such as psittacosis, Tembusu virus, Novel Duck Reovirus, Avian Influenza, and other flu types. Additionally, bird droppings can contain E.Coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, or Cryptosporidium.
Because of the pathogens that ducks can have and transmit, it’s essential to take precautions when handling ducks and cleaning out their coops. It’s also necessary to keep ducks out of human swimming pools.
Do Ducks Smell Worse Than Chickens?
Ducks are much dirtier, smellier, and messier than chickens. Whereas a chicken will drink from their water dish without making a mess, ducks like to splash around and play in any water that they find.
Duck poop also smells worse than chicken poop. While duck poop is not on the same level as pig poop, it’s still worse than chicken poop. Add the smell of their poop to the smell of wet duck feed and wet feathers from all that splashing around, and duck coops smell far worse than chicken coops.
Do Baby Ducks Smell?
Baby ducks have a unique smell. The smell is like raw meat, dirt, and something oily. Add in the smell of their poop and food, and it’s not a pleasant odor at all. Cutting down on how wet they stay can help a little.
Why Do Ducks Smell So Bad?
Why are ducks so dirty? Ducks just wanna have fun. You wouldn’t expect that playing in water would contribute to how dirty ducks smell. However, ducks smell especially bad because they splash and soil their water with dirt and food.
Ducks will also poop anywhere in their pen and your yard that they feel like pooping. Then they step in the poop and spread it all around. Inside their pen, the ammonia from their poop contributes to the smell.
How to Stop Ducks Smelling
Ducks + poop + water + food + areas without air circulation = foul smells. When you take any part of this equation away or clean it, you can help your ducks smell better.
When you clean their poop, replace their water, remove wet food, or improve circulation in their coop, your ducks will smell better.
Do Duck Coops Smell?
Duck coops absolutely smell. The smelliest part of a duck pen is often their water because the dirty ducks bathe in it and drag their food through it. The combination of wet food and duck poop can be quite pungent.
How to Remove Poultry Smell
- Keep the duck coop clean from food spills, water, and poop.
- Remove poop from the coop daily.
- Keep the coop dry.
- Separate food and water areas for ducks from living areas.
- Use additives and bedding materials that mask odors.
- Keep the duck coop well ventilated.
How to Clean a Duck Coop
It’s necessary to use the correct type of substrate and bedding and be diligent and clean the duck coop daily if you don’t want to have a smelly duck pen.
How to Get Rid of Duck Poop Smell
Ducks are high-maintenance pets. If you want to keep a duck coop smelling its best and get rid of duck poop smell, you should replace the water and rake out the pen twice a day.
Using additives like lime in the substrate beneath duck bedding is also effective at reducing smells from poultry poop. Lime destroys pathogens, reduces nitrogen, reduces bacteria, and controls diseases. Be sure the lime is not in the organic matter you use for bedding because it can burn the footpads of your ducks.
Substrate and Bedding Suggestions
- Sand: water can drain through a deep layer of sand, and the poop is easy to rake off the top (can be used below bedding)
- Pine shavings: overpowers the smell of poop better than straw
- Litter pellets: placed under the bedding, the litter absorbs some of the smell.
- Dolomite, garden lime, or stall dry: when added to the substrate beneath straw or other organic bedding, it will help with the smell.
Daily Steps to Clean a Duck Coop
- Turn over bedding in the house.
- Rake poop out the sand or litter.
- Clean the dish or pool and replace it with fresh water.
- Use additives like dolomite, garden lime, or Stall Dry as needed.
How to Keep a Duck Pen Dry
Keeping a duck pen dry will help tremendously with the smell of the pen. Here are some different things you can do to keep your ducks’ pen dry:
- Put their water in something that they can put their heads into but can’t splash with their whole bodies. A Neater Feeder dog food dish is a good option.
- Put any water dish in a raised duck pen on slatted or wire flooring so that it can fall down onto the ground below rather than staying inside the pen.
- Keep water for ducks in a kiddie pool away from the duck pen so they can’t track in the water.
- After age two months, don’t put water in their pen at night (keep in mind that ducks and especially ducklings shouldn’t go more than 8 hours without water)
- Change their bedding often
- Add 6 inches or more of bedding
- Use sand or litter under their bedding to absorb water.
Keeping Indoor Duck Cages from Smelling Bad
Knowing that ducks can be smelly, you will want to make sure that you work especially hard to keep an indoor duck pen clean.
The best way to keep an indoor duck cage clean is to not put any food or water in it. Another way is to diaper your duck. Since food, dirty water, and poop are the main components of a smelly duck cage, eliminating them will eliminate most of the smell from your indoor duck cage.
Diapering Your Duck
While you can’t potty train a duck, you can put a diaper on your duck, especially if it is allowed to free roam in your house. Their pen can stay poop-free with this method:
- Put a diaper on your duck as soon as it comes inside.
- Bathe your duck, dry it, and rediaper it before placing it in its duck pen at night.
- Remove the diaper when you put your duck outside the next day.
An Overview of Keeping Your Ducks from Smelling Bad
Do ducks smell? Yes, ducks can be extremely smelly and messy. However, there are several things that you can do to keep them from smelling so bad. Keeping your ducks’ water clean and their duck coop clean and dry can go a long way to keeping your ducks from smelling bad.