Need advice FAST!

[SuziB]

Has anyone out there EVER raised a wild duckling?

I was working on my book this morning when my husband asked me, "Got a minute?", so I went upstairs. He told me we had a small problem.

Problem is RIGHT! It seems that he'd been working in his shop, some distance from the house, on and off all morning and the entrance door had been standing wide open during that time. He'd started noticing that he was frequently hearing a loud peeping. After it eventually penetrated his consciousness, he decided that it did NOT sound like a regular bird. So, he went looking, and he came up with a tiny duckling, probably not even a full day old from the size of it.

It is Sunday. We live 70 miles from the nearest store which might have some sort of suitable poultry-starter food, but said store would NOT be open today, anyway!

I have tried feeding old-fashioned oatmeal flakes, snipped-up grass and wild alfalfa (the tender parts), finely-diced hard-boiled egg, and after reading helpful hints on the internet, snipped pieces of strawberries (is that why Mama Duck came through the yard in the first place?) and spinach.

No go. Thinking he isn't warm enough, I moved his large cardboard box into my bedroom temporarily where the afternoon sun was warming one spot on the floor. I later moved him into a different room and rigged a table lamp above him with a 100-watt lightbulb in it. I snipped a handful of longish grass, placed duckling upon it under the lamp, and hope to goodness that he won't manage to electrocute himself, but it wasn't working at all with the lamp OUTSIDE the box!

The heat did make him livelier--he is aggressively pecking at my fingers whenever I get them in front of him, but he WILL NOT EAT!

Has ANYONE ever successfully raised a wild mallard, which is what I THINK he/she is, fresh out of the egg by just a few hours? If so, PLEASE send me any advice which you think might help. I am getting desperate. It has been several hours now.

Thanks.

SuziB

 

[Miniv]

Never had to feed a wild duckling..... but have reunited one with its mom. If at possible try to locate the closest water source to your husband's shop and allow the duckling to PEEP. You may discover where the mom is and be able to rejoin them.

Good luck.

MA

PS: Another thought is if you have a wild life rehab place or person not too far away? They would either know what to do or even take it for you.........Wish I could be of more help.

 

[SuziB]

Never had to feed a wild duckling..... but have reunited one with its mom. If at possible try to locate the closest water source to your husband's shop and allow the duckling to PEEP. You may discover where the mom is and be able to rejoin them.

Good luck.

MA

PS: Another thought is if you have a wild life rehab place or person not too far away? They would either know what to do or even take it for you.........Wish I could be of more help.

Unfortunately, the nearest water source is more than a mile away. Too, Dratted Duck does NOT peep on command. Only when I am about to drift off in a nap...

Our wildlife dept. here firmly believes in having their weekends off. They do NOT work on Saturday nor Sunday. I rather doubt I could get them at all interested in helping a pesky duck.

I have called everyone in the area who has raised poultry, and naturally NO ONE has any poultry starter. I also gathered by internet research that chicken starter has something in it which could be fatal for the D.D.

I do thank you for answering so quickly. Do you have any other ideas which might help?

SuziB

 

[Sterling]

I don't know if you came upon this site on the internet, but they have some pretty good information here. Also in a pinch you can feed crushed hard-boiled egg yolk for the first few days. Medicated chick starter should not be fed to ducklings.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingDucklings.html

 

[liltnt]

I found this but will have to go back to get the web site if I can find it. It is from a pony farm that does wild life rehab.

Well, the first thing to do is keep it warm. We put our new babies in a 10 gallon aquarium (no water!!!) with straw on the bottom. We use the aquarium light to keep them warm, leaving the back part open to let some of the heat out. If you don't have an aquarium, use a cardboard box about 18 inches square and 12-14 inches high. You need to provide a way to keep the duckling warm, so suspend a light over the box taking care not to let it touch the sides and cause a fire. The light should be 12 - 14 inches from the duck. Keep the box in a safe, warm place away from drafts.

Be sure to keep your baby ducks away from dogs and cats!

If your duckling was just hatched it won't need to eat for a couple of days. Also, it does NOT need water to swim in! Your little duck may drown in water deeper than an inch, and the water container should not be too tall or it may get trapped inside and drown. When the ducklings are with their mother she provides oil from her body for their little feathers. When you take the duckling away from the mother it doesn't have that protection, water can penetrate the feathers to the skin and chill the baby. It can become water logged easily and drown, or get too cold.

Use a shallow dish for water... better still, go to the feed store and get a chick waterer. It is a special kind that the duckling won't be able to try to swim in.

You can pick up a chick feeder while you are there.

Feed your baby duck unmedicated chick starter, but ask the feed store personnel if they carry duck starter. Never feed your ducks of any age medicated feed. When your duckling is 3 weeks old, you can start to feed it little offerings of scratch. Be sure you only give it small pieces, the larger grains can choke it.

Baby ducks grow very fast, so be prepared! Have a pen ready for them! You can use a wooden frame covered with 1 inch chicken wire. Cover the top as well as the sides. Put lots of straw on the bottom. You can use the chick feeder and waterer until the ducks get big enough to knock them over. At that point get a feed pan and a larger poultry waterer.

When you see that your ducks are using their bill to get oil from the oil gland on their back just before the start of the tail, AND you can SEE the yellow oil, then you can place a 2" high shallow dish of water in the pen for them to play in. Be sure to put some 3" rocks in it so it won't tip and for the ducks to climb up on.

That should get you started with your baby ducks! Have fun and enjoy!

http://www.huntersponyfarm.com/poultry/caring4babyducks.html

 

[drivin*me*buggy]

Keep him warm.the lightbulb will work. I have used a gooseneck desk lamp hanging over the edge of the box. You should be able to get unmedicated chick starter or use grower and fresh water, they need to keep their nostrils clear from food w/ water. Until you get food try snipped up grass floating in water.maybe he'll eat it then?.hmm maybe ground up cheerios until you get food.don't let him swim too early.probably doesn't have oily feathers yet. Hope this helps

:

Angie

 

[SuziB]

Thank you all very, very much for your helpful suggestions.

I did try the chopped hard-boiled egg. For water, I am using a clear glass leaf-shaped pickle dish about 3/8" deep with chopped bits of strawberries and a shredded spinach leaf floating in it. Obviously he has been in it twice already, as most of the water had soaked into the thick newspaper layer beneath the folded paper towels just under the dish. The dish, of course, had little liquid left in it.

I also suspected that warmth was critical, and I didn't think the little guy was at all ready to go swimming, either. Thank you for clarifying that.

I looked up emergency duckling feeding and found a bit of advice that advocated using corn meal mixed with water into a mush for him, so added that to the menu as well.

He does seem to enjoy sitting beneath the table lamp at the edge of his box (I removed the lamp--didn't want any electrocution/fire hazards)and seems to be warmer.

He is also developing a rather vile attitude. Pecks wickedly at my fingers whenever my hand gets near him. In so doing, he has accidentally ingested two bites of hard-chopped egg. Then I poked the end of his bill in his water dish so that he would have the chance of washing his food down his gullet.

It could be as you said that he simply isn't in need of food yet. I have no idea how old he is, but judging by his size, both my husband and I suspect that he probably only hatched this morning. He WAS thoroughly dry, quite downy, and cute.

So, we shall see if he makes it through the night. I have refreshed his box home, made sure everything is safe, and set him back upon his nest of clipped grass.

Again, thank you all.

SuziB

 

[Miniv]

Not going to believe this, but I just got back from The Nature Center, which is connected to the Observatory where my husband works. The Wildlife Rehab dept. just took in a little mallard duckling! They estimate that it's 2 days old.

The duckling is in a big rubbermaid storage box with the bottom lined with a big soft towel. They have a large shallow bowl filled with water in with it and are feeding it small crickets. There were still crickets in the box when I was allowed to peek at the baby.

Just thought I'd pass on what the Rehab was doing.

MA

 

[SuziB]

Good morning!

Well, the dratted duckling made it through the night. I KNEW he was still alive at 2:41 a.m., because he was doing his peeping thing. That little sucker is LOUD!

I cleaned his quarters this morning, and I provided fresh water with strawberry pieces floating in it, more oat flakes and mashed hard-boiled egg. He accidentally got another bite when he tried to peck me again.

Then, I stuck him over by his water to see if he wanted to try to wash it down. Naturally, he jumped right in and splashed out a good third of the water. Arrrgh.

I am trying hard to wish him off on the neighbor children. Of course, THEY have a house cat too, now.

Anyway, wanted to give you an update on D.D.

SuziB

 

[Sterling]

Glad to hear your little one is doing well and has strong lungs! They for sure are little "stinkers" in more ways than one as you will find out as the days go on. :bgrin

 

[whitney]

My sister rescued a wood duck from my pond. Named him Pete and he lived in the house with her family until he passed away at 7 years old. Petey had two showers a day in her bath tub funny thing is he NEVER pooped when he was out of his wire dog crate , guess he was litter trained too.

She fed him duck starter from TSC.