Human is a social creature that needs to interact each other. Many activities are done to fill the social need as a social creature. It starts from meet many friends, society, do the same hobby, going to a new place, etc. One of the interaction can be done by human and animal. We can consider before keeping duck as a pet, and see this article 7 Important Facts of Rabbits Before You Decide to Pet Them, so that we can now more about things to consider before keeping duck as a pet.
Not only with the other human creatures, human also interact with other living creature, such as animal and even plant. The interaction between human and animal for some people is a strong bond. The animal has been took care by the human since they are baby, and even it is treated as a family.
It is almost the same like chicken, duck is a beneficial animal, because of the meat and the egg for sold. But, there are many people that take care the duck as a pet. The duck is kept as a pet, because of many factors. One of it is because it has a good feather motive, and it can be a good contestant in any contest. Some of the local duck also kept as a pet, and then the egg is taken and hatched until it is cracked.
If you have the intention to keep a duck as a pet, you might consider some things. Here are some things to consider before keeping a duck as a pet.
1. The type of duck
Before keeping a duck as a pet, you better know the type of duck first. Because there are many types of duck, and it has different characteristics. Tips of How To Pet A Rabbit in Your House can help you to take a good care of the duck. Here are the types of duck.
- The laying duck, such as Indian runner, khaki camp bell, buff, etc.
- Broiler duck, such as howl, queen and king
2. Prepare the coop
If you want to keep a duck, you need to prepare the coop. Make sure the coop is strong enough to keep the duck from any wild animal, and it is warm enough to keep the duck from the cold weather. The good air circulation is also needed for the comfortable place for duck. How to Manage Your Poultry Farm During Rainy Season is one of the good source to know about the good coop for the duck.
3. The duck seeds
There are 3 ways to choose a good duck seeds.
- Buy the hatched egg from the healthy duck mother.
- Keep the female and male duck with the best quality, so that they can make the good quality egg.
- Buy the DOD (Day Old Duck) from the good breeder that is recommended from any animal husbandry department.
Make sure you choose the best seeds, so that the duck will be a healthy pet for you. The healthy pet will make your live better.
4. The duck food
The other thing to consider before keeping a duck as a pet is the food. We need to give the food that is suitable for many duck ages. At the laying phase, duck needs a food contain 17%-20% protein and 2700 kcal-2088 kcal energy. The food staples with a good carbohydrate are corn and husk. 10 Common Causes of Cattle Losing Appetite is the preventive way for you if the duck start to lose the appetite.
While the source of animal protein are trash fish, shellfish, mussels, shrimp skin, given by the breeder near the beach. The snail is given by the breeder near the farming or swamp area.
Here is the technical distribution of duck food.
- 0-16 days old, give the food on tray feeder
- 16-21 days old, give it on the tray feeder and spread it on the floor
- 21 days old until 18 weeks old. Spread on the floor.
- 18 weeks-72 weeks old, there are two ways, those are : the first 7 days, in feed transition with regard to the start of production laying eggs until production reaches 5%. After that feeding the duck in ad libitum (continuously).
Some breeder feed the duck in a rest time. Feed the duck twice (around 7 am and 5 pm) or thrice (at 12 am) for a day, depend on the usual time. Do not change the type of food, because it might cause the duck to get stressed.
5. Disease control
We better prevent any disease that might attack the duck. The common signs of the sick duck are loss the appetite, passive, and weak. Some of the diseases are worms, paralyze, and the chalk feces. The preventive ways are to keep the coop clean, give the nutritious food, and make sure the duck consume many vegetables too. 4 Common but Deadly Diseases of Broiler Chickens is a good reference, because the duck has the similar disease as the chicken.
6. Marriage
After the duck reach the 20 weeks old, usually they are ready to get married. The marriage systems are hand mating ( marriage with the help of human hand) and a nature mating (the natural marriage).
7. Harvest
After the process of the female duck is fertilized, the duck will lay eggs. Ducks can lay 200-250 eggs per year. The right harvest time is at 06.00 – 07.00. Egg containers in the form of baskets or other concave containers. The egg should be marketed immediately. To increase added value, eggs can be marinated first to be sold as salted eggs. Eggs should not be stored for more than five days.
8. The free time for duck
Duck also needs our attention. You should consider to have a free time for your ducks before you keep it as your pet. If you don’t have much free time, you cannot take a good care to your duck. But if you can make your time free for the duck, you can try to keep a duck as your pet in your house.
Play with your duck and learn what kind of games does it like to play. Once you find out about the game that your duck likes to play, you are going to enjoy to play with your duck, because they would absolutely love to play with you. Because the duck is smart, they also need a friendship bond with the other ducks. Even though human is a good friend for them, only the other ducks can understand your duck. That is why, you need to pet more than one duck, so that they won’t feel lonely.
It is very acceptable to have 2 pairs of female and male, so that they can breed the right amount of duck. If you pet 4 ducks in total of the pairs, you can control the breed and you won’t need to pet too many ducks in your house.
If you get one or two duckling to be raised, please notice that it is hard to have sex when the duck is not an adult yet. The duck might don’t get the matching pair, and you also think the same way that it is not a match pair. To avoid this thing, try to pet an older duck and an easier duck to have sex. It is better if you go to the animal shelter and pet some ducks from there.
That is all for the 8 things to consider before keeping duck as a pet. I hope you can get the information you need about keeping a duck as your pet.