Sometimes, when you stroll through the park, you might found abandoned ducklings on the edge of the pond. Newborn ducklings will follow it mother duck to its feeding grounds right after hatch, however, sometimes you can see ducklings that are abandoned and left behind by its mother. What you can do for them is to look for its mother and return them. If you couldn’t find its mother, then you can search for people who have experience in taking care of ducks, so they can take care of its even without its mother. If you still can’t find the person, then it is up to you to take care of that abandoned baby ducks.
If you are confused and don’t know how to take care of abandoned baby ducks without their mother, then we provide you guide on How to take care of newborn duck without its mother. We give you a simple guide and step by step instruction on how to take care of ducklings who lost their mother and now abandoned. After taking care of it, then it is your choice to release them to wild or keeping them as your pet duck. Now, let’s start away right now on how to take care of abandoned baby ducks.
A simple guide on how you should take care of abandoned baby ducks
If you follow our simple step by step guide on how you should take care of abandoned baby ducks, then you should be fine. Our simple step by step guide will guide you through raising abandoned baby ducks in assumptions they are just hatched and they are at the first hours of their age. It is quite common to see abandoned and left behind baby ducks after hatching. After hatching, baby ducks follow their mother to feeding grounds but sometimes they can get left behind and abandoned. Now, here is do it yourself guide on how to treat newborn abandoned baby ducks.
- Here are you should provide during the first days
During the first hours, naturally, ducklings will be taken care of by their mother. The mother duck will waterproof their baby so baby ducks can swim shortly after hatching. This is not the case when you found abandoned baby ducks. Therefore you need to make sure the baby ducks you found is dry and warm since they don’t have waterproofing from their mother.
Keeping your ducklings warm is the key. If you can’t provide an expensive cage to raise ducklings, you can do it yourself by using a cardboard box and cover up the box with warm cloth not newspaper since it can be slippery or straw. You also should provide a place to sleep for ducklings with a dry towel. Fill the bottle with warm water them wrap it up with a dry towel that supposed to be bedding for your ducklings. This will make a warm bed for them to cuddle and sleep at night.
Newborn baby ducks won’t need to feed and drink on the first hours. This is because they still get their nutrition from dangling yolk sac. After a few hours, however, the dangling yolk sac will be empty and they will starve and need to eat. You need to provide soft foods for them so they can eat without getting chocked. You can give them crushed hardboiled egg, mealworms (dried and crushed), soft and finely chopped oats. Don’t forget to provide drinking water but don’t give them too much water or they will jump into the water bowl and getting wet and messy.
- After 3 days
After 3 days, you can change their meals to starter crumbs. Starter crumbs are special feed for ducklings to boost their growth. This will make them grow faster and healthier. You can also now move them to a more proper cage if you want not a cardboard box. Provides warm flooring for them, and make sure the cage is warm but ventilated enough for them.
You can also start to introduce water to them, as they are natural waterfowl and they will need a water body to survive and play with. You can also give them some pond weeds so they can learn how to forage for foods for themselves. Ducklings naturally forage for foods from pond weeds for tasty insect and crustaceans.
- 3-6 Weeks period for ducklings
Time to stop starter crumbs but you need to do this slowly and periodically. During this period, you can give your ducks pellets or wholegrain bread crumbs. Mix up pellets with wholegrain bread crumbs and starter crumbs then gradually reduce the number of starter crumbs until your ducks are happy to eat just pellets and breadcrumbs.
During this time, your duck is fine if you release them for free-ranging during days so they can play with other ducks, play in the pond and forage for snacks for themselves. This is also needed as they need time outside of their cage, socializing with other ducks or creature, and learn on how to forage on their own. If you are planning to release them in the wild and not keeping it as a house pet this is truly essential.
- 6 Weeks period
Now duck is considered as healthy and mature ducks, although the time can be quite different for many breeds of ducks. Some ducks have a faster growth rate meaning they are mature quite fast. This time, you need to choose if you want to keep your duck as a pet and backyard flocks or you want to release them. It is up to you to choose and we won’t judge.
Your duck should be fine by eating breadcrumbs or pellets and they are also can independently search for foods outside without needing your help too much. Make sure to still provides them foods in the morning, let them outside for free-ranging food in the afternoon, and take them inside the cage in the evening.
So, it is not that hard to raise ducks from newborn ducklings to mature duck right? Well then if you found any other pieces of advice and tips on How to take care of newborn duck without its mother make sure to let us know in the comment section.