Duckling can be very cute, they can be cute pets to have and when they grow up into adult they can give you daily eggs if you take care of it right. Duck become quite popular pets, however, if you want to have backyard duck flocks, then you will need to know how to take care of ducks right. You can get duck by buying them from poultry breeder, buy them from a farmer, and you can also take care of rescued baby ducks. However, if you decide to take care of rescued baby ducks, you might need to put in more efforts.
Duck, just like any other bird requires very good care when they are still fragile little ducklings, but won’t require much help on their adult stages, since they can take care of themselves quite well when adult. Duckling, however, needs attention from you, warmth, and of course nutritious feeds.
A rescued baby duck is very fragile, it will need warmth to support their life, feeds full of nutrition, and also a lot of attention from you. So, how to take care of frightened baby ducks, how we should take care of rescued baby ducks? Let’s start our discussion here and now, on 2 ways to care for rescued baby ducks.
So, what we need to do to take care of rescued baby ducks?
Ducks especially a wild duck hatch about 6 to 7 ducklings, however not every duckling could survive to adulthood with their parent’s duck. In the first days, some ducks might get lost and left behind. So, commonly mama ducks take care mostly just 2 to 4 ducklings at the same time due to some of it might get left behind or lost. If you find any lost ducklings and you can’t find it mama duck, then it is up to you to take care of that rescued baby duck.
There are steps and timeline to take care of rescued duck, especially if you find rescued baby duck who has just hatch and them still under their first days of being ducklings. If you couldn’t find any other experienced people who can take care of ducks, then you should do it on your own. Here are some steps to do it on your own to take care of rescued baby duck.
- If you raise newly born ducklings in their first 24 hours
During the first days, you will need to provide your ducklings with 4 things, warmth, foods, water, and shelters for them to sleep. During the very first hours after hatching, ducklings are very fragile, and they will need a lot of care from their mama duck. If you find an abandoned duckling, and you want to take care of it, then you will need to provide them with shelters.
You can use a high sided cardboard box as your duck shelters, cover up the base of a cardboard box with a towel or you can also use puppy pads. Try to avoid using newspaper and straw for duckling at this age, and don’t use hay as hay can cause mold that may harm the duckling.
During the very first hours after hatching, duckling might not interested in eating or drinking, since they still got their energy from yolk sac hanging around their chest. They will start to eat or drink when the yolk sac is depleted. In this case, you will need to provide your rescued duckling with foods and water. Good foods for newly born duckling are chopped oats, crushed and dried mealworms or you can also give them a hardboiled egg. You also need to provide them with water, make sure to don’t give too much water, or they will jump into the water, making them wet.
During the day, young ducklings will just preen, napping, eating or drinking, but during night hours, they will most likely sleep so you will need to provide a warm place for them to sleep. You can use a towel on top of a warm water bottle to keep them warm. You must make sure to keep your ducklings warm and make sure to dry them if you find they’re wet in the first place. Dry them carefully and gently using a towel.
- After raising them for a few weeks
When raising a few week-year-old ducklings, about 3 days to 3 weeks, you need to make sure to change your duckling’s diet. You can feed them with starter crumb for your duck. You can get formulated starter crumb for duckling in poultry supply shop. Try to don’t feed them with chicken starter crumb or pellets as they contain nutrients for chicken not suitable for ducks.
As they’re near to 3 – 4 weeks, make sure to change your duck diet with grower pellets. Make sure to change their diet gradually by mixing the diet. Mix the starter crumb with grower pellets, and during the 4 – 6 weeks, you should give them just grower pellets without any starting crumb.
In 6 weeks, your duckling now could eat whole wheat bread crumb. Again, adjust your duck diets by mixing their old diet with the new one until they’re adjusted in eating whole wheat breadcrumbs.
If you are planning to release them in the wild, make sure you train them to forage foods for themselves by giving them pondweed. You can give them pondweed in the water container, and let your duck forage food for themselves, Pondweed contains crustaceans and tiny insect they can eat. This way, the duck could survive in the wild without needs for any human helps.
By the time your duck adjusted to eating breadcrumbs, your duck is nearing mature ages. If you are planning to keep them as your pets, you need to build a cage roomy enough for them to roam, a pond for them to swim and playing along, and feeds for them. You also need to give them companion duck as they can get lonely by themselves. If you want to start your own backyard flocks with some duck to lay an egg for you, then consider to check out on our other article here.
Now that’s it on a 2 ways to care for rescued baby ducks, If you find any other and more efficient ways to take care of rescued ducklings, then make sure to leave out comment and likes here.