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So who is Ducky? Read on....
So this is Ducky, no real name yet since we don't even know its sex. It is a mallard duck, but that is all we know. The pond on our neighbors property only has Canadian geese. Our koi pond does not have ducks, since it is to close to the house with 3 dogs and a cat. So lets go back and explain how we've got Ducky.
2 evenings ago I was sitting outside next to our little koi pond when this little one ran onto the parking lot quaking and looking for its mom. Well Ducky came from our garden area where there is no water at all. Amber, our dog, jumped up and ran to it and I feared for the worst. I yelled at her and she didn't grab it. Big surprise to me, since she never listens. I tried to grab Ducky, but it was to fast for me. Almost had it, bummer. I ran to the shop and got the large fish net. In the meanwhile it made it to the fence onto the other side, so I had to run around. Made it to the other side and it decided to run back, and I had to run around the darn fence again. And off it went to the other side, great!!! Paul, my husband, came back home so I made him chase around the fence, but it decided to run out on the other fence and it was on its way down to the meadow. No water there either, but plenty of large gopher snakes. I managed to catch it. We did put it into the cat crate and had it sit in the parking lot quaking. Mom never showed and we think it ran over from the sportsmen park about 1/4 mile. Next we had to learn like in 5 minutes how to raise a duck. The Internet is a big help. It is about 4-6 days old! Had to get unmedicated feed. They did not have starter feed in town, so I'm crushing the regular feed. Can not have medication in it because ducks eat more then chicken and it would over medicate itself. It needs a water feeder that does not allow it to swim in it, but must have enough to it can stick its nostrils under water for cleaning. No swimming for the first 5 weeks, since its glands do not produce oil yet. We now use a large dog crate but I had put mesh around it so it cannot get out. I had some old peanut bags around, and they worked out well. A heat lamp is on top of the crate to have an area with 85-95 degrees to keep it warm. The rest is cooler. Ducky does eat, drink, sleep, and shits a lot already. LOL I really don't know what to do with a duck, and hope it will join other ducks as it gets older. We will have to build a coop for it once it gets older. County life.... Enjoy the picture, it is so small that it fits into one hand.
See how we build the coop and now Ducky grows. Follow the navigation links to the left.
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