Recent content by Cherib603

They like to strain the mud looking for bugs and worms. True. But the clean water is ESSENTIAL to keep them healthy.

But swimming keeps mites away, keeps their feathers clean and oiled. Bathing is important to ducks. If keeping water clean and available is too much work for you, or anyone else, then perhaps ducks are not the animal for you.

Put out a taller bucket that is tall and narrow, so that they can walk up to it and dip their heads in, but not climb into it. Clean water is VERY important for ducks! Dirty water spreads disease, eye infections, sinus infections and respiratory infections.

Any time you set domestic ducks "loose" on a pond with zero predator protection, they WILL be killed. And you have no way to tell what is even IN the pond - like snapping turtles - that will kill your ducks. Plus a stagnant pond covered in algae is a prime source of botulism and other...

"Yes, predators might take an occasional duck, but that is the case even when ducks are in the backyard" I would hope not.

They could also just be really upset from going to boarding and back.

It's a holiday weekend in the US. Folks are busy. :)

Lol!! We have ninja squirrels who sit on our front steps in the middle of the night and crunch nuts, leaving sharp, pointy shells for me to hurt my feet on when I grab the morning paper.

Kathy - are you seriously saying that you would rather maintain some morally superior high ground, refusing to tell a little white lie to spare a kids feelings and tell the kid you ate her duck and let the parents deal with the crying?

Looks great!!!

You are welcome to eat him, but please spare the kids' feelings! One of my ducks - my 6 yr old granddaughters favorite - was killed by a raccoon and she cries whenever she thinks of it. Really wish we'd lied to her and told her it went to live on a pond or farm. That's all I'm saying.

The original post stated the duck was going to be culled and the OP wanted to know how to tell a 4 yr old, if she came looking, that her duck was dead. Lying to spare the feelings of a 4 yr old seems perfectly acceptable.

Yay!!!

Killed is a very sad thing for a kid to hear. Why do you think that's acceptable? Moved to a larger farm would be kinder.