I am new to ducks and have some questions

Hi!

Just a quick note . . . I watched the temperature in the brooder.  Started at 90 F the first week, dropping 5 degrees a week for about 12 weeks (it was really cold that spring).

They can swim in water up to their bellies from a few days old, but they need constant supervision, warm (85 to 90 degree) water, and a warm clean dry brooder to return to, and help drying off if they do not immediately begin preening themselves.

(in the middle of a duckling crisis, or would be more chatty . . . hope to return later today . . . 

and they grow FAST!

Ducks do grow much faster and are a little less delicate. I took my Ducks out to play much sooner than I did Chicks .. Letting them swim in kiddie pools .. Depending on the tempature out side once they start growing and feathering nicely they seem to do very well with less heat than a baby Chick.. Speaking of I am off today hoping to come home with a new pair ~

Hi Michelle

I admit to having limited experience, but, just as those ducklings grow fast, my knowledge is growing equally fast.

I have a one week old duckling who is in her broody cage all day and night .... except ... when I take her outside for a walk.  We exercise together for 30 minutes, then she is returned to her cage.  If she had her way, she would be with me 24/7   

Swimming they can do from day one when they have a mother duck on hand.  The perils to be aware of when introducing a duckling to water for swimming are these:  they only have down which will soak up water like a sponge.  In turn, this adds to their weight and could result in them getting tired and drowing in deep water.   However, there is no reason why you cannot put them in some warm water to "play" for 5-10 minutes at a time if you give constant supervision.  Ducklings do not have the necessary oil glands to repel water naturally, so will need to be put back under the heat lamp to dry off.

You can "wean" them off the brooder light at night time when they are around 4/5 weeks old.  You turn the light off for one hour one night; two hours the 2nd night and so on until they no longer have light during darkness.  This is the least stressful way of doing things for them.

I have 2 Indian Runner ducklings which rapidly outgrew their brooder cage.   Once Pogo was added to the cage a week ago, 36hrs later the IR's needed to be rehoused - so, off to boarding school they went (aka, into an outside house and enclosed run situated next to my adult trio so they can "watch and learn" how to be ducks).  They are thriving!!  We've had heavy rain the past week and the result is my heavy clay land is a patchwork of deep puddles   Heaven for my trio, but the IR ducklings only take a brief dip and swim before they run home again to dry off.

And yes, they grow exceptionally fast and disproportionately to chicks! 

Enjoy your babies while you can

Just went through the same thing. I gave mine a pie pan in their brooder box on day 4. I only left them in it for about 15 minutes the first day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldGuy43 

Just went through the same thing. I gave mine a pie pan in their brooder box on day 4. I only left them in it for about 15 minutes the first day.

And he recorded and posted his experiences! You may like to follow OldGuy43's experiences .... it was an education for me!

I'm new to ducks too and mine are now five weeks old.  At four weeks they were already starting to pant in with the chicks so I moved them to their own coop without a heat lamp and they do great.  Started them off with a smaller bowl (size one duck can fit in) and they now have a large kiddy pool and all four swim in it and are loving it.  I put them outside when it was 30 degrees (it was very sunny and warmed up to 55 throughout the day) and they were fine.  They sat in the sun until it warmed up and then they tried out the pool   I put them back in their coop without their food/water (to help save on messes) and put them back outside at 7am.  We put them to bed about 8:30pm.  You should post some pictures of your babies :D  BTW:  I was amazed at how fast they grew too! 

ETA:  I forgot to mention I was amazed at how little feed they eat now that they have LOTS of grass and bugs to eat.  They are GREAT foragers!