New Australian Hatching Mystery Egg at Home

[Jharper]

Yep

 

[Partyfowl]

I think it's about time for some more pictures...

AGREED!!

 

[piglett]

correct!

 

[frankensusan]

I remember the best part about having ducks as a kid, was watching them in the morning at the fence between our yard and our neighbors yard picking off the snails as they came over. This was after they ate ALL of the snails in our yard (probably the slugs too).

Of course they also ate all the fish and plants in my Mom's pond too, which got me and Dad in trouble big time.

Ah memories. The sound of the pitter patter of imprinted baby duckling chasing me through the house! You HAVE to get some video!!

 

[LFchixranch]

Here's a link for the duck/goose designer in you

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartyFowl?page=1

 

[Teloka]

Just saw this thread an hour ago, reading from Florida. I am really glad I just saw it, I don't think I could have watched from the beginnng for the anxiety. The carrer is a clever Idea. Hope everything continues to go well with u both. I hatched a banty chick and she followed me around like I was her father. She loved to be held and stroked. She lived 4 months and seemed to be ok walking around and making her little sounds and then just passed away without any warnings or signs of sickness, needless to say , I was heart broken. I know how u can get attached and love these little critters , So good luck and I commend u for your patience and love for him/her.

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your little chick! I know I'd be devastated if anything bad happened to Basil or any of my other birds or family-- it is the same thing really! They are all a part of my family and I love them very much.

Also, I saw this thread a few days ago and COULDNT STOP READING! I just had to find out what happened to Basil. And good luck with him! I hear hes a handful!

Awww, thank you very much! Yes, he really is a little handful! Thank you for the link too to the goosemother site. It was broken for some reason, but I do remember the website and the lugaduck carrier there. The problem for me with ordering anything from the states is that I live in Australia, so shipping is going to be very expensive and take several weeks, and I need the things sooner than that!

I think it's about time for some more pictures...

I'm really sorry it's taken so long! I am certainly working on it! I need to weigh him tonight as he is two weeks old today, and take an updated "basil in hands photo" to show how big he is getting. He's growing so fast, wow!

I remember the best part about having ducks as a kid, was watching them in the morning at the fence between our yard and our neighbors yard picking off the snails as they came over. This was after they ate ALL of the snails in our yard (probably the slugs too).

Of course they also ate all the fish and plants in my Mom's pond too, which got me and Dad in trouble big time.

Ah memories. The sound of the pitter patter of imprinted baby duckling chasing me through the house! You HAVE to get some video!!

Awwww, that summary of the sound they make is perfect! I will do my best to get some video asap. The only snails we get around here are completely huge huge huge ones, they're probably bigger than Basil and I don't think he could eat that much snail without getting a tummy ache!

Here's a link for the duck/goose designer in you

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartyFowl?page=1

Thank you very much! I love seeing all the designs that the others have done! As I said above, the hard thing for me with the people in America is that the shipping is expensive and takes a long time. I don't intend to step on anyone's design toes, but it will probably be more suitable for me to make the things myself, especially in the short term, because I can't afford the shipping and I need the items sooner rather than later! Some of the accessories there are so super cute though, I love the octopus necklace!

 

[Teloka]

Updates: Monday 8th April. Two weeks old today

Standard "sorry for not updating sooner" comment goes here; Basil is literally taking up at least 50% of my waking hours at the moment and it's leaving me barely enough time to get all my client work done that I need to do!

I love him very much but wow is he a feisty little handful. Going to highlight the main parts or concerns of these updates in red this time, especially as I'm starting to get more and more anxious about making sure I'm doing things right for my little fuzzy baby! I may just be being super paranoid, but I'm one of those super worry wart mothers. Any expertise or opinions would be great so I can make sure I'm looking after Basil as best as possible.


Brooder: Still eating paper towel. I tried him on some pine shavings I had as a new bedding; they're from when I previously had guinea pigs some years ago so they are pet quality and dust extracted. At first I thought it was going really well. He was snuggling all around in them looking really comfortable in their fluffiness, they weren't messy, they were absorbing the poop instead of it just sitting on top like it does on the paper towel, it looked cleaner, smelled really nice, and gave a really soft warm barn-like glow to his brooder that I adored. Then I noticed him foraging around in them, and I am very frightened he was eating some. I did some BYC forum research, checked to make sure he wasn't just 'testing them with his mouth' by putting a small scattering on the ground outside his brooder, and it went from five pieces to two pieces, so he was definitely eating the pine shavings. Needless to say I removed them immediately and they weren't in his brooder for more than a few hours, so I hope he will be alright. Is this something I should try again in a week, and see if he is still eating them? Will this pass? I think that if he has to eat something, paper towel is preferable to wood chips, and I'm not sure if the dangers come from "eating handfuls and handfuls of woodchips" or if "eating one or two woodchips" is still fatal.

I also got myself some grip mat to try, but I am highly suspecting he is just going to eat that too and have been reluctant to put it in until I can sit there for a good time watching to make sure he does not eat any of the plastic. I will update when I know how it goes. I may have to resort to using old bath towels and washing them several times a day until the weather dries and I can collect our own grass for drying and mulching; but the wet weather will make it harder to dry the towels too. Another thought I had was to perhaps buy some live turf and put in his brooder, because he could chew that to his hearts content and it would be really good for him; but I think it might also be damp and/or cold and that could be worse than him eating paper towels. The other alternative then is to use fake turf, but I really think he would really just eat that too; it's supposed to be sturdy but he has a sort of sharp downwards facing scissor/knife-ish part on the front of his beak that he is using to slice the lettuces to shreds outside (and to nibble my fingers). In short, and anguish, why does my duckling eat all his bedding no matter what it is nooooo waaghh.

Eating: Aside from eating his bedding constantly, Basil seems to eat fairly well. He always wants vegetables though, his mix now includes a blitz up of: broccoli, fresh green beans, brussel sprouts, peas, corn, kale, carrot, capsicum (Bell Pepper) and a few alfalfa sprouts. I've been checking to make sure the vegetables he gets are some of the highest in goodies like protein and niacin and calcium rather than letting him fill up on stuff like lettuce, and that they are all on the duck supplements and treats list! I'm a bit unsure if perhaps I am overfeeding him though, as he seems to have no limit to the amount of greens (his blitzed vegetables) that he will eat. He doesn't polish off all of his duck starter mash, although what he mostly seems to leave are large things like the cracked sorghum, which is unfortunately the biggest bulk of the mash (because it is cheap for suppliers I suppose), but when ever I offer him his vegetables he will chow through them in under a minute and eats so fast even though his other dry food is still there or full. He will eat a good spoon full in under a minute, and so far I've seen him eat continuously for about four spoons full of the blitzed veggie mix I make without slowing- I wasn't comfortable to offer him any more to see if he would keep going from that point because his crop looked very full. Should his crop be that full all the time? Because it isn't, although he has constant access to his dry starter mash and the water. So I don't know if I am over feeding him, or under feeding him... if underfeeding in some way, that might explain why he is always always always chewing his paper towels, but it doesn't explain why he doesn't completely clean out his bowl of duck starter feed. Is there some way I can know exactly how much I should be feeding him each day? Should his crop be always bulging full, or should it be smooth and not noticeable? I think I may be throwing out quite a good bit of perfectly fine starter mash, because I have the fear that he is only eating "some parts" of it, and I want him to have access to those parts all the time and not risk him going hungry without the parts he will eat because his bowl still has stuff in it he maybe won't eat.


Physical: We went for our first swim the other day! First I let Basil dabble in some nice warm water in the bath (I boiled water and then added cold to make sure it wasn't from the hot tap or anything) where he could stand up balanced on a towel for grip, and he seemed to love that! So to make it deeper I put the water into a wide bowl, and same warm, and I popped him in. He stood on my hand in the water, and was happy to splash about and get himself wet like he was having a bath, but as I lowered my hand, as soon as he couldn't stand on it and was paddling around, he seemed very unhappy. He immediately moved to my arm to try and climb up and out. But if he could balance on my hand in the water, it was okay, he just didn't like it being deep and him having to swim by himself. So summary, my duckling does not like to swim, haha. Because of his species type I suspected this, because they are not very strong swimmers. I have never the less been giving him baths in shallow warm water, and he likes to ruffle around and get himself all soggy and wet on the bottom, and then immediately snuggle up into my face and hair to get warm and dry again, thanks Basil.


I'm really sorry about the lack of posts, photos, and videos at the moment! Looking after Basil has become a full time job, and almost every day there seems to be a new thing that frightens me and I wind up spending anxious hours trying to fix problems or make sure he's all okay, which then leaves me some rushed hours to do my actual job, so editing photos has taken a bit of a back seat. I really hope to get a chance to resize and post some for you tomorrow! Love from us to everybody! <3

 

[Jharper]

Updates: Monday 8th April. Two weeks old today Standard "sorry for not updating sooner" comment goes here; Basil is literally taking up at least 50% of my waking hours at the moment and it's leaving me barely enough time to get all my client work done that I need to do!

I love him very much but wow is he a feisty little handful. Going to highlight the main parts or concerns of these updates in red this time, especially as I'm starting to get more and more anxious about making sure I'm doing things right for my little fuzzy baby! I may just be being super paranoid, but I'm one of those super worry wart mothers. Any expertise or opinions would be great so I can make sure I'm looking after Basil as best as possible. Brooder: [COLOR=FF0000]Still eating paper towel.[/COLOR] I tried him on some pine shavings I had as a new bedding; they're from when I previously had guinea pigs some years ago so they are pet quality and dust extracted. At first I thought it was going really well. He was snuggling all around in them looking really comfortable in their fluffiness, they weren't messy, they were absorbing the poop instead of it just sitting on top like it does on the paper towel, it looked cleaner, smelled really nice, and gave a really soft warm barn-like glow to his brooder that I adored. Then I noticed him foraging around in them, and I am very frightened he was eating some. I did some BYC forum research, checked to make sure he wasn't just 'testing them with his mouth' by putting a small scattering on the ground outside his brooder, and it went from five pieces to two pieces, so [COLOR=FF0000]he was definitely eating the pine shavings[/COLOR]. Needless to say I removed them immediately and they weren't in his brooder for more than a few hours, so I hope he will be alright. Is this something I should try again in a week, and see if he is still eating them? Will this pass? I think that if he has to eat something, paper towel is preferable to wood chips, and I'm not sure if the dangers come from "eating handfuls and handfuls of woodchips" or if "eating one or two woodchips" is still fatal. I also got myself some grip mat to try, but I am highly suspecting he is just going to eat that too and have been reluctant to put it in until I can sit there for a good time watching to make sure he does not eat any of the plastic. I will update when I know how it goes. I may have to resort to using old bath towels and washing them several times a day until the weather dries and I can collect our own grass for drying and mulching; but the wet weather will make it harder to dry the towels too. Another thought I had was to [COLOR=FF0000]perhaps buy some live turf and put in his brooder[/COLOR], because he could chew that to his hearts content and it would be really good for him; but I think it might also be damp and/or cold and that could be worse than him eating paper towels. The other alternative then is to use fake turf, but I really think he would really just eat that too; it's supposed to be sturdy but he has a sort of sharp downwards facing scissor/knife-ish part on the front of his beak that he is using to slice the lettuces to shreds outside (and to nibble my fingers). [COLOR=FF0000]In short, and anguish, why does my duckling eat all his bedding no matter what it is[/COLOR] nooooo waaghh.

Eating: Aside from eating his bedding constantly, Basil seems to eat fairly well. He always wants vegetables though, his mix now includes a blitz up of: broccoli, fresh green beans, brussel sprouts, peas, corn, kale, carrot, capsicum (Bell Pepper) and a few alfalfa sprouts. I've been checking to make sure the vegetables he gets are some of the highest in goodies like protein and niacin and calcium rather than letting him fill up on stuff like lettuce, and that they are all on the duck supplements and treats list! [COLOR=FF0000]I'm a bit unsure if perhaps I am overfeeding him though, as he seems to have no limit to the amount of greens (his blitzed vegetables) that he will eat. [/COLOR]He doesn't polish off all of his duck starter mash, although what he mostly seems to leave are large things like the cracked sorghum, which is unfortunately the biggest bulk of the mash (because it is cheap for suppliers I suppose), but when ever I offer him his vegetables he will chow through them in under a minute and eats so fast even though his other dry food is still there or full. [COLOR=FF0000]He will eat a good spoon full in under a minute, and so far I've seen him eat continuously for about four spoons full[/COLOR] of the blitzed veggie mix I make without slowing- I wasn't comfortable to offer him any more to see if he would keep going from that point because his crop looked very full. Should his crop be that full all the time? Because it isn't, although he has constant access to his dry starter mash and the water. [COLOR=FF0000]So I don't know if I am over feeding him, or under feeding him[/COLOR]... if underfeeding in some way, that might explain why he is always always always chewing his paper towels, but it doesn't explain why he doesn't completely clean out his bowl of duck starter feed. Is there some way I can know exactly how much I should be feeding him each day? Should his crop be always bulging full, or should it be smooth and not noticeable? I think I may be throwing out quite a good bit of perfectly fine starter mash, because I have the fear that he is only eating "some parts" of it, and I want him to have access to those parts all the time and not risk him going hungry without the parts he will eat because his bowl still has stuff in it he maybe won't eat. Physical: [COLOR=FF0000]We went for our first swim the other day![/COLOR] First I let Basil dabble in some nice warm water in the bath (I boiled water and then added cold to make sure it wasn't from the hot tap or anything) where he could stand up balanced on a towel for grip, and he seemed to love that! So to make it deeper I put the water into a wide bowl, and same warm, and I popped him in. He stood on my hand in the water, and was happy to splash about and get himself wet like he was having a bath, [COLOR=FF0000]but as I lowered my hand, as soon as he couldn't stand on it and was paddling around, he seemed very unhappy[/COLOR]. He immediately moved to my arm to try and climb up and out. But if he could balance on my hand in the water, it was okay, he just didn't like it being deep and him having to swim by himself. [COLOR=FF0000]So summary, my duckling does not like to swim, haha.[/COLOR] Because of his species type I suspected this, because they are not very strong swimmers. I have never the less been giving him baths in shallow warm water, and he likes to ruffle around and get himself all soggy and wet on the bottom, and then immediately snuggle up into my face and hair to get warm and dry again, thanks Basil. I'm really sorry about the lack of posts, photos, and videos at the moment! Looking after Basil has become a full time job, and almost every day there seems to be a new thing that frightens me and I wind up spending anxious hours trying to fix problems or make sure he's all okay, which then leaves me some rushed hours to do my actual job, so editing photos has taken a bit of a back seat. I really hope to get a chance to resize and post some for you tomorrow! Love from us to everybody!

We need some pictures, too! Haha

 

[frankensusan]

If you are worried about overfeeding, check Basil's keel. The breastbone should not be too razor sharp, nor covered with fat. Babies go through plump and growth spurts so just watch for a trend. I had a chick that wasn't eating and her keel kept getting more sharp (means there isn't enough meat on the sides of it. You could feel one of your other bird's keel to get an idea of the differences.

Sometimes a sick bird (I don't think Basil is sick!) will eat a ton but the keel keeps getting sharper = weight is not sticking on the bird.

 

[hokankai]

Could you try wood stove pellets? That is what all the feed stores use as bedding around here along with pine shavings. You could also try making a false floor of wire mesh so that his mess falls down and the bedding below catches it.