We raised our first duck, Frankie Peepers in the house as a baby. When we let her out we first had her hanging out in the coop with our chickens for company. It was so cute watching her bond with them. She also bonded with my pit bull. I have video of her following Maxine my dog. Ducks are very messy to keep in the house even if they are contained. Shortly after we got our first duck we realized we could not have just one duck. The second one we got, Marley, we had in the house for a week or so before we introduced her to Frankie P. They were so happy to have each other. Although Frankie would not let her in the pond for the first few days they were together. Marley is smaller and a little meeker than Frankie P but has a wonderful nurturing personality. Frankie P just loved the heck out of us and loved any opportunity to be by us.
I have a 125 gal pond and I used floating pond food from Mazuri. This food DID NOT meet the nutritional needs of our ducks and I lost Frankie P to rectal prolapse and she was probably egg bound (that's another story) saddest duck day ever. Sad to say that sometimes you learn what your doing wrong after something horrible happens. For what we were paying for this food we never expected that it was not meeting their nutritional needs. Mazuri was 48 dollars for a 50 lb bag. Make sure your egg layers are getting what they need and soft shell eggs or no eggs is not a good sign. This food however, was great in socializing the ducks. I have a plastic lays potato chip container that I put the food in and shake and they come running when they heard it. I hand feed them and they loved coming to me because they associated me as the kibble dispenser lol. Really I am okay with that lol.
Frankie and Marley were so sweet, Frankie just wanted to hang with people, Marley was a little more shy but would still come to me. Then the neighbors bought home a duck and had it in a pet carrier in their back yard. All you could hear were little peeps of this poor baby locked up by himself. It was breaking my heart to hear him back there alone, so I offered to foster the duck with mine which they gladly accepted. Most young people don't realize how much work it is to have a duck and that you have to have more than one. This one turned out to be our drake Lunar Ray. What a love he is. I used to get Frankie to come to me and I could get a group hug with all three ducks. It was really special and I had no clue it was all going to end so suddenly.
When Frankie P died, I did not want Marley to be the only female so we adopted another female right away, Charlotte, around the same age that was not socialized at all. She is terrified of people and she has changed the whole demeanor of the flock. We switched our food to egg layer pellets 17 dollars for 50 lbs, so we would have enough calcium and protein in our food and also have oyster shells available to the females. All are well. I still have the floating pond food that I throw in their water bowl each morning after I let them out of their houses as they are very noisy when they wake up. The pellets don't work in water. I let them out at 7am and live in a neighborhood. When I throw the pellets in the other water bowl it quiets them down immediately. I also have a bowl of water in their houses each night so they have water for the night. I throw some of the floating pond food in each of their water buckets each night to lure them in their houses. Marley jumps for joy before she goes to bed every night. Its adorable. Charlotte is the last one in. I keep the drake separate from the females as their homes are kind of small and he was raping them and hurting them at night when they all were together. The first time I saw he hurt one of my females we separated them. He loves them, they just have extremely rough sex and he cut her eye lid.
In the morning when I let them out I take the waters out of their cages as the first round of water for the day and place them around the yard. I have three clean water buckets. One of the buckets is near a platter under a tree and I feed them fresh lettuce every day as this is the only treat they really love from me, I have tried all kinds of fruits and veggies and they have no interest. They do like sprouts too. Around 1 pm I change the buckets of water to cool clean water as they get hot. At about 6 pm I do the last water change and put 1 bucket in each of their houses for the night and leave the one out that I throw food into for them in the a.m.
Besides cleaning the pond regularly, which I try to take 1/4 of the water out a day(I use it to water my other plants) and refresh the pond with clean water for about 5 or 6 days and then I do a total water change, that's my duck day.
I have a 125 gal pond and I used floating pond food from Mazuri. This food DID NOT meet the nutritional needs of our ducks and I lost Frankie P to rectal prolapse and she was probably egg bound (that's another story) saddest duck day ever. Sad to say that sometimes you learn what your doing wrong after something horrible happens. For what we were paying for this food we never expected that it was not meeting their nutritional needs. Mazuri was 48 dollars for a 50 lb bag. Make sure your egg layers are getting what they need and soft shell eggs or no eggs is not a good sign. This food however, was great in socializing the ducks. I have a plastic lays potato chip container that I put the food in and shake and they come running when they heard it. I hand feed them and they loved coming to me because they associated me as the kibble dispenser lol. Really I am okay with that lol.
Frankie and Marley were so sweet, Frankie just wanted to hang with people, Marley was a little more shy but would still come to me. Then the neighbors bought home a duck and had it in a pet carrier in their back yard. All you could hear were little peeps of this poor baby locked up by himself. It was breaking my heart to hear him back there alone, so I offered to foster the duck with mine which they gladly accepted. Most young people don't realize how much work it is to have a duck and that you have to have more than one. This one turned out to be our drake Lunar Ray. What a love he is. I used to get Frankie to come to me and I could get a group hug with all three ducks. It was really special and I had no clue it was all going to end so suddenly.
When Frankie P died, I did not want Marley to be the only female so we adopted another female right away, Charlotte, around the same age that was not socialized at all. She is terrified of people and she has changed the whole demeanor of the flock. We switched our food to egg layer pellets 17 dollars for 50 lbs, so we would have enough calcium and protein in our food and also have oyster shells available to the females. All are well. I still have the floating pond food that I throw in their water bowl each morning after I let them out of their houses as they are very noisy when they wake up. The pellets don't work in water. I let them out at 7am and live in a neighborhood. When I throw the pellets in the other water bowl it quiets them down immediately. I also have a bowl of water in their houses each night so they have water for the night. I throw some of the floating pond food in each of their water buckets each night to lure them in their houses. Marley jumps for joy before she goes to bed every night. Its adorable. Charlotte is the last one in. I keep the drake separate from the females as their homes are kind of small and he was raping them and hurting them at night when they all were together. The first time I saw he hurt one of my females we separated them. He loves them, they just have extremely rough sex and he cut her eye lid.
In the morning when I let them out I take the waters out of their cages as the first round of water for the day and place them around the yard. I have three clean water buckets. One of the buckets is near a platter under a tree and I feed them fresh lettuce every day as this is the only treat they really love from me, I have tried all kinds of fruits and veggies and they have no interest. They do like sprouts too. Around 1 pm I change the buckets of water to cool clean water as they get hot. At about 6 pm I do the last water change and put 1 bucket in each of their houses for the night and leave the one out that I throw food into for them in the a.m.
Besides cleaning the pond regularly, which I try to take 1/4 of the water out a day(I use it to water my other plants) and refresh the pond with clean water for about 5 or 6 days and then I do a total water change, that's my duck day.
((((( I want them to have a good home. I live in florida, space coast area of florida. Any ideas of what to do or if anybody wants to take them. it's hard for me to give them up because they're the first pet I've ever had.
