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21 day mallard

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acriswell4 said:
I called a rehabilitation place that we have around here and they said they have a group of orphaned ducklings around mines age. I want to do the right thing by this duck, is it domesticated or wild I don't know for a fact, my friend said it is domestic, if it is domestic do they still have the migratory instinct? If it is domestic aNd I take it to the place will it survive in the wild? Will mine be able to forget about me and humans and be able to survive in the wild,


After reading up on wild mallards and having them I seen that if they are on your property but not caged and are free to come and go that you can't get in trouble. I'm not about braking the law.
Click to expand...


Lots of confusion here... he bought the ducks so they are domestic whether they have gone feral or not is besides the issue... that duckling is now bonded to you... you said you thought you couldn't keep it, but is there any reason beyond thinking it was wild that you can't?

:hugs
Sounds like you are trying very hard to do what is best for the duckling, and for that I commend you... living as a solitary duck is not ideal, but it can be happy if you have the ability to spend a lot of time with it... if you can find any ducklings close in age/size now, that would be ideal to give it a companion or 2... if not, come over and check out this thread for many helpful ideas and information...


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/632070/show-off-your-house-ducks

@Amiga can you post the links for basic duckling care? I need to copy those and save them on my phone, sorry... :oops:
 
Also to clear up something else really quickly, you can't just eyeball a domestic mallard duckling and tell it's domestic as opposed to a wild mallard. They are exactly the same, so showing it to the flock owner wouldn't really help. The only difference in those bought from hatcheries is that they are marked in such a way that if anyone was checking up on it they could tell it was domestic. If it was hatched by its mother and then given to OP I doubt this would have been done. So there would be no way to tell whether it was from a domestic mallard or a wild mallard by looking at it, but from the sounds of things it was produced from a domestic mallard on a farm and therefore is legal to keep. Just to clear things up a bit further.

Since there is an almost 100% chance it's a domestic mallard and since it was raised domestically, releasing it into the wild or giving it to a wildlife rehabber who will then release it is a bad idea. Ravynfallen and Miss Lydia have provided some excellent links you can check out and some great advice.
 
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