A wild duckling orphan was just brought to me...

[sianara]

... so my neighbor was just driving down the road and came upon this man standing in the middle of it holding something. So she cautiously barely opened her window and asked if he was ok? He opened his hands and showed her this little duckling he had just found walking down the middle of the road all alone. As they talked he realized she was my neighbor and I knew him so he asked her to bring the duckling to me. She was thinking "she's not gonna want another duck!" but brought it to me anyway. Of course, I was happy to take it temporarily.

Luckily I still had a cage set up in the basement that I had just taken my goslings out of so I added wood shavings, a clean waterer, some waterfowl starter (how lucky was I to have that on hand?) and a heat lamp - then the duckling. It's definitely a bantam probably a wood duck or a mallard and less than two weeks old for sure.

I really don't want to add another duckling to my Australian spotted bantam duck flock right now especially a lone one so I called my friend who is a vet and asked her who in the wildlife police

I should call to come and take it? She suggested I just raise it myself and then when it's full grown let it go since it's wild. Hmmm, hadn't thought about that. But now I'm thinking "Do I really want to do that while I'm in the middle of raising a two week old gosling pair?" That means I have to set up a completely separate brooding area and it's so sad and not really a good idea to raise a duckling alone, they NEED flock mates... and she explained there really aren't any wildfowl diseases I should be worried about this duckling giving to my ducks as waterfowl are pretty disease resistant to begin with.

So I'm just ruminating... What to do, what to do???

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Is it a Mallard? Just curious.

I think if you raise it, you won't be able to "release" it cuz it will be aclimated to humans, your dogs.. etc.

 

[sianara]

You know this is what was in the back of my mind also. I figured if I raised it it would actually become somewhat domesticated and would that really be fair to just "let it go"?

I just messaged a friend of mine who has some chicks in her barn right now and she's thinking about taking it to raise with some chicks she's got in her brooder. One of the differences between her and me is mine are all in netted yards while she free ranges hers. So I'm thinking if she takes it and it decides to fly away when it's full grown then that is what it was meant to do...

 

[sianara]

My vet friend suspects it's either a mallard or wood duck cuz they are pretty prevalent in this swampy area where it was found and coincidentally my vet friend lives a half mile from where it was found and knows the guy who found it too. Small town... I'll go take a clear pic and post it soon.