ADVICE**Duckling Appeared In Backyard!

[agingerbrunette]

My mom called me around 11pm because a duckling appeared in her back yard in the suburbs. I don’t have a large territorial dog and I have chickens so I now have her/him.
I put some meal worms in the waterer tray and a little feed but she only seemed interested in the worm bonanza.

Tucked her in for the night with a heating pad under half of the bin on low, pine bedding, and water.

Not really sure what to do about today. I don’t mind doing whatever needs to be done but would love some direction.

Also, I’m assuming she is either a mallard or black bellied whistling duck as those are the only two wild ducks I know about (located in southern Louisiana) but could be wrong on that front as well.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Looks like a Mallard to me call your local wild life authorities and they’ll tell you of a rehabber in your area. They are trained to help these ducks get prepared for life in the wild. Good work rescuing this little one

 

[agingerbrunette]

Looks like a Mallard to me call your local wild life authorities and they’ll tell you of a rehabber in your area. They are trained to help these ducks get prepared for life in the wild. Good work rescuing this little one

I did that an apparently because of the stay home order no one is available at this time.

 

[Jpat]

Set up a little spot for it then, Hes stayin awhile!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Did you try mixing some feed and mealworms and warm water to try an get the appetite going? Any apparent injuries or illness?

 

[Matthewstee]

Whatever you do not put it in with any other types of birds, that is a huge mistake, and he will get bullied. Good work saving the little thing.

 

[agingerbrunette]

Did you try mixing some feed and mealworms and warm water to try an get the appetite going? Any apparent injuries or illness?

Seems happy and healthy! Eating mealworms and layer pellets (all I have right now) in water and I have some greens I can give him/her. Definitely has a set of lungs that work!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'd def not feed layer. Hopefully you can find duck feed or all flock for the little one. That's good though it sounds spunky!

 

[agingerbrunette]

Whatever you do not put it in with any other types of birds, that is a huge mistake, and he will get bullied. Good work saving the little thing.

I have 3 hens and 1 rooster who have been together since a few days old. We let them see the duckling but did not let them have access of any kind. Hoping I can find some starter feed.

 

[Teneniel]

Congrats you’re now a rehabber

when I did wildlife rehab, our basic principals were to mimic their natural habits as much as possible (hiding food, cutting browse rather than putting food in dishes etc), and to limit human interaction. We weren’t allowed to talk to the animals, they had screens up so they didn’t see us moving about, and they couldn’t associate us with food.



with babies, it was more relaxed except the human interaction part. Baby birds were tube fed silently and then placed back in their enclosures. Ducks were in a pen with water available for dunking. When they were big enough, they had swimming water available at all times for building strength (though we also had cameras on those pens).

basically your goals are to make sure it knows what it needs to survive, and doesn’t associate humans with easy meals, dogs with companionship etc. does that make sense?