Baby Ducks.

[easttxchick]

Quote:
Yep, I agree. Please don't let her have them back! You're mom now.

 

[mhn1957]

I rescued a duckling about 2 years ago. I paid $5.00 for it, as it had been given as a prize to a child, and I didn't want the child to end up with nothing. It was being raised by itself in a fenced yard with no pond. It appeared to be a female mallard. I put her in my neighbor's pond with a big white semi wild Pekin, that was given to me, but I haven't seen the Pekin in over a year, as they relocated to the creek, and roamed as they saw fit. I fed the mallard all winter last year and she was gone most of the summer with wild ducks, who fly off the minute they see me, but she isn't afraid. I'm hoping if they go somewhere she will go too. I fear she is too tame and trusting. My advice would be to get them with other wild ducklings and hope mother can't count. I know that I probably broke some law, as I can't prove that the duck I rescued was owned legally by the child, or the people that gave it as a prize. State departments of natural resources can be pretty prickly at times. In Ohio, you have to have a permit to rehabilitate wildlife. I would do the same thing you have done so far.

 

[easttxchick]

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No disrespect, but it ain't right to hatch ducklings, keep them with you in a brooder for a week and then try to give them back to a duck who doesn't even know she's a mother.
Too dangerous and those ducks don't look like full mallards to me, anyway.
Releasing a domestic or even a partially domestic duck into the wild is irresponsible at best.

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
No disrespect, but it ain't right to hatch ducklings, keep them with you in a brooder for a week and then try to give them back to a duck who doesn't even know she's a mother.
Too dangerous and those ducks don't look like full mallards to me, anyway.
Releasing a domestic or even a partially domestic duck into the wild is irresponsible at best.

I agree, 101% !!

 

[Quackwacky]

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If it is a breeder's duck, like I believe it has to be to be given as a prize, it will have one of the back claws cut off of one foot. That is how the officials know you don't keep the wild captive.
And as far as sending it off with the wild duck family idea, it would be more then likely be dead with in the week! Although my ducks aren't very friendly to me, I know they couldn't live without me.. So they have a safe home here for life and I get the pleasure of watching them. They are really special birds!!