Big problem with my newly purchased mallard ducks.

[ducksinarow]

My ducks love frozen peas. They stand at the back door in the evening and wait for me to put peas inside their house and put them up. You might give this a try.

 

[QuackedUp]

I have 3 mallards and am also having trouble getting them into a pond. I live in 4 and 1/2 achers, but I have no pond. I keep my ducks up in my barn at night. My neighbor has a pond which is about 50 yards or less from my barn. I have taken them to her pond various times in hopes of providing them with a fun place to play and just "be ducks." However, they will not get into the water. Their mouths open and the go hide in the woods between the barn and the pond. I assume the sense danger around the pond area, as I have also observed quite a few raccoon prints along the edge of the pond. Perhaps your ducks sense a danger in their pond, as you fish were chasing them... Perhaps if you keep taking them to your pond they will, in time, grow comfortable there...?

As for getting them back in at night... have heard that the best way is to have them associate their night home with food. My vet told me to feed a small breakfast, but not to provide any food during the day time. He said to make sure to have set (timed) schedule for "bedtime" - just before dusk. He said that their tummies will fall into the habit of getting hungry around that same time and want to go get their dinner. It seems to have worked for me thus far...Even though I don't put my ducks up for the night until 7pm or so, my mallards start squawking loudly for me at around 6 pm each night - they are letting me know that their bellies are getting hungry. Once we reach the pasture gate, they fly on ahead of me to the barn and then "buck, buck, buck" until I let them in their stall for dinner. My vet said that the key to getting them in at night is just creating consistent feeding times. Good luck!

 

[Koipondduck]

Hello Plum nearly firm,

Thanks for your advise, at 10.30 at night I just fed them dried mealworms since I keep them for my blue birds, This is the 4th year blue birds came around my house but this year over crowing of sprarrows are really not ideal for their nesting. Sprarows chased them out but they come every day for meal worms. I also gave my mallard ducks some chopped lettuces and frozen peas.

Trust me, they will never leafe us.

Being an Indinan ( Asian Indian), I do not think, there is any one like me this crazy that loves Kois, blue birds, ducks, Chickens and cats.

**** an added favor to our discussion****

 

[Koipondduck]

thanks guys, I learned so much from you guys. I went and got a up side down water jug for them and from 6 p.m. to 11.05, I had to fill it once already. Other bowls were not working inside their house. I am keeping them inside this house until tomorrow so get used to this house. However, my pen should be complete by sunday but in case it does not, this house work. Thanks for your community support

 

[Koipondduck]

Hi, I just put frozen peas, romaine lettuce and dried meal work in thier temporary house

 

[desertdarlene]

Of course, the frozen peas should be thawed before giving them to the ducks.

If not, no worries, they'll be OK.

 

[Koipondduck]

Miss Lidia, I am building a house with a pen and I today I went and visited a firm and saw coops.
It will be a pen and back of it would be their house and I willl put a borad for them to get up.
There will be five ducks and three eggs laying chicken. I would not have a rooster.

So my question is. do I need to have a door on it. The coop will have hard ware cloth mixed with vynal coded
green wires. Then inside, I will put chicken wire. So there will be must protection.

Does every coop need a door or can I have it divided so they can go in and lay eggs? I do know i need some types of door.
Please advise

 

[Koipondduck]

great, so I am not the only one with this problem.

 

[Nyowpotopop]

From the ASPCA website;
"Approximately 5 million to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 million to 4 million are euthanized (60 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats)."
This does not even include the problems with people adopting exotics... In florida alone there are almost 50 different reptile species that are not native to florida many of which were established through people releasing thier pets (which they were unprepared for as you were with these ducks). There are TWICE that many birds... And for native domesticVSwild populations like mallards hybridization with domestics and changing of genepools through mating with domestics is a huge problem for wild populations of native birds due to weakened instincts, immune systems, more domestic temperments, etc.
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/waterfowl/mallard-release-areas-evaluation.pdf
You can only imagine how much non-native or domesticXwild mating effects the whole country if one state alone has THIS many problems. Numbers get that astronomical because a few people some years back didn't care for thier animals right and now the whole world suffers.

With this in mind and someone comes around saying they don't have the time to care for thier birds (YOUR words not mine) and are unwilling to contain them safely the answer is they must be rehomed or the birds will die or go feral. And there is no sugar coating that. I'm sorry but the truth is you came across like you were buying a pet for a decoration to go with your landscaping. I work in rescues. I get upset when I see someone get that "pretty animal" to compliment thier landscaping, outfit, walls etc because 9 times out of 10 that animal ends up dead or in a shelter (or both)... And if you were more concerned with your landscaping then your ducks then you needed to stop owning ducks immediately because the ducks have certain needs, most notably a pen that you said would not go with your landscaping (again your words). Not to mention that ducks wreak landscaping eating everything green in sight and have a habit of DESTROYING pond filters built for fish.... The last thing I wanna see is another animal needing a good home or worse someting like this;
http://urban-homesteading.org/predator-proof-your-flock/

So it's not like the example you gave where if I did everything wrong setting up a koi pond. Much more like if I had a small japanese koi pond with mature fish and REFUSED to put in any sort of filtering because the filter would make noise that would disturb me when I was sitting near the pond... And I was perfectly OK with allowing the fish to die of ammoinia poisioning for me not putting in a filter. Because that's how you came across; as saying "I'm snooty about my landscaping and have no time for these animals I bought on a whim sullying up my beautiful home and don't want to make a pen; it'd clash with the lawn!".

I do think it's good you're taking responsibility for it and setting up a pen and such. (By the way, to answer your question most people just bury the wire by digging a trench and shoving it in but if you need to weight it in the trench to make sure the wire stays down -which isn't a bad idea- rocks or bricks on the last few inches will work well. More biodegradable would be logs but they would not hold as well. Also, angling the wire outward can help too and reduce digging. The theory behind a dig guard is that when the animal tries to dig in the only encounter hard wire or other firm substances and won't break through. You can also cover the inside bottom of the pen with hardware cloth or there was even someone who used vinyl latticework for it if digging a trench is not to your liking. It may - and this is a big may - even help save the grass in the pen a little making it harder to get at.)

But I do think that I was justified in thinking that anyone who doesn't want to care for pets they got thinking they'd look nice shouldn't own them and you asked if you should rehome them. If you weren't willing to build a pen or chase them around the answer was YES. It's good that you ARE willing... But understand that you came across like you were upset that these living animals had needs that didn't fit with your lawn and that's just wrong.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Miss Lidia, I am building a house with a pen and I today I went and visited a firm and saw coops.
It will be a pen and back of it would be their house and I willl put a borad for them to get up.
There will be five ducks and three eggs laying chicken. I would not have a rooster.

So my question is. do I need to have a door on it. The coop will have hard ware cloth mixed with vynal coded
green wires. Then inside, I will put chicken wire. So there will be must protection.

Does every coop need a door or can I have it divided so they can go in and lay eggs? I do know i need some types of door.
Please advise

How are you going to secure the coop without a door.? and be sure to have plenty of ventilation for health. Windows covered with hardware cloth. I even have screen doors on my coops covered in hardware cloth for extra Ventilation. Please don't judge us as being mean angry people who jump on anyone who comes in wanting help , We see all too often the worse cases of folks getting ducks, ducklings and putting them outside in flimsy runs and unsafe coops then come in here saying all their ducks are dead or injured severly, and honestly it is very upsetting, when some research could have prevented it all. I hope you will post pictures when you get it all done so we can see your setup and ducks. And by the way I love koi, I have a small pond too, small for koi but i do have pond gold fish it is such a blessing to sit out in the evenings and watch the fish ,ducks and chickens enjoying life. I hope yours brings you much joy also. PS on the door, my husband built the doors on our houses, but only in the very coldest part of the year do i close them, I use the screen doors covered in hardware cloth most of the year.