Bonded 5 week old pair and single 2 week old duckling

[sarah_31]

Hello! I've been reading some of the threads about new duck owners and having single ducklings. My friend's family has a backyard flock, and one egg hatched too late after the last group to be added to their brooding group. My 11 year old daughter has been wanting chickens and ducks, and we agreed she could keep the duckling (it's 2 weeks old today). We quickly realized that although it's definitely imprinted on her, waddles around the house following her, and that's adorable, this duckling absolutely needs duck friends! It calls out from the brooder in the living room when we're not there. I thought getting a brand new duckling at tractor supply might be too small to add to the 2 week old. So we went to the humane society and found this adorable bonded pair that were surrendered. They're much larger, just starting to get oil feathers, so I would say maybe 4-5 weeks? There's such a big size difference between the two new ducks and our small duckling, and those two are such a tight pair, that now I'm worried. Plus we haven't solved the problem of getting the little duckling a friend for the brooder. The two larger ducks don't have any interest in anything beside each other, and one acts a little aggressively to the smaller duckling when I supervised them outside in the kiddie pool today. I'm not sure what to do next? Since we're in a suburb on a 10k sq ft lot, we're pretty limited on how many birds we can have (in addition to the cats, dog, bearded dragon and parakeet - our horse is boarded). Since we still plan on getting a few chickens, I didn't really plan on having more than 2-3 ducks. Should I just be patient and wait for our new duckling to get a little bigger and hopefully become a happy 3rd wheel when it gets the same size as the others? Should I try and find a 2 week old duckling to go in the brooder with our tiny duckling? It doesn't help that we're planning on going on vacation in about 3 weeks, and we'll be gone 10 days with family watching all the animals. I was hoping all 3 ducks would be good in the outdoor coop/run by the time the youngest was 5 weeks (east county San Diego night temps are low to mid 60s), but what if they don't get along by then?! Thank you so much for any advice!

 

[Eggstatic ChickyDoo]

I personally wouldn't get any more ducks right away. You say you have room for 2-3 ducks and you have 3, you're where you want to be. Also, the more you have the more potential drakes you have and unless they're all drakes you have to worry about the ratio causing issues.
For right now in the brooder, I recommend a couple of small mirrors and a stuffed animal or hanging tea towel for the little one. This will help keep it from being so lonely in the brooder.
Can you set up a divider in your outdoor duck area so they can see but not touch each other? That gives everyone a chance to talk and get to know each other without the risk of the bossy duck hurting the little one.
I have one who is a bit of a jerk sometimes (in the spring, usually) and use a framed piece of chicken wire to separate him as needed. They all still sleep and bathe "together", him on his side (bathing in his water bowl), everyone else in the main area, so he doesn't seem to mind that he can't actually get to the others.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I had 2-3 week old Runner ducklings in our inside brooder and 2 new ones hatched so to let them all be together I made 2 separate areas in the brooder with using hardware cloth wrapped the edges in gorilla tape. That way the older ducklings could see the new hatching but could not pick on them or trample them. This brooder is 2 xlarge dog crates tie wrapped together so plenty of room to divide. It took less than a week before the new babies were climbing all over the older ones it was so cute. I just let them have together time when I could watch them and make sure the older weren't getting to carried away with the tiny ones. after a week they were all together

 

[ruthhope]

I think you can plan on integrating your two new ducklings with your rescued duckling in a few weeks.

I had a rescued and resucitated 2 or 3 day old muscovy duckling that became lonely and depressed after a few days in my brooder. I got him out with me, bonded and needy, until 5 to 6 weeks old. However, I was then lucky and got two ducky friends from my local wildlife rehabber: a special needs pekin drake about 4 months older than mine and another muscovy drake perhaps a week or so older than mine that already knew each other. The three were introduced when Daffy was about 5 weeks old and they are now three amigos.

So my suggestion is that you keep your little one nearby but separate from the two new ones until yours is 5 or so weeks old. Can you plan to move your little rescue into a partitioned part of the duck house or in a dog crate inside the duck house once it is big and feathered enough to sleep in the duck house?

Can you also fence off a temporary pen in the garden for the little one to play in with the bigger ones around and about?

I cannot recall how long it took for my Daffy to get introduced with O Pato and Ping, but no more than a couple of days -- they were more or less put together and told to get on with it at their tender ages [I do not do that with older ducks: I take time with the see no touch introductions]. We didn't have a pen in the garden to separate the three, but that is what I use with older ducks.

I just think that at 2 weeks old your little one isn't yet ready to get to know the older bigger ducks that will already be needing lots of outdoor running around time. But in only 3 short weeks introductions will be possible.

 

[sarah_31]

Thank you so much everyone! I feel a lot less nervous after reading your responses! Right now I have the tiny one in a 45 gallon plastic tub with the sides/top cup out and hardware cloth attached. I have two small mirrors, stuffed animal, soft blanket. And let him/her out to run around the house with us a few times a day. The bigger ones go out in the patio in a 5” diameter wire dog pen. We’re still finishing building the outdoor coop which is 6ft x 9ft. In a couple weeks I’ll use the dog pen inside the coop to do preliminary interactions?

 

[sarah_31]

I’m also hoping somehow I have 3 boys or 3 girls so I don’t have to worry about mating ratios, fingers crossed!

 

[ruthhope]

I’m also hoping somehow I have 3 boys or 3 girls so I don’t have to worry about mating ratios, fingers crossed! View attachment 3174204View attachment 3174205View attachment 3174207

They are each delightful.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are adorable

 

[sarah_31]

You all made me feel so welcome and gave amazing advice and support that was so helpful! So I want to post an update! The "three amigos" have been living together very happily for the last few weeks! We transitioned them to spending days together supervised in the run, still bringing the younger duck in the brooder at night. Then after a few days they didn't seem to need supervision, and they cried for each other when I took the little one inside at night. They were happy to eat/swim/preen together all day. Our night time temps are in the high 60's low 70s (too hot for me!) so we decided to have them all together 24/7 and it's been just peachy! The only "downside" is Poof (we had Dallas or June picked out as names for the baby....but we just stuck with Poof, haha) is more duck that human now, doesn't follow us around or want to be cuddled unless a treat is involved. We joked that it's definitely the teenage phase hanging out with friends lol

Duck life still has a learning curve...like figuring out flooring in the run (going to make a whole separate post after I research some previous threads), the ridiculous amount of flies (the bait traps smell terrible and only get about 25%), upgrading the kiddie pool to something easier to drain, etc. But it's so much fun!

Edit: Poof is 7 weeks old now, we think Honey and Sunny are 9-10 weeks old. Sunny has irridescent blue feathers on part of their wings, and Honey has irridescent green on the black "hat." Poof has just morphed into this cool gray/white mottled pattern. Most of the time they have a scratchy grumbly quacking sound, but every now and then (like if they hear me coming and want treats) I hear a loud honk. I keep watching for drake feathers trying to figure out the sex of them (don't care either way but hoping to have all the same)

 

[Luv Ducks]

They look beautiful!!! Hopefully they are girls if you like Duck eggs. I have 8 hens and love their eggs. Good luck with yours.