dirty ponds

[titch and quack]

hi , can anyone tell me if it will harm my 2 ducks if the water in my pond goes a bit green looking. How often should i change it. i also give them a big bowl of clean water to wash in. they are on my profile picture and are much bigger now. They were rescued from our local canal by my daughter as they were getting pecked by bigger ducks. my pond is about 8 feet by 5 feet.

 

[Kevin565]

A little green could meam algae which is not a big deal. Ducks are fairly messy and it's nearly impossible to keep their water clean at all times. Do you have a pump in your pond?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

We use large medium and small kiddie pools. All medium and small pools are dumped daily, large if in the shade are dumped every other day. If any look off, too dirty or otherwise unpleasant they are cleaned more.

Ducks swim, poo and drink and breed in ponds/pools. To have the healthiest and happiest ducks you keep the water as clean as possible. Water turning green means there is a tone or organic material to promote growth. Personally we have a rule, if we wouldn't drink from it, or get in it we don't expect the ducks or geese to.

 

[titch and quack]

Hi , no i dont have a pump in my pond. It was never intender to be a pond for ducks until my daughter, who works on LLangollen wharf brought these two ducklings home. There was another one on the canal getting picked on but she couldnt get it and when she saw it again it was dead, poor thing. I think what i will do is every time i want to fill my watering can , i will fill from the pond and then top up with fresh water. and also get them another bath as a means of bathing.

 

[titch and quack]

I can appreciate your view on if you wouldnt get into it you wouldnt expect the ducks to , but these ducks came from a canal which is filthy and has rats and narrow boat water tipped into it,, i would never get into the canal.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

you can fence off your pretty pond and give the ducks a kiddie pool. Total win/win since your pond would stay clean and then the pool could be dumped easily.

 

[wildpeas]

I dont think algae growth would hurt the ducks if it is algae and not a build up of duck waste. You would know if there was too much poo in the water because it will start to smell gross. Eventually you will have to drain and refill the pond.

We only have wading pools at this point. I have a large pool and a small pool for 7 ducks. We have to empty and refill them every day. We scrub them once a week. I have a large pool for 2 geese and we only have to dump it out and refill it once a week. Mostly we just flush it out daily with a hose.

 

[Baybrio]

Your little pond is so nice!

I agree with Wildpeas, if it smells bad then clean it, otherwise I don't think you should have any problems. They have clean drinking water, so they can choose which they like better. Ducks are dabblers, it is natural for them to mush around in mud etc. Since you only have two ducks I think cleaning it when it gets nasty will work.

CelticOaksFarm lives in Florida - a very different climate than Wales - and I imagine in Florida dirty water can get really nasty really fast. I know it does here in Northern Illinois in the Summer when it's humid.

Thank you for saving their little selves. Domestic ducks are just not made for the wild.

 

[Ntsees]

Like what others have said, clean it when it smells bad. The last time I had ducks, it didn't take long until they dirtied up the pool like it was before.

 

[furbabymum]

If you want to get a small pond pump you can set up a waterfall like feature that runs your water over an algae scrubber which would help contain that particular thing. I just bought a painting screen and am using that as my algae scrubber.