Duck dilemma (please help)

[animalloverducks]

Hi everybody,
My family and I live in Minnesota. We live next to a creek and we have always had a group of ducks that lives in our creek and will come up in to our backyard. This summer, we started to feed them cracked corn and some lettuce and occasionally duck food. When the first snow came we expected them to leave and migrate. Our creek was still open so they stayed. We continued to feed them. One day we woke up and found that we had 30 ducks in our backyard. We continued to feed them but tried to cut down on how much to feed.

This morning I started to think about how they maybe they should have migrated already and went to talk to my family. I found them looking in the backyard. There was A HUGE DOMESTICATED DUCK eating with our wild ducks. We have NO IDEA where it came from. It can't fly very well but seems to have joined our group of ducks. It is considerably larger then the other ducks but seems to want to stay with them.

These are my questions-
- Should we stop feeding them?
- What should we do with the domesticated duck?
- Should we be worried about them not migrating?

Please help!!! Thank you

 

[Broody Bist]

Dang it, I deleted my reply when I was trying to edit it

Do you know if the duck could’ve come from a neighbor’s house??

 

[animalloverducks]

Dang it, I deleted my post when I was trying to edit it

Do you know if the duck could’ve come from a neighbor’s house??

I dont know what kind it is but it is large and black. No known neighbors have ducks! When we first saw it we thought it was a goose! Do you have any advice on my other questions too? Thank you so much

 

[Wezdin]

You said you thought it was a goose, how sure are you?

 

[Pyxis]

Can you post a picture of it? Is there any chance it's a muscovy duck? Those are still not native to the US, but they can fly, so it could have flown in from somewhere. There are now thriving populations of them in some southern states, like Florida.

 

[animalloverducks]

You said you thought it was a goose, how sure are you?

It is not goose.If I had to describe it I would say a large black mallard? I'll try to get some pictures.

 

[Wezdin]

It is not goose.If I had to describe it I would say a large black mallard? I'll try to get some pictures.

Ok just makin sure

 

[Pyxis]

It is not goose.If I had to describe it I would say a large black mallard? I'll try to get some pictures.

Pictures would be great. I would also check with your neighbors to see if they have ducks and if so if they are missing any.

If not, what could have happened is that some unscrupulous people will dump their unwanted animals on others. Someone could have seen all the ducks at your place, assumed they were your pets, and dumped their unwanted duck on you, assuming you would keep it and take care of it. Essentially, they didn't want it to be their problem any more, so they made it your problem.

In that case, really all you can do is either keep it, which would require building housing and getting another duck to keep it company, rehome it to someone else who keeps ducks and wants it, or see if any of your local shelters will take it and try to find it a home.

 

[animalloverducks]

Can you post a picture of it? Is there any chance it's a muscovy duck? Those are still not native to the US, but they can fly, so it could have flown in from somewhere. There are now thriving populations of them in some southern states, like Florida.

Im sorry i dont have a camera right now

 

[animalloverducks]

Pictures would be great. I would also check with your neighbors to see if they have ducks and if so if they are missing any.

If not, what could have happened is that some unscrupulous people will dump their unwanted animals on others. Someone could have seen all the ducks at your place, assumed they were your pets, and dumped their unwanted duck on you, assuming you would keep it and take care of it. Essentially, they didn't want it to be their problem any more, so they made it your problem.

In that case, really all you can do is either keep it, which would require building housing and getting another duck to keep it company, rehome it to someone else who keeps ducks and wants it, or see if any of your local shelters will take it and try to find it a home.

Okay. It seems to be living with the other ducks if it was a normal duck. It wont let us touch it, but neither do the others. It is large and black with some feathers that are purple. It has very large webbed feet.

Should I keep on feeding them? I hope we didnt delay the migration.