Duckling with liquid coming from nostrils

[HomesteadGirl1234]

Here's our babies.

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

Thanks so much for relieving me a bit. I always make sure that we all wash your hands after handling them, or taking care of them in the mornings. They are in a large shared Coop and run area with my chickens, so no worries of them pooping all over. Although when I do dump out their pool sometimes it's close to where my kids play. We need more land. Anyway thank you for your help, I'll be sure that they don't pick him up for a while!

The younger the kid, the harder it is to get them to pick them up correctly. I don’t know how old your kids are, but I don’t let any of my non-teens pick up the birds unsupervised. My under 7 aren’t allowed to pick up any of the birds. This is for both the duck and child’s safety. Those little ducklings are incredibly adorable, but pretty fragile really. They squirm and are easily dropped when held so their crop isn’t squeezed.

I read an article about ducks basically being sexually overstimulated from human affection and it causing health issues related to laying/hormones. So the kids aren’t ever allowed to pet them on the back either. They pet head/neck, and top of the chest only and not for long. I suspect the issues I read about are relatively rare, but I figured we’re better safe than sorry.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are precious. Get you kids to walk slowly up on them and talk in a soft voice so the duckling don’t get startled. I know it’s exciting to have little ducklings but they do scare easy and if we’re calm around them it will help relieve some of the stress they have.

 

[HomesteadGirl1234]

Our ducks and chickens are pets, but they're not. My kids don't over handle them by any means they really hardly touch them. They're just excited about the new babies. I don't let them in the coop normally, they just wanted to go in because the babies are in there and they like to check on them. They do help me feed every once in awhile or get eggs. I know that they're not pets to be lovable with, because they're not the cleanliness quite honestly. We do have a residential property in town, so the coop is just in our backyard. We're looking for a home with property so that we can separate our animal area from our kids play area.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My gran kids handled ducklings when they were young and it never caused any sickness as long as they wash their hands and don’t run around barefoot through poop they should be fine gives them a strong healthy immune system.