Getting wild pintail to eat?

[SilverPhoenix]

Hi everyone!

This is not a usual topic, but I'm a wildlife rehabber and unfortunately my group and I don't have much experience in general dealing with this species of waterfowl. I currently have a female pintail with what I'm guessing is a slight wing fracture. She's going to the vet tomorrow, so the fracture itself is not much of a concern.

My question is...as a dabbling duck, what should I be feeding her to keep her going? How do I get her to eat? She's currently in a pen outdoors with grass in it and a small storage bin for her to float in if she chooses. I currently have scratch and flock raiser, but that's all. What should I offer her, and how? Does Mazuri offer anything in particular I should get? If so, how would I go about getting this food without a big shipping delay?

Any expertise on this subject would be much-appreciated.

 

[pirtykitty]

could you float some chopped romaine lettuce in some water for her.. Mazuri makes a waterfowl maintence it floats on water.. I feed it to my domestic ducks . also fed it to my black bellied whistling ducks when I had them...

he/she also might like some wheat or oats too. , snails, worms, mealworms.. minnows..

I get my mazuri from a feed store here in town.. They keep it on hand for the local zoo.. it comes in a 50 lb bag.. You might call some of the feed stores in your area that handle purina and they should carry it or can order it.. or suggest something similar. mazuri is the only thing I can get here.. but its the best you can get.

It takes about a week for it to come in when the zoo buys all they have.. I order on a monday and sometimes it's here by the week end ..

 

[destinduck]

I would say what you have for food should be fine, To get her to eat you should spread the food out on the ground and also put some in the storage bin in the water( although I would dump it every other day outside the pen so it does'nt get rotten) Also it really really helps to have ducks with her of any kind. (she will see them feeding and usally join in AND makes her feel safer. I have had people bring me wild ducks before a couple times over the years and when they were with other ducks every thing was faster and easier. I had domestics to put them with. If quarintine is an issue it takes alot longer. Mazuri makes a floating maintanence food that is great. If your store can get it it takes a week here for me, hope this helps.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
X's 2

a lot of time (I've done the same as Destin with wilds) but a lot of times a freaked out recently penned up wild duck will not settle down and eat, period, unless you have other birds in there to show them it's o kay. They are just so scared and all they want is to get out, so they really never pay attention to what's under their feet.
If you have other ducks with them, they settle down much quicker and will see them eating and go from their, still some will never eat in captivity.
All of my experience with penned up out of the wild birds has been with wood ducks too though, which most of you will know are the flightiest of all the migratory species anyway.
But definitely get her some buddies, it'll help a lot. And yes, what you are feeding is just fine for a temporary rehab situation

 

[destinduck]

Yes,unfortunately if I was going to rehab wild waterfowl full on this is the one instance to have a small flock of expendable birds. Even if just 2 or 3(due to them contracting parasites,diseases,etc.) Some of you may disagree on this. But these birds are social anyways and when a wild duck is alone for long it can die easily just from stress/shock. This goes for all my wild pen birds too. I will NEVER EVER put one bird for any reason in a pen by itself. There will always be at least 2 ducks together . IT IS THAT IMPORTANT!!! BTW THIS subject I dont want to prove,argue and/or debate at all. Sorry.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Thanks for the great advice everyone!

I have a pair of call ducks around her size who I could put her in with, but I am certainly nervous about quarantine. I may have the vet look her over and also have a fecal done, if she manages to pass those two things she can hang out with the call ducks. If nothing else, I could put her near the call ducks during the day so she can at least see and hear them, as her pen is easy to move. Might help her feel less nervous and alone.

I have some hardier large ducks as well, but they're awfully big and in with some rather feisty guinea fowl, so I would definitely not want her in with them.

 

[dianaross77]

My pekins LOVE those giant nasty superworms they sell at the pet stores. They are really big and easier to see than mealworms. They also wriggle around a lot which may be enticing to her. Poor baby. Oh and they are supposed to be high in calcium which seems like a good thing if she has bone that needs to heal.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Quote:
Oh, nice idea! My group has those monster worms available, too, or at least we had quite a few of them last time I checked over the summer. If not, I can do a pet store trip and get some for her.

 

[ejctm]

I clicked on this thread out of curiosity. I thought, why can't this mad carnivore just eat duck meat bought from the store? Why do they have to try and source such lovely wild bird meat? Is it even legal?

Read the title again - see what I mean!!!

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Quote:

And I'm a vegetarian and work for an animal rights organization, so that makes it even sillier!

Anyway, Ms. Pintail is doing well. She went to the vet yesterday and had an x-ray. It turns out her wing fracture is an old fracture that already healed. This is slightly bad news because it'll never be quite right, but not that bad because the break was fairly minor and overall her wings seem to be in decent condition. I am not sure if she can fly, but I'll assess that today now that she's gotten a chance to recover stress-wise from her trip to the vet. She seems to be eating fine on her own, so that is not as much of a concern as I expected. I just keep her where she has good hiding spots and keep her pen covered so there's not too much visual stimulus to freak her out.

I know a man who lives near a wildlife sanctuary and has special licenses to keep non-releasable waterfowl, so she is going to go to him. He has a several acre fenced yard with almost no predators (thanks to the good fencing) and natural ponds in it, and wild ducks coming and going. This pintail hen will be going to live on his property with other non-releasable wild ducks and have a good life.