Help! Found wild mallard duckling alone

[kmaboo12]

Hello! I'm new to this community but thought the members would have some good advice for me. About a week and a half ago my hubby found a wild mallard duckling all by itself. Searched all day for any sign of any ducks at all and found nothing. So he brought the duckling home. It was tiny. Couldn't have been more than a day old if that. Since then it's been in a brooder with heat lamp, stuffed duck, water, and unmediated chick starter, etc. So far it's doing well and growing. We also try to catch small grasshoppers for it to eat and it quite enjoys that. Had a few questions for anyone that knows...
1. Can ducklings drink tap water? We have been using bottles at room temp.
2. Would it be a good idea to get another duckling for this one to be with? (I can't find much research on diseases being transferred from domestic ducklings to wild ones)
I would hate to bring home another duckling only to have it pass on some disease and kill the one we were trying to save in the first place. Any advice would be helpful!

 

[sunflour]

glad you have joined us.

IMO tap water would be fine.

I also see your question on the Ducks forum - the best place to get the info you need.

Good luck with the little duckling.

 

[drumstick diva]

You may be interested in the thread "show us your house ducks." A lot of folks are raising a chicken or two, or ducks as house pets. Doing so, the humans become their flock and they are content without others of their kind. My friend has had house chickens dating back at least 25 years, different breeds etc. but she has it down to a science.

 

[silkiecuddles]

Tap water is fine. It would be fine by itself if you're with it a lot, but another duckling may make it happier.
Unmedicated feed is good. The medication in chick feeds is bad for duckies.

Please Don't let it swim unattended. Mother ducks preen the duckling's feathers which releases the oil necessary for staying afloat. If you want to let it play in a pan of water of the tub, go for it, but keep an eye on it and don't let it swim too long.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - you have some great advice already so I'll just say hello!


All the best
CT

 

[Ravynscroft]

You've gotten lots of good advice... I agree tap water is fine, and if you can find another duckling or 2 similar age/size that would be best...

Also, since you're feeding chick starter, ducklings need more niacin due to deficiency... either get brewers yeast (not baking yeast) and sprinkle a tblsp per cup of feed, or get Vitamin B complex tablets, crush and dissolve enough to contain 150mg niacin into each gallon of water for it... ducklings need this supplement til about 10 weeks of age... or feed it Purina Flock Raiser, that has higher niacin for ducklings... good luck!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[kmaboo12]

POSTING AN UPDATE:
Thanks for all the great advice! It's much appreciated! So far raising the mallard has been going great! In the past few weeks I've done a lot of research on ducklings and wild mallards in particular. We've had him/her for 2 weeks tomorrow, and it's growing like a weed. I do add brewers yeast to the chick starter food. I went to my local farm store yesterday and could not find a small bag of flock feed, but it is my next step. Also, after a lot of debate and talks with my husband, we did decide that the mallard needed a duck friend to grow up with. The only ducklings I could find close by for sale were Blue Swedish. Not ideal because they get so much bigger than mallards, but we went ahead and picked one up yesterday! The 2 of them are doing great together so far. My 2 year old daughter named the Mallard 'Duck' and we call the Blue Swedish, 'Frank'. Or as I call it, 'Dino Duck' because it is so much bigger than my mallard. Frank follows Duck everywhere, and Duck has shown Frank that people are not so scary. Here's a few pics

 

[silkiecuddles]

so cute!! Frank . Fabulous name