Help please for soon to come ducklings!!!

[theduckgirl4110]

Hi. I had two ducklings with the same food and water dish as in the pictures

. I am getting two more ducklings soon. When I had the first two I didn't have the food and water dishes on anything so I cleaned their brooder twice a day. But I wanted some help this time around with my new ducklings. I want to minimize the amount of water and wet food that gets on their bedding cause every one that has had ducklings knows how much of a mess they make. I've heard of the cookie drying rack over a pan but I'm not sure that I want to use that. Something similar would be because I don't have those two things. Thank you and I would appreciate pictures.

food dish waterer until they outgrow it

 

[KYTinpusher]

Hi. I had two ducklings with the same food and water dish as in the pictures

. I am getting two more ducklings soon. When I had the first two I didn't have the food and water dishes on anything so I cleaned their brooder twice a day. But I wanted some help this time around with my new ducklings. I want to minimize the amount of water and wet food that gets on their bedding cause every one that has had ducklings knows how much of a mess they make. I've heard of the cookie drying rack over a pan but I'm not sure that I want to use that. Something similar would be because I don't have those two things. Thank you and I would appreciate pictures.

food dish waterer until they outgrow it

Ducks need a water dish that they can dunk their whole beak into to clean out their nares after they eat. I used a large sour cream container with the lid on and a large hole cut out to leave about an inch lip aroung the opening (you may need to start with a smaller container at first, but the idea is the same). Their water goes in there. Place that container into a larger, low container like a pie or cake pan. I used a recycled rubber feed dish from TSC. The outside container will catch a lot of the mess.

To keep the food from being scattered all about (which is where a lot of the smell comes from) moisten the food and only put in as much as they will eat within a few hours and make sure they empty it before you refill it. I often use fermented feed and they lick the bowl clean.

We used a rubber 100 gal. water trough for the brooder. When we cleaned it, we could dump in hot water and pull it out with a shop vac. For the bedding, we used shredded paper (cheap,VERY absorbant and NOBODY is going to try to piece together your old bills

) covered with the large size wood shavings to give them a dry place to lay. I built up the side away from the food and water for their nest area to help keep it high and dry.

Of course, even with all this, I vowed NEVER to brood ducks in the house again!

I hope this helps.

 

[theduckgirl4110]

Thank you. It did. I use a gigantic rubbermaid container and then they will move into a dog biscuit box ( which is bigger then it sounds ). I do know that the waterer in the picture isn't appropriate for ducklings. I was actually looking for ideas on waterers on here so thats what I'll do.

 

[duckchix]

I used an empty plastic juice container and cut a hole in it with enough room for the ducklings to stick their heads into the water. I put an old Pyrex lid under the juice box so if any water did drip out, the lid caught it and kept bedding dry. Worked really well for my ducklings.

 

[theduckgirl4110]

Thank you.