Hi,
my name's Clair, I live in the UK not far from Manchester, married with four children, a small Yorkie and now a young wild duckling. Whilst driving down a narrow country lane over the weekend I luckily noticed a small duckling running along the lane, alone, terrified by the car. He then fell into a pot hole, I stopped the car and ran over to him, I quickly cupped him/her in my hands and held it close to my chest. I looked/listened for other ducks but couldn't locate any. So I popped him down the front of my top (sorry, TMI) as I didn't have anywhere safe to put him (we've decided he's male), and he snuggled up and fell asleep. I'm guessing he's younger than 2 weeks as he is still all fluff. I found him on Sunday so fed him oats and held a baby bottle top for him to drink water from. My main concern was him at night, I would have let him sleep with me but feared I would crush him, the first thing I saw that was warm and snuggly for him was my soft, fluffy slipper boots, so he slept snuggled inside my slipper boot in a shoe box with just enough room for him to come in and out of the slipper boot, obviously pierced plenty of breathing holes in the box. I put the box on my bedside table and he seemed happy enough and slept all night, I checked on him every 2 hours. I'm letting him have a shallow, brief bath every day. He is waddling around the house now, follows me everywhere, and he always has access to his crumbs and water. I have read alot on the web about indoor ducklings as this is all completely new to me. Everybody says how ducklings constantly eat lots all day long? I spend as much time as I can sat on the living room floor with him whilst he waddles about eating his crumbs off the floor and drinking but he spends most of his time following me around whilst I do chores etc. I do make sure I regularly take him back to his crumbs though. Is this OK? Also when I have to nip out to do the school run or get a few groceries I put him in a small box with his slipper boot, I'm not out for more than 30-45 mins as I don't want him to fret. Also he wants to cuddle alot and snooze, is this normal? Sorry for such a long-winded post but want to make sure he's happy and healthy, also everybody thinks I'm mad, and no-one has heard of a 'pet' duck like you seem to in the US, but he's adorable, and so intelligent and loving, I never knew ducks were like this! I normally just let the kids feed them at the park ;-) Any advice/criticism/re-assurance would be appreciated, thank you. Myself and Sid the duckling wait for your response xxx
my name's Clair, I live in the UK not far from Manchester, married with four children, a small Yorkie and now a young wild duckling. Whilst driving down a narrow country lane over the weekend I luckily noticed a small duckling running along the lane, alone, terrified by the car. He then fell into a pot hole, I stopped the car and ran over to him, I quickly cupped him/her in my hands and held it close to my chest. I looked/listened for other ducks but couldn't locate any. So I popped him down the front of my top (sorry, TMI) as I didn't have anywhere safe to put him (we've decided he's male), and he snuggled up and fell asleep. I'm guessing he's younger than 2 weeks as he is still all fluff. I found him on Sunday so fed him oats and held a baby bottle top for him to drink water from. My main concern was him at night, I would have let him sleep with me but feared I would crush him, the first thing I saw that was warm and snuggly for him was my soft, fluffy slipper boots, so he slept snuggled inside my slipper boot in a shoe box with just enough room for him to come in and out of the slipper boot, obviously pierced plenty of breathing holes in the box. I put the box on my bedside table and he seemed happy enough and slept all night, I checked on him every 2 hours. I'm letting him have a shallow, brief bath every day. He is waddling around the house now, follows me everywhere, and he always has access to his crumbs and water. I have read alot on the web about indoor ducklings as this is all completely new to me. Everybody says how ducklings constantly eat lots all day long? I spend as much time as I can sat on the living room floor with him whilst he waddles about eating his crumbs off the floor and drinking but he spends most of his time following me around whilst I do chores etc. I do make sure I regularly take him back to his crumbs though. Is this OK? Also when I have to nip out to do the school run or get a few groceries I put him in a small box with his slipper boot, I'm not out for more than 30-45 mins as I don't want him to fret. Also he wants to cuddle alot and snooze, is this normal? Sorry for such a long-winded post but want to make sure he's happy and healthy, also everybody thinks I'm mad, and no-one has heard of a 'pet' duck like you seem to in the US, but he's adorable, and so intelligent and loving, I never knew ducks were like this! I normally just let the kids feed them at the park ;-) Any advice/criticism/re-assurance would be appreciated, thank you. Myself and Sid the duckling wait for your response xxx
