I'm Not Complaining......but

[SandRun]

My 6 Blue Swedish are now 4 weeks old, and they are great. That being said they are the messiest animals I have ever owned. My only problem is with, imagine this, WATER!!!

It's still too cold for them to go outside so I house them in my garage in what amounts to an old child's playpen with newspaper and pine shavings as litter and 2 heat lamps. They splash every ounce of water out of the waterer and its running through the litter and paper and across nearly 20 ft of garage floor.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[WriterofWords]

I had to put my waterer up on top of a Mason jar, just low enough they could drink out of it but high enough they couldn't play in it! I had to tie it in a corner with a shoe string to keep them front knocking it over too.
K

 

[tx_dane_mom]

LOL...now you know why I sold out of all but a quad of ducks!

I LOVE ducks...but they are SOOOO messy. I don't know what to tell you to do in the cold, but the best thingI have come up w/after a couple batches of ducklings is to raise them in a bathtub outside so the water runs out the drain & a couple times a day use the ater hose to rinse the poop out of the tub.
Worked for me..

 

[Omniskies]

Get a shallow pan with a lid that has grooves/holes. A turkey pan that allows the grease to fall through is what we use (I forget what it's technically called). Set the water dish on top of the lid and make sure it's low enough for the ducks to drink. When they make a huge mess with the water it should go inside the pan and not in the cage.

That's the easiest way we've found to keep ducks as clean as chicks. Good luck.

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Same thing here... we're going to bring the kiddie pool into the garage, cardboard border inside with shavings, and waterer inside a 9x9" baking dish. That way they can slop all they want, and the pool will be secondary containment.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

My duckling is weird. He hates water and never messes up the brooder.

 

[DuckLady]

I just consider that the slobbiness is part of the charm. I love to watch ducklings playing in their water.

But then I am addicted to quack, don't you know.

 

[newnanchic]

Is it a slight addiction or a severe one???

 

[DuckLady]

Very slight. Hardly what you would call an addiction at all.






























snort.

 

[Forest_Nymph]

Inside my coop I have a plastic childs sled that I set up with slightly used straw or shavings in it and then I nestle their water bowl down in the bedding and now I only have to throw out the used wet bedding from the sled every few days and the rest of their living quarters remain relatively clean and dry.

When they were still in their brooder, I used a typical chicken waterer set in a large deep dish pie plate that was filled with smooth river rocks. They had a lot of fun playing in the rock filled water tray without too much mess. It helped making clean up a lot easier!