In love with a rescued mallard duckling. Can we keep her?

[BigKitty09]

Quote:

Thank you! This was really helpful I didn't notice that you had written within my post. We are building a coop for her and the chickens. It will be large enough for 8-10 chickens though we only have 3. It will also have a predator-proof run with grass. The chickens free-range during the day, then we bring them in at night. I was thinking about getting him/her a silver bahama pintail duckling, but we don't want babies, and we don't know what gender it is

So I would kind of like to wait till we know what it is. If it's a boy can we get him another boy or will they definitely fight?

 

[ericdc]

Quote:
toe clipping is normal with captive reared mallards. pinioning is not.

 

[deeps]

I seriously doubt the person was serious about it being a domestic mallard. They were just giving you some reasoning to keep it if you wanted to keep it..

I don't clip any part of my ducks, wings toes etc. I know your supposed to, but no one comes to make sure....

Personally I don't think anyone would notice your duck is wild compared to a domestic considering your raising it not the wild mother.. But if you go around asking the authorities about it then they'll know its not domestic..

 

[peepsandquacks]

sence you arent sure if its wild or domestic, then just assume domestic and raise the little guy. Inless you make it known what happened, DNR isnt going to come knocking at your door asking questions.

I have 2 rouens, and they look just like mallards at this age (14 weeks). People see me with them all the time, and noone has come over asking for paperwork or where I got them. And I live in DNR "you better follow the rules or else" land.

 

[Borncountry419]

I have purchased mallard ducklings with nothing to mark them as captive hatched. I have also raised orphaned Canada geese without a permit. Truthfully, when it comes to something as common as a mallard, no one is going to want to go out of their way to cause trouble. The absolute worst that could happen would be them telling you to release it on a lake. So I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Borncountry419]

And you could always just call it a pet quality gray call duck.

 

[BigKitty09]

yay this is all nice to know. I feel like I would be able to give it a better home and life then the wild would. Afterall, if we were to let her go who would tuck her in at night

. Now comes the bit.chy adolescent who's too cool for her mommy phase.

 

[tsparks002]

We found two abondoned ducklings in our field once. By law we had to give them up, unfortunately before the person ever got them, they had died!

 

[BarrerasDucks]

It's only illegal if you get caught!!!

Don't tell anyone they are wild. If they grow up tame are they REALLY wild???LOL!

 

[iWOODDUCKifiwereu]

My wife and I are in a somewhat similar situation. I like un-named's comment above (duckling - that you are not keeping but found its way into your yard and is choosing to stay but free to leave at any time). Check out my post "Raising an orphaned wood duck" for our story.