Love my Rouens!

RouenMom96

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I NEED HELP! My name is Rebecca and I'm 18. This is my first time owning ducks. I have had my two Rouen ducks since they were 4 days old and they are about 4 months old now. Their names are Caption Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swan. I believe to have a boy and girl because Jacks head is turning green and Elizabeth's isn't. I have a few questions. When will they start mating if I do have a boy and girl? What is the best kind of shelter for them? How do I keep their little pool clean until I can find something better? Money is tight. (I pay for everything) should I keep them on the food they are now or should get something different?
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Welcome!

So much to share!

It is time to slowly switch them to a grower-maintenance feed. I started when mine were about 3 weeks old, adding grower to the starter, each time adding more grower and less starter till it was all grower. Took about a week. I did not want to change food too quickly.

I see that yours is a starter-grower, so I would find a grower or maintenance or all-flock feed at this point.

Ducks (girls) quack, drakes (boys) kind of mumble. http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artquacks.htm

It is about time for them to start practicing mating. Ducks don't always get it right at first. Just watch to be sure Cap'n Jack isn't too rough. Sometimes an otherwise great drake gets too pushy with the duck. If so, either a few more females, or time-outs may be needed.

The best kind of shelter protects them from predators, extreme heat and cold, disease and injury. It can be a modified dogloo, other kind of dog house, modified chicken coop, shelter made from pallets . . . there are a number of threads on the Duck Forum showing off duck housing.

I found this photo. I would change the front, making it a sturdy gate covered with half inch metal hardware cloth, and I would go across the inside top with m.h.c. also - the gaps between boards, as long as they are no more than half an inch, would be find for summer.

For winter, they will need something much better insulated. Start thinking about that now. Please don't wait till the forecast says 5 below zero. Some pile straw bales all around the outside of the house, and cover the whole thing with a sturdy tarp for winter. Think about how you will give them liquid water, too. Safely. Electric wires and bedding cause fires.

Half inch metal hardware cloth is very important. It costs a bit of money, but if you design it well, you won't have to get yards and yards of it. Raccoons will reach right through chicken wire and grab and kill ducks. They only need an inch. Really. If there are weasels in your area, you need to have no more than half inch gaps in fence or boards. And many predators dig under fences. Some climb or fly in from above. It is nerve-wracking at first to think about, but us duck care providers need to think about these things and do our best to protect the ducks.

Sometimes you can find old dog pens - chain link - and those are a base for a decent pen. They need at least some woven wire fence across the top - fastened securely because raccoons will lift the edges if they can. The bottom 2 or 3 feet around the sides need to be covered with half inch metal hardware cloth if the ducks will be outside the house but inside the pen at night. My ducks will sleep right against the fence. Very vulnerable.

I have coated chain link across the bottom of the Day Pen. That is to keep large predators from digging under. Some people bury fencing around the edges.

I have a pool like that. I dump the water and it flows out of the pen into a little channel I dug that goes to a garden. You can send it to a pile of mulch (leaves, chopped twigs, bark mulch, grass clippings, old straw and wood chips) and it will become wonderful material for around the base of trees and shrubs - saves money on fertilizer.
 
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Duck are amazing aren't they?
Well I'm at it I'll will ask about my duck who seems sick... Runny green poop, tired, glassy eyes, anti-social, drinking but not swimming, not as interested in food as the others... Any ideas, coccidiosis? Maybe toxoplasmosis?
Oh and she is a young Rouen.
 

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