messy ducklings

[AmeraucanaHank]

Hi, does anybody have any tips or tricks to keeping a duckling brooder clean and dry?
Thank you!

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I use puppy pee pads from Costco, just roll them up and throw away and put down fresh. Also a Tupperware with the corner cut off the lid so they can dunk their bills but not splash about so much is helpful. Short answer is ducks are messy. Aren't they cute

 

[Quatie]

There a few things you can do. One is put the water and feed on opposite sides. The water you want on something that can catch the water and they can get at. Lots of people using cooking racks over cooking sheets. And like mentioned above a container where they can get their head in, but not swim in.

This is basically what I do. I change the water container overtime as they grow. It keeps things fairly dry until they are 3 weeks old.

 

[Isadora]

I have a plastic tray like the kind that would go in the bottom of a dog crate in their brooder. Their waterer is a 5 gallon bucket with the drinking cups drilled into it. So when they make a mess, and they inevitably do, the water will pool up on the tray and I can dump it. I usually dump it two to three times a day. It's not perfect and some of the bedding still gets wet, but it's far less work than if I didn't have the tray at all.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

I use puppy pee pads from Costco, just roll them up and throw away and put down fresh. Also a Tupperware with the corner cut off the lid so they can dunk their bills but not splash about so much is helpful. Short answer is ducks are messy. Aren't they cute

Thank you! but do you put any wood shavings on top?

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

No I just use the pee pads. I used t use wood shavings but they are so much harder to clean. For first 24 hours the pads are a little slick but I've never had a problem with them. I hatch all my own ducks. Wood shavings at 4 weeks when they go outside.