Good morning everyone! Every morning I am blessed with the presence of Gilberta so I thought I'd share so everyone understands how special and important Gilberta's role is in the family! Gil's does live inside and currently is my only pet duck. However, I am not worried about her being a single duck at all. Once again, I am not recommending it or supporting it. My situation ended up this way and it actually worked out best! *JUST MY STORY* Gil has a decently nice sized pen in my bedroom that I am always finding way to expand. Once she is just about full grown, I plan to gut my room and re do it. This will allow me to build a functional bedroom with, you guessed it, a ducky pent mansion. For now her pen makes her feel happy and safe and it works for me. She is very well behaved and can easily fly out of her pen but usually just stays in. The only time she actually fly's out on her own is if I entice her to with meal worms or if it's bright and early in the morning and someone wants breakfast! If I am not awake by 8:45 am, Gil's will fly right out of the pen onto the bed and proceed to cuddle with me until I get up to throw down some treats and switch out yesterday's water. She always has access to her feed. She takes a daily bath (or shower with me in a time pinch). She goes everywhere with me! Her favorite has to be tractor supply co because they always have extra feed on the floor to sneak into the diet when mommy and daddy aren't looking. Pet stores are fun but we get stopped by EVERYONE. I wouldn't expect people to ignore the couple walking around with their duck following them but some people truly act like they've never seen a duck before. At least Gilberta is very good at meeting new people and loves the attention. Getting some pets and snuggles are highly relaxing and comforting for her. I give her about an hour everyday of youtube time on my laptop to just watch videos of ducks being ducks. I take her to parks and fields nearby with lots of ducks and she likes to stand between my feet and yell at the other duckies and then lead me back to the car when she's had enough of it. She's very protective over her parents. She is very much a family pet but even further than that I truly do believe she is my ESA and I'm her ESH. When she wants a cuddle, she'll walk over to me. When she wants a treat, she'll walk to daddy. I know may people are against keeping and raising a single duck. I see every reason, understand and agree. I just know my Gil's is a special case and I know she's happy the way things are. I give her lot's of outside time and I try to let her do what she wants. She tells me when she wants to be outside longer and other days she'll run to the door and tell me she's done with the wind and just wants to be inside! If I ever see her in any type of distress that would be due from her being alone, I would immediately deal with the issue however need be. She will always live safely with me and I could have a second indoor friend for her if she ever wanted it. She likes the attention though and get's jealous if we pay too much attention to the fish or dog! I do closely monitor her though and like I said, she's always with me. We have developed our own way of understanding each other and certain quacks at different volumes mean different things. She understands if I tap her bill, she should stop what she's doing(eating a strangers hair or lunging at their hand hoping for treats.) If she stands up on my leg while we're cuddling, she just wants to go stretch. We talk to each other a lot and I just love to get her all excited while she makes her happy noises and dance. She will need a vet trip very soon for a checkup and I would like to have her microchipped just in case of emergency. Does anyone have ducky microchip experience? Here are some pictures from this morning. BTW... 4 months old, wondering if I'm waiting till spring for the first egg or if since she's indoors it'll be sooner... We'll see!!!!
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Gil is precious.
