My Ducks are Dirty

[Tom NJ]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I look at the photos on here and everyone has the really nice looking ducks that I wouldn't mind holding. However, my ducks, which are now a month old, are dirty and I don't like handling them. I try to keep up with their brooder, but it seems the more I clean it, the nastier they make it, and quicker, too!

I have the waterer in a rubbermaid tote to try and control the water, but splash it all out, mat down the pine shavings with water, food and poop - NASTY! I just cleaned the brooder out completely on Sunday afternoon and tonight I had to remove a large amount of the pine shavings. The area they are in is 3' by 6' - one Cayuga and two Mallards.

So, how is it that everyone else has these show ducks that I want to hold and I don't? Do I need to clean the brooder and dunk them in the tub everyday??

 

[Bleenie]

How old are the babies? and do you always have a tote of water in there for them to bathe in?

I don't keep a "pool" in my brooder all the time, just a waterer and then they get supervised playtime in a deeper dish of water so they can clean themselves and get their bills/nostrils more cleaned out. My babies sometimes have damp, icky-feeling tummies from laying in their 'mess' but they're never filthy.

 

[Nana Allred]

I know that I always take pictures after they have dried off from a nice bath. I agree, it is very hard to keep the little guys clean. Mine are 6 weeks old now. Three of them: a cayuga, a rouen/mallard, and a khaki campbell. Good luck!

 

[zatsdeb]

what kind of ducks do you have? I know the only time my ducks are clean is when they are outside and can get in their pool to take their baths. They love to slash in water and the only way to really keep the water out of the bedding is to have them on wire and no bedding..... we did that one year, but still they managed to make a mess. We have a little nursery we made out in the chicken run, fenced off with a little house and that is where we put them until they are big enough to free range. I have thought about raising them in my garden tub just so I could wash the poo down the drain but my hubby says no! I just let them swim in the tub. I saw on a website someone had made a duck waterer, a bowl set inside a bigger bowl, so when they spashed the water it went into the outer bowl..

 

[Tom NJ]

Quote:
They are a month old. I don't keep a "pool" in the brooder. I keep a one gallon ice tea jug with a hole cut in the side so they can get their bills all the way into the water to clean their nostrils, but that they cannot get their feet into and splash all out. The jug sits in a tote to catch the water that is splashed out and minimize the mess in the rest of the brooder. However, it doesn't appear to help much. They fill the floor of the tote up with water and then that makes it's way into the rest of the brooder.

I did catch one tonight doing the old ducky water slide down her back. The hole is too big I guess. She was sticking her whole head down in the bottle and then running it down her neck and back. It doesn't help that they are in that in between stage with their fluff and feathers.

 

[TLWR]

Quote:
Yep
Are you letting them swim at all? If not, start. They'll enjoy it, you'll enjoy watching and they can really clean themselves.

 

[Tom NJ]

Quote:
Yep
Are you letting them swim at all? If not, start. They'll enjoy it, you'll enjoy watching and they can really clean themselves.

I do let them swim a couple of times a week.

 

[70%cocoa]

My ducks are all grown up so they have swimming/bathing water all day. Their pen has a deep sand base so it doesn't get muddy and water drains away fast. I clean their pen every morning (remove all visible poop and hose out paved surfaces. Edit: I also drain their tub and autodrinker, hose them out and refill - every morning). I remove all the litter from their sleeping area and replace it once a week (I use sugar cane mulch). They always look clean because they are on a clean surface and have clean water daily (even if they dirty it up in minutes). Clean water and clean floor = clean and nice smelling ducks.

 

[dumb_cluck]

Rule #1 Ducks are messy.

If you want them "clean", their environment must be clean also. If they are kept together in a small enclosure, yes,it will get very messy and fast.

Is there a way for you to put them in an alternate pen so that they have more than one area to play? I had six mallards and they were pretty clean. They were penned at night indoors and during the day when I was around, they were in a pen outdoors with their "pool".

 

[Duckles]

I just don't bother taking pictures when they're nasty, I only hold them and photograph them after a nice bath in the tub. Usually I set up the bath and lifeguard while the old man cleans out the brooder. Then we put them on a towel to drip dry for a minute before returning them to the brooder to warm up, it probably makes no difference but I'm convinced that keeps the brooder dry for a little longer... Everyone's ducks are gross, not just yours... so don't feel bad