My Love Affair With Ducks...

[Anime2lover]

...and Their Love Affair With Water!

This is my second day owning ducks and I have fallen head over heels in love with them!

Those precious little peeps, the interesting looking bills, the ever so delicate looking webbed feet, and those expressive eyes with their heads cocked sideways peering up at me. Oh, and did I mention their little love ‘bites’ on my neck and lips (OUCH!) That I must not let continue so I suppose I have to stop kissing them. I know, I know, I’m not supposed to kiss them, but the way I look at it my chances are better catching Covid 19 from a stranger than catching salmonella from my baby ducklings.

My little Saxony duckling, Twinkle, is seeing the world straight today for the very first time. Since arriving home a little over 24 hours ago, she has been in a sort of vertigo state, staggering, stumbling, turning in circles, and not being able to hold her head straight.

With the help of several BYC members giving me suggestions and instructions to help her mend, she appears to be on the road to recovery...the road to being a normal, healthy, funny little duck.

I will continue my journey of being a First Time Duck Owner/Spring 2020 duck thread here. My initial thread can be found here for all the background story of My Love Affair With Ducks!

Love at first sight! View attachment 2072190

Cute babies. Are two of them pekins??

 

[Mimi13]

Well, I was mistaken about my prompt return. If it weren’t for others I’d be on here all the time. There are times I find it really hard to sit down, relax and gab. However, I have finally gotten the garden planted and a few annuals along the deck and flower beds...all while watching the ducks grow and venture out into the wild, blue yonder.

I know this photo of Quinny is not going to show just how beautiful the cobalt blue is in her wings, but dang...it is gorgeous. The blue even turns to purple. I need to have someone else take the picture from further away. Hershey has blue in her chocolate wings too.

Here is the total picture of the duckies.

A close up of the three in the water. Zoom in on Hershey and look at her legs. One leg is floating and the other is planted on the bottom of the pool.

The other two decided to snooze out of the water, this time.

Crazy ducks!

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

How's your mare?

 

[Mimi13]

Cute babies. Are two of them pekins??

Thank you on the compliment. They definitely are an overload of cuteness as babies that turn into an overload of hilarity when they get older. None of them are Pekins, but one of them is a White Hybrid Layer which is part Pekin, I think. Is that right @WannaBeHillBilly?

 

[Mimi13]

Obviously things have changed since I’ve been on BYC. What does this mean (the red circles)?

 

[Mimi13]

How's your mare?

I don’t really know how much better she is yet. When the vet came out (don’t know if I posted this yet or not) everything looked and sounded good — eyes, teeth, color, heart, gut. She’s not old at all, about 9 or 10 years. She did a liver analysis and fecal test. Liver results came back good, but she did have more parasites than you’d like to see. So we gave her 5 days worth of Panacur and 7 days worth of metrodinazole. (That was a LOT of pill crushing twice a day and Dee, the mare, did not like the nasty paste. I think she hates me now.) The only thing I can visually see is her poop has firmed up quite a bit. However, she still is not eating her grain or hay very good and not taking in a great deal of water. She is grazing all day in our yard though. I got some rice bran and I’m mixing it in with soaked alfalfa in hopes she’ll eat it. She’s always been a picky eater, but I’ve never had trouble getting her to eat her feed or hay.

I’m perplexed as our other five horses are fat as pigs, literally. We are going to test her poop again in a month, but I’m mainly watching right now for her poop to remain firm.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

When is the last time you filed her teeth, you think the vet would check for that.

 

[Mimi13]

When is the last time you filed her teeth, you think the vet would check for that.

Yes, she did check her teeth. They looked good and did not need floating.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Obviously things have changed since I’ve been on BYC. What does this mean (the red circles)?View attachment 2156224

That is strange. Mine looks like this

 

[Mimi13]

That is strange. Mine looks like this View attachment 2156526

I know!