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The babies will be two weeks old tomorow (yay) and have found good homes for almost all of them when they are old enough to go and yes the mother hatched them. We have tiger snakes and dugites - which get pretty big, so that's why I'm a bit worried but they get pretty defensive and aren't stupid enough to wander into a pen of chooks and two ducks (I hope).
Have a cat (the most he'll do to the ducklings is rub up against them) which keeps the rat and mouse problem down to minimal. My daddy duck is not the best dad. He gets really protective but isn't nice to the duckies which is a pain since the mother doesn't seem to care what he does to them. From now on I'll half the pen to keep the drake away from the duckies while they are young.
I turned up to their pen at night a few times and she didn't seem to be keeping her duckies warm (they were in the nest alone). I just watched from the outside so I didn't disturb her. I reckon as long as there are no predator issues and no drake, the duckies while be pretty much fine. I might add a heat lamp but also where I am is very warm. Never snows or anything (which muscovies are built to handle?) so I know the ducklings aren't freezing. At home I have a heat pack which I wrap up in rags so the duckies can curl up on as well, they love it
Charlotte's not even a year old yet so maybe she needs to mature a bit still. If she ends up being a bad mother I'll work something out so it'll be all good. There were just a few worrying questions I needed answered lol. Thanks for your post, it was helpful. I'll keep ya updated
Have a cat (the most he'll do to the ducklings is rub up against them) which keeps the rat and mouse problem down to minimal. My daddy duck is not the best dad. He gets really protective but isn't nice to the duckies which is a pain since the mother doesn't seem to care what he does to them. From now on I'll half the pen to keep the drake away from the duckies while they are young.
I turned up to their pen at night a few times and she didn't seem to be keeping her duckies warm (they were in the nest alone). I just watched from the outside so I didn't disturb her. I reckon as long as there are no predator issues and no drake, the duckies while be pretty much fine. I might add a heat lamp but also where I am is very warm. Never snows or anything (which muscovies are built to handle?) so I know the ducklings aren't freezing. At home I have a heat pack which I wrap up in rags so the duckies can curl up on as well, they love it
Charlotte's not even a year old yet so maybe she needs to mature a bit still. If she ends up being a bad mother I'll work something out so it'll be all good. There were just a few worrying questions I needed answered lol. Thanks for your post, it was helpful. I'll keep ya updated
