my new baby ducklings!!! (PICS ADDED)

[danielnv]

I use horse bedding pellets in my brooder, discovered on a post somewhere on this site. An alternative and supposedly cheaper is the wood pellets for wood stoves, which you can probably get at like lowes or home depot. But the horse bedding pellets were like 8 or 9 for a good size bag. I think its a good idea for when the ducks get a day or 2 older--they grow so fast! I put my waterer inside a turkey roaster pan to help ceep the mess in one area--those ducks empty the waterer out in no time!

My khaki duckling was already about twice the size of my maran chick when she hatched about a week later, but her egg was a little larger too. I am thinking if your khaki eggs are small, they must be from an immature ducks first few eggs or something, since it's the first I've heard duck eggs referred to as small. That's ok, it will take a few days longer before they overtake the chicks and size and end up twice as big! I am flabbergasted everytime I see them-you can almost watch them grow!

I recently got in some muscovy eggs and they are HUGE! I have been watching the turner to make sure they haven't fallen out!

 

[Giddyup]

Your babies are darling!
The woodstove pellets when wetted down turn into a nice bedding, but it can get very dry and dusty quickly. for this reason I stopped using them with my horses. There are "horse shavings" manufactuerers who advertise low dust or dust free (pine) shavings. That's what we use for the poultry and waterfowl as well.

That's the thing about duckies- they go through that water fast cleaning out their beaks & nostrils!!

We had runner babies 2 years ago, they were so darling and grew sooooo fast!! I'd share a pic but haven't got that figured out yet
hatching day:http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g291/Tiggerjustbouncin/barnyard/?action=view&current=IMG_0711.jpg

 

[BellLisamo]

thanks!!!!!! ill have to try that

 

[Laura78]

Quote:
Yes i read somewhere about cedar being toxic. My bad, wasnt thinking. What about horse bedding, what kind of bedding is that? The feed store here in town doesnt sell pine shavings, does walmart?

You can also get Carefresh at walmart as a last resort. But be warned the ducklings WILL put it in their water and then eat it when they get a little bigger.

 

[BirdMom]

Ducklings are sooo cute! We raised three of them from a day old.

Yeah, it's hilarious to watch them run around, and then when they need to poo, they do this funny little backing up and do it, then go forward again. Probably a natural reaction to keep from fouling the nest.