New Ducklings

[chickenpal147]

I just recently bought 4 flying mallard ducklings from McMurray hatchery. They are sooooo cute. Any advice on raising Ducks from your own experiences would be fantastic. I am currently feeding them a chick starter with niacin supplements and mealworms for added protein, also they have grit. Is this ok to feed them for now. Also I spend as much time handling them as I possibly can to try and make them friendly, they are still timid of me but once they have been on me for a minute they start to calm down. What are some other things I can do to help make them less afraid of me?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Offer then the meal-worms (or other treats, like peas, cat-kibbles, salad) while they are sitting on you. So they associate you being close with something pleasant.
Super cute babies btw. - I need my jar with the duck poop, now!

 

[PioneerChicks]

It's great that you got ducks! Have you had chicks before? From what I've heard they eat and live like chicks, only wetter.
I tried ducks this year for the first time. We put the ducklings in with the chicks. Maybe we didn't have a big enough box or something, but anyway, they were A MESS! I had to clean out the sawdust twice a day AT LEAST. The first time they soaked the bedding I didn't notice untill it was to late and one of the chicks got so wet he/she froze. Rest in peace, Charlie.
Needless to say, we got rid of our ducks after 2 weeks.

I don't want to give you a bad opinion of ducks. Our ducklings were very sweet, and I'm sure they would have been great pets, but they just weren't for us.
But don't worry, you have BYC on your side, an advantage I didn't have at the time. There are enough duck experts on here to blow your mind with advice, besides, you are probably better prepared than we were. Good luck.

 

[chickenpal147]

Also I need help naming them. I have 1 male and the other 3 are females.

 

[PioneerChicks]

I will just throw out random ideas:
Ping, Star, Quacky, No-Name, Rubber Ducky, Greeny, Cutie-pie, Chicken, Quacker-Quack-My-Sweet-Duck.
(Quacker-Quack-My-Sweet-Duck is based of the name of my cochin who died last year, Henny-Penny-My-Sweet-Chicken. In my defense, it was my grandpa's idea, not mine)

 

[chickenpal147]

Chicken would be an awesome name.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Also I need help naming them. I have 1 male and the other 3 are females.

My ducks need to show their personality to me to earn their names:

• Donald (rip) - got his name for being the same jerk as the humon
• Limpy - My Limping drake, he survived botulism
• Katharina - I once had a nurse with that name and this duck was Limpy's nurse and is a proud mama duck
• Curiosity - The most curious duck i have met
• Nona - Short for No Name, a very quiet self-centered duck
• Blanca - White Layer, food addict and snake wrangler, falls asleep in the feeder
• Earthquack - Jumps into the pool at full speed, causing ducknamis
• Olivia & Violeta - Two Buff-Orpingtons with an olive bill, Violeta is wearing a purple leg-band
• Pompom - Has a crazy crest that looks like a pom-pom
• Pommes - has a crest thal looks like a single french-fry (Pommes Frittes)
  
• Maggie - A Magpie duck with a completely black bill, currently limping too.
• Bazilla (tentative) - Another White Layer who has a serious bumble-foot and almost died from fever-cramps on Thursday
• Waterburger (tentative) - one of the recently born ducklings who was always first in and last out of the water bowl.

The other 12 have no names yet.

 

[chickenpal147]

So my ducklings are no way imprinted on me. They still scatter when my hands are in their box. But now all 4 of them are calling for me like they want me. It’s so loud. Why are they doing that?

 

[chickenpal147]

So this is really strange, but I turned on some classical music and they calmed down almost instantly. I think I own classical ducklings.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Ducklings are such fun! But stinky messy little critters! My gardens love them but. They grow way fast so soak up the fluffiness now. My big ducks hobbys include: digging in the mud for worms, stealing chicken treats and hunting down flys from across the yard.