- Nov 16, 2015
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Mills hatched with leg problems, her legs dont work properly and her brain doesnt send the right messages (or the message gets mixed up between brain - leg).
As a result, Mills cannot walk, and has become much more of a house duck than any other duck I have raised. She is a happy, loving friendly girl, who still Spends time outside every day with the other ducks, and enjoys swimming, swinging (yes swinging from her own 'trapeze' that she operates with her wings) as well as rides in the car, and cuddles with mum(me). So her life is full, and happy.
However people tend to assume that because she cant walk, Mills must be time consuming and hard work for me, and the opposite is actually true.
As well as being great company for me, and the ideal indoor duck, because she cant wander about and get into stuff, so can be kept on a pet bed, rather than having to make up containers with hay/straw/shavings etc every night, Mills has actually been an amazing help to me when caring for rescued ducklings or my own ducklings.
Most 13 week old ducks I know of could not be trusted with a strange tiny duckling, at least not until there had been a lot of time spent making sure they would accept it. Even then many would not allow the duckling to stay close enough to keep it hapoy and warm.
Mills will not only accept me putting the occasional random cold, abandoned or orphaned duckling uner a blanket beside her, but she can be trusted to 'babysit' them without hurting them, or pushing them away.
So far she has helped raise one mallard duckling (who was brought to me by people who found her in their swimming pool) to independance, and allowed several others to cuddle into her overnight when they needed to be brought indoors for various reasons.
Now I have a newly hatched duckling (mum abandoned the nest right before it started to hatch) who came out of my incubator a few hrs ago, and I was able to put beside Mills and leave almost straight away to go to the supermarket, knowing Mills would keep it safe and happy and warm.
Anyway, here is a photo I just took, of the same duckling, cuddled up to Mills...
Mills might not be able to walk, but in my eyes, shes doing much much more important stuff than most of her ducky peers will ever do....
Its funny, I was hoping and praying for some help, in the form of a helper with my rescued ducks and ducklings, just never imagined that helper would be a duck, not a human. But it turns out she has the perfect skill set, and can do all the things i cant do, but need done, so much better than me or any human could.
Go Mills, my wee star...
