Please help!

[Messica]

We used our bathroom tub and it worked wonderfully for our five. Laying out puppy pads on the bottom helped keep things easier to clean. We just moved our 6 week olds outside. Last night was night two and they're doing great! They still have fluffy heads so I'm glad we waited. I'm not sure where you're at or what your weather is like but with nighttime lows in the 40's they really needed a fair amount of feathers in before sending them out with no heat.

Short supervised trips outside at this age are a great way to slowly acclimate them to the outdoors - that would also help alleviate some of the boredom and expend some pent up energy

 

[ems253]

Ducklings start getting their feathers at 2-3 weeks and still have a fair amount of down at 4. They can't regulate their own body temperature until 6-8 weeks and until then the remaining down offers no warmth or protection from the elements.


 

​They're definitely not ready to be outside all day only coming in at night at 3 weeks old.

I set them up temporarily in my bathtub so have some more space until I get them a bigger home tonight. I hope this makes them more happy.

They seem to be liking they're knew home already

Sorry if I'm being too much, I just want to make sure they're happy and get other people's opinions.

Thank you so much!

 

[chickens really]

Totally your decision....Just a tip the Chicken font waterer is not appropriate for Ducklings...They need to dunk their heads many times during the day to clear their nares and eyes....

Best wishes..

 

[Messica]

You're welcome! And your set up looks great ems! I used the poultry waterers myself and they worked well for dunking and keeping water supply cleaner.

The nice thing with them being in the tub is when you clean it out, you can then fill it up a little deeper each day to help them learn how to swim safely. The deeper I made ours the more adventurous they'd get. The "zoomies" they developed, diving and then shooting end to end under the water, was hilarious! With them only having the down right now you'll have to pluck them out as sopping wet cheeping balls and dry them off a bit while the tub drains, but it's a good handling opportunity. Enjoy this time with them while it lasts because they grow sooooo fast!