Rescued Baby Duck! Help

[AustralorpsAU]

Friend rescued a duckling and gave it to us. Its legs a bit munted but we just hoping it will get through the night and take it to the vets tomorrow. Don't have a heat lamp so filled up a container of hot water and put it in the shoe box with it. Gave it some shallow water and gave it some boiled egg with parsley! Anything else i should be doing? Thanks

 

[AustralorpsAU]

Just letting everyone know that the duckling left on Friday to someone licensed that could take care of it! Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[Amiga]

Something that may help would be an unbreakable mirror. That way it looks like there is another duckling there.

A washable stuffed toy with nothing that can be pulled off and swallowed may also help.

Even a life-sized photo of ducklings in with it could really help.

There is a sticky (index at top of Duck Forum) on Raising Ducklings.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/750869/raising-and-caring-for-ducklings#post_10611711

And you are welcome to join us over on the duck forum.

 

[AustralorpsAU]

Oh i don't have any chick starter either!

 

[AustralorpsAU]

Its on and off chirping. Does anybody have any idea as to what could feed it as well? Thanks

 

[ChickenChaser9]

Chick feed is alright and probably easy to acquire. I would start there. Any idea how old the duckling is? Share a pic?

 

[AustralorpsAU]

It is midnight right now... cant get a pic or some feed. i think it is only 1 - 2 days old... still very small and fluffy

 

[AustralorpsAU]

It survived! Yay

 

[ChickenChaser9]

It survived! Yay

Cute! If you can keep the little one fed and hydrated it should continue to do so. Just be aware ducks tend to form bonds (imprint) rather strongly so the duckling is going to require attention as well as nutrition, they are very social creatures.

EDIT: Also don't let it get into a water dish as it wont be able to climb out unless you give it some means of egress. It does not have enough feather oil to float for very long so it could drown if left unsupervised near too much water.

 

[AustralorpsAU]

Cute! If you can keep the little one fed and hydrated it should continue to do so. Just be aware ducks tend to form bonds (imprint) rather strongly so the duckling is going to require attention as well as nutrition, they are very social creatures.

EDIT: Also don't let it get into a water dish as it wont be able to climb out unless you give it some means of egress. It does not have enough feather oil to float for very long so it could drown if left unsupervised near too much water.

Thanks. The water dish is only about 1 cm tall and it just hops out when it goes in. It cries every time we leave it. Will it be able to go into the wild or will it forever be a domestic duck?